In her Astoria kitchen, Kazuki Kozuru-Salifoska’s sewing machine sits next to her stove, and piles of black silky fabric hang from hooks where she usually keeps her cast-iron pans. A headless mannequin stands opposite shelves filled with rice. It is from this cramped space that the one-time fashion designer has started a new clothing line for toddlers. And not just the pretty-in-pink stuff, either.

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To learn more about Long Island City Fashion Week, read Fashion garage: driving design to new places.

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Backstage, it was like any other fashion show: chaotic, models hastily pulling on skin-tight dresses while getting spritzed with hairspray. A blonde model stood motionless as a designer wound zippers and strips of fabric around and around her arms. She then headed past the clothing racks to the runway, picking her way past the wrenches, past the drills, past the spare parts, treading cautiously to avoid the equipment that littered the floor of the auto repair shop. The model ducked so the top of her pompadour wouldn’t graze the red Porsche hoisted up on the lift up above.

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