Kelli Martin is an independent American fashion designer.
Education
Martin, a native of Columbus, Ohio, graduated from Westland High School in 1998 and Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles, California in 2001. After finishing a degree in fashion design, Martin completed the Advanced Fashion Design program at FIDM on a scholarship from Bob Mackie in 2004.
Career
She is also notable as a contestant on the fifth season of the hit Bravo television series Project Runway. Martin created her Anti-Label fashion line in 1998, and beginning in 2000 Martin sold a number of her original Anti-Label designs on the online auction site eBay. After leaving Los Angeles in 2006 and moving back to her hometown she opened her own storefront boutique, Black Market.
In an April 2008 interview, Martin said of her aesthetic, "I like really feminine silhouettes and form-fitting throwbacks to, like, the vintage pinup girls, but I like raw edges.."
Project Runway
Season five of Project Runway began with "Let"s Start from the Beginning," which first aired on July 16, 2008.
Contestant designers were tasked with creating a sexy, glamorous outfit for a night on the town, but were only allowed to use materials purchased from a Manhattan supermarket called Gristedes. Martin was eliminated after the fifth challenge, "Welcome to the Jungle," when she and her teammate Daniel were tasked with designing a look for Brooke Shields to wear on Season 2 of Lipstick Jungle.
The judges questioned her taste and made her the fifth person eliminated from the competition. She came back with other eliminated designers in the ninth challenge to assist the remaining contestants on creating an avant garde design inspired by their zodiac signs.
She worked with Korto Momolu to design an outfit inspired by Aquarius.