Fashion by Prajje, style by grandma

Since he was young, his grandmother's style has inspired him. The pencil skirt and Chanel-like jacket. Stiletto heels. A hat, long gloves, clutch purse. And pearls "the size of mangoes," said Prajje Jean-Baptiste, laughing. She was just going down the street to church in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. No matter.

"She looked so beautiful that day," he remembered. "And I was in my little blue suit and white shirt. She said, 'It don't matter how hard times are, you always have to leave your house looking presentable.' To leave your home looking bad is a crime!"

His grandmother, now 85, and adoptive mother still reprimand him if - God forbid - the 24-year-old fashion designer visits in sweats, tired from long days making beautiful dresses at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, where he is a graduating senior. "It's still a crime," he said. "They ask, 'What's wrong with you?' "

As a child, Jean-Baptiste did not aspire to this profession. "Growing up in Haiti, I never heard of a fashion designer," he admitted. "It's called tailor, and no family wants their child to do that!" But he loved the church ensembles. And he loved making doll clothes.

"Pleated skirts, hand-sewn," he remembered. Even then, he specialized in dramatic dresses for special events. "There was always a wedding, always a First Communion for the dolls."

But it was a tough childhood. Jean-Baptiste's biological mother died when he was a toddler and his father moved to America, leaving him to pass between his grandmother and other family and friends until he came to Cambridge at age 13. Adopted by a close friend of his father's, he found his calling in a fashion design class for high school students at Mass. Art. There, he met Boston designer Andrea Alexander and became her assistant, helping with everything from sewing to organizing shows, he said.

He produced his first solo show as a high school sophomore. And his phone began to ring with requests for gowns, show appearances, even wedding planning. "It was taking me by surprise," he said. After a summer at the Rhode Island School of Design, he came back to Mass. Art and eventually started his own company, Prajje Couture.

Recently, he outfitted Sara Underwood, the former WBZ anchor, in a Marie Antoinette-style white strapless gown for a fund-raiser. "He was a perfectionist," Underwood said. "He wanted to make sure the gown fit me perfectly. He took care of my hair and my makeup and he wanted to make sure each curl on my head had the right bounce.

"I've never met anyone who cared so much about making me look fabulous," she confessed. "I felt like a princess because of Prajje."

Mass. Art professor Jayne Avery agreed that Jean-Baptiste is unusually adept at mastering both detail and the big picture. "He has a real flair for the dramatic and his presentations are always complete," she said. "He always has the right model, with the right accessories, with the right hair. And he's done that at every level."

Last week, Avery was one of seven professors who reviewed his senior collection - seven luxurious gowns inspired by the esthetics of grand, old theaters. "It's 'Project Runway,' really," Jean-Baptiste said of the panel. "That's when they say things like, 'What's going on there?' " Last Friday, his dresses - an elaborate parade of gold, purple, hot pink, and black silks and brocades, beautifully quilted, ruched, ruffled, beaded, bustled, and bejeweled - were to float down the runway at the senior show, "uncut."

And on June 14, Jean-Baptiste is plotting a massive fashion and trunk show - Fashion Expose 2008 - in the Mass. Art courtyard, showcasing the work of 10 local designers. He wants to expose the city to its homegrown talent, he said. "I'm trying to make a difference with this show."

For the next two months - maybe his whole life - Jean-Baptiste will be in perpetual motion. There are meetings, calls with sponsors and designers, fittings, classes, and long hours in his studios at school and home in Dorchester. Gowns need applique, piping, beading, finishing. He is overbooked, on the run, a little overwhelmed. "I have so much to do," he said, rolling his eyes.

But his family's work ethic - "You cannot sit at home and do nothing, that's also a crime," he said, grinning - bolsters him. And his early childhood - parentless in Haiti, always moving - prepared him for challenge. He is not afraid of discomfort, poverty, hard work, sacrifice. "I've been through it," he said. "Pretty much nothing fazes me anymore."

Now, Jean-Baptiste is poised for takeoff. He hopes he will land a job with a big designer in New York City, where he can expand his skills. Eventually, he wants to return to Boston to found a business and spark the local scene.

And someday, he vowed, he will create a whole line, based on his grandmother, who he hopes will attend his graduation. He once stole a few of her pieces for inspiration. "It is my duty to re-create a whole collection out of those pieces," he mused. "Not sexy - classy. And there was always a shoe to match a dress."