A chance encounter in 2001 during a bathroom break at Moore College of Art & Design was all Dana-Maxx Pomerantz needed to solidify her future as a fashion designer. At the time a freshman at Drexel University, Pomerantz was attending a seminar that day and bumped into Betsey Johnson.

“I told her that one day I was going to work for her,” Pomerantz says. “A few years later, I applied for an internship and got it, and then she hired me to work in design. We took a picture together that day [at Moore], and I eventually framed the picture and gave it to her for her birthday. That first meeting impacted me so much.”

Later in her career, Pomerantz worked for Marc Jacobs before launching her own line, Dana-Maxx, in 2007. She has been featured on the reality show All on the Line, working under Elle creative director Joe Zee. From an impressive showroom in New York, Pomerantz crafts artistic creations that are now sold at boutiques across the country. Her Fall collection, available in late July, is inspired by desert sunset colors, including cobalt and rhubarb.

“Architecture and color have always been a main source of inspiration for me,” she says. “I also love the idea of opposites attracting, whether it’s mixing a bright pop of color with a neutral or combining a feminine silhouette with a strong masculine shape.”

But many of her ideas have been derived from the building just across the street from her boyfriend’s apartment, also known as her home away from home: the Philadelphia Art Museum. “It’s amazing to have that inspiration right at my fingertips,” says Pomerantz, who now splits her time between New York and Philadelphia. “I’m at the museum constantly. It is so inspiring as a designer.”

These days she has one more reason to frequently return to the area. Sculptz legwear, a division of Trevose-based Silkies, offered Pomerantz a licensing agreement for which she designed an exclusive line of tights with built-in shapewear. “They are very geometric, very architectural in multiple colors,” she says. “They suck you in, and let’s face it—every woman needs to be sucked in a little bit, whether she is a size 2 or a size 14.” The tights will be available in early fall and are a perfect complement to her own line. “Most of the pieces I design are transitional, so you can wear them season to season. These tights work well for that,” she says.

Pomerantz, who graduated from New York’s famed Fashion Institute of Technology, attributes her success story to the many things she learned working under Johnson and Jacobs. “Betsey is so humble and such a free spirit, and the really wonderful thing about her is that she doesn’t treat her interns any differently than she treats her creative director,” she says. “That says volumes about her.”

Through the years, Pomerantz says she has been pressured, like most young artists, to become something she is not, forcing her to form a strong identity. “A lot of people want to mold you and shape you,” she says, “and you have to know who you are as a designer.”

In designing colorful, show-stopping collections, she constantly tries to outdo her previous one. “There’s a fear factor every season because you want the collections to keep getting better and better,” she says. “I always say, ‘Only fools are satisfied,’ and I believe it.” In her spare time, Pomerantz mentors teenagers from high schools around New York, teaching them the trade and instilling as many lessons in them as she can. “I tell all young fashion designers the story about when I bumped into Betsey,” she says. “I want them to know that if you believe in something and have an opportunity, you can make your own dreams a possibility.” Gabrielle, 200 Monument Road, Bala Cynwyd, 610-668-2801