30-Year-Old Designer Cavanagh Baker’s NYFW Debut

30-year-old designer Cavanagh Baker just wrapped her first showing at New York Fashion Week (NYFW.)

But don’t be fooled by her age; Baker is no “newbie” in the fashion world. For the past seven years, she’s been hard at work designing custom pieces for country music stars, celebrities, and influencers from her home base in Nashville.

Baker’s fashion design experience began at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) where she distinguished herself as one of the few students selected to show at the SCAD fashion show.

There, two of her pieces were selected to be featured in the SCAD Museum of Fashion + Film in Atlanta, and later, her undergraduate collection was chosen for the first-ever SCAD fashion showcase in Hong Kong.

After school, Baker went on to be an apprentice designer at Reebok, but quickly realized she wanted to launch her own pieces rather than work for someone else’s company.

As a result, at twenty-three years old, Cavanagh Baker founded her namesake atelier.

It wasn’t all rainbows and roses along the way, though. When Baker was first starting, no one believed in her brand or her clothing. They told her there was no space for her high-end clothing in Nashville and that she should focus on mass-market basics.

Not one to take no for an answer, Baker put her head down, focused on her brand’s vision, and did the work. This meant many all-nighters spent working and then curling up under her cutting table to get a few hours of rest.

That work paid off, with celebrities like Heidi Klum, Carrie Underwood, Maren Morris, Miranda Lambert, and Little Big Town all taking note and wearing her designs.

Fast forward to 2023, and Baker just completed her first show at NYFW.

However, this wasn’t without its challenges, either. Two weeks before her NYFW debut, Baker found herself and her two-person crew with an 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. schedule to get everything finished.

A few days before her designs were going to walk the runway, several samples were delayed and didn’t come in correctly. Baker quickly patterned two designs and personally altered and sewed them through the night to make it in time for the show with help from a local factory and Baker’s mother.

Even with all that stress, Baker said it was worth it. Over 400 people RSVP’d for the show and the line of guests waiting to get in wrapped around the building with some attendees waiting over an hour to get in.

“Seeing the completion of all the hard work come together was so rewarding, and the turnout that came from it was unreal…seeing so many people wearing my line to the show was very surreal,” she said.

With NYFW over, Baker is excited for what’s to come. Next, she plans to launch her latest collection into the sales market and is already meeting with buyers from top retailers so this collection will hit the stores in the fall.

If you can’t wait until the fall to get into some stunning Cavanagh Baker designs, you can order from Cavanagh Baker’s previous season collection through the Cavanagh Baker website, which includes pieces like an ivy art deco pencil skirt with Swarovski crystals or leather-studded tops and jackets with edgy details.

Her Spring Collection will drop on February 28th, 2023.

If you’re in Nashville, you can also stop by the Cavanagh Baker atelier in downtown Nashville’s historic Music Row where you can make an appointment as a private client.