From the South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Cardiac arrest

Get the defibrillator ready for the heart-stopping fashions of Miami Beach's Cardiac.

by Joanie Cox

April 5 2006

Chopin's "Death March" is playing as Darrin McWhorter and Kristopher Hegland answer the door to their Miami Beach apartment. Inside, religious candles, including one depicting Jesus and another bearing the image of Saint Barbara, illuminate racks of clothing. A mannequin with a rabbit's head made of brown houndstooth-check wool guards the kitchen. Welcome to the headquarters of Cardiac, a men's and women's clothing line that is generating buzz for its mixture of vintage textiles and punk attitude.

McWhorter and Hegland create the entire Cardiac collection in this apartment. The designers have sacrificed their spare bedroom to clothing racks, an assortment of silk-screening tools and two sewing machines.

"We do our own work because we don't want to compromise," the 32-year-old McWhorter explains. "We enjoy the creative process, and we're pretty good at pumping things out."

The duo specializes in edgy yet wearable pieces, such as the burlap-and-sequin dress that helped Cardiac steal the show at Gen Art's Fresh Faces in Fashion last year. "We're not afraid to mix sequins, twill, burlap and leather together on a dress and then stain the bottom of it with tea," McWhorter describes.

A lack of formal training may have contributed to the designers' idiosyncratic approach. McWhorter learned to sew from his mother, while the self-taught Hegland, 28, hand-paints his own designs to silk-screen onto Cardiac's garments. "I was a goth and wanted to make my own clothes, so that's sort of how I got started," McWhorter recalls.

The trendy Lincoln Road boutique Chroma carries the line, which places Cardiac in good company with Generation Plastic staples such as Paul and Joe, and Sass and Bide. The 2-year-old Cardiac also produces jewelry with an industrial-meets-organic flair, made from dried roses, snail shells, animal teeth, metal keys and wire, among other materials.

The designers recently launched a ready-to-wear line and a label that solely features one-of-a-kind clothing. One such piece is a dress made from antique lace taken from a wedding gown and fur from a sacrificial goat McWhorter and Hegland bought at a Miami botanica.

"A lot of times, we'll get a piece of fabric and have no idea how it's going to turn out," Hegland says. "It sounds strange, but in a way, [the pieces] almost create themselves."

Cardiac fashions are sold at Chroma, 920 Lincoln Road, in Miami Beach; call 305/695-8808. For more on the line, check out Cardiacdesign.com.