By Shannon Sturgis Local designer Marcus Lewis demonstrates his fashion aesthetic as he paints a shirt.

LITTLE ROCK — Little Rock native Marcus Lewis, 30, demonstrates his design style with fabric paint. His style started a few years ago with shoes. He had nothing to wear one night and a bunch of white T-shirts, so he decided to paint his outfit for the evening. "I still have the first shirt I ever made, back in 2005," he said.

He signs each of his designs before it's completed. "Someone told me to always sign my work," he said. When he sees people wearing his creations at the mall or in public, he said it's a strange feeling. "It's weird to see people wearing it, when you remember doing that shirt," he said. "I just want to go up to them and ask, 'How did you get that?'"

Lewis took a few art classes in high school, but says, "I never took it seriously until a couple of years ago." Now a customer service rep in Sherwood, he uses his heavy, paint-splattered business law books to hold down the shirts and dresses while he paints. "That's what these came in handy for," he said, joking that he didn't use them again after school.

By Shannon Sturgis Lewis started out designing on shoes.

Lewis started out painting on shoes. Though this pair started orange and red, he added paint and the silver glitter to the Nike symbol. "That's really what I started doing," he said. "I'm a shoe fanatic." His painted shoes generated interest with "mostly high school girls," he said. He was commissioned to create a few pairs for dance teams.

By Shannon Sturgis The blue dress with a freehand design by Marcus Lewis.

Though he usually paints designs freehand, he used a stencil for the orange flowers on this dress. "I've never been able to look at something and draw it," he said, and prefers to stay in the realm of the abstract. He says the hardest part about preparing for this fashion show is gathering the materials and deciding on a theme. "I don't know what I'm going to do until I sit down and do it," he said.