Projects
The Innovator Project

Welcome to my website for my innovator project! For this project we each got to choose what we wanted to focus on for our project, and create what ever we thought would best display that focus. Some people did photography, some wrote screenplays, and some people designed logos and advertisment for fake companies. As long as we used the 21st century skills that we learned at Freestyle, we could do what ever we wanted. The only thing we had to do was write a research paper on a specific part of our topic.

I am an aspiring fashion designer, so I chose fashion design as my main focus. For my research paper, I chose to write about cultural appropriation. You can view my essay here. For my project, I my original idea was to create a ten piece fashion collection and have a photo shoot with models. I would then put those photos and illustrations that I had hand drawn into a picture book. Then I realized that I didn't have time to complete 10 peices, so I reduced it to a seven garment collection. I had completed four of the outfits and had just started the fifth, when my luck - or rather my health - took turn for the worse. I had gotten incredibly sick and had to go to the hospital. Luckily it wasn't cancer or another terminal illness, but I had lost a lot of weight and strength, and was bedridden for at least a month and a half. When I finally got back to school, I was hesitant to return to Freestyle because I was unable to complete my project while I was sick. The deadline for the project was aproaching in a matter of days, and I had what felt like nothing done. I thought about leaving Freestyle because my grades had gotten so bad, and I didn't want the college I am going to to see that. However, after talking it over with some good friends, I came back to Freestyle and decided to finish what I could of my project. The finished project is a five outfit collection as well as digital versions of the illustration I made for those outfits. There will also be a fashion show at the end of the year exhibition. More information on that is at www.freestyleacademy.com. Below you can see photos of the finished peices as well as my reflection on this project.

Innovator Reflection

Why/How did you choose the idea for this project?

I have been designing and sewing garments since the fifth grade so when the innovator project was announced, making a collection instantly came to mind.

What did you learn from your research process? How did your research lend meaning to your process of developing your project? Describe the relationship between your research and the outcome of your Innovator project.

During the research process, I learned that there is not a lot of academic literature on fashion design and cultural appropriation. I don’t know if my research lended any meaning to the process of developing my project, other than reminding me to not create anything that could be considered offensive to other cultures. For the most part, I kept my research paper ideas separated from my project ideas.

How did you collaborate with others? What was successful or unsuccessful about that collaboration, and why?

I collaborated with some girls at Freestyle to be my models. Overall, this collaboration was very successful as everyone was available for measuring and fittings when I needed them. Everyone was happy to help out and wear what I needed them to.

If you could do the project over, what would you do differently, and why?

For the last two months of the project, I fell very ill and could not work on my collection. As a result, the number of garments I could create got cut in half from the original number - five instead of ten - and I could not have a photo shoot and put everything into a book or poster. If I could redo the project I would completely finish it to the standard I originally wanted. I would also probably edit some of the garments, such as changing the color scheme or some of the styles.

Which 21st C. Skills did you improve upon the most? Why? The least? Why?

Since I was sick, I wasn’t able to get a photo shoot done, which means that I didn’t have any digital or 21st century skills incorporated into my project. So as for the question of what skills I improved the most and least on, I didn’t improve on any skill.

What learning experiences or other outcomes of this project do you think you’ll put to use in the future?

In the future, I will definitely persevere and push through any large projects that I have and hopefully, I will not get sick so that I can finish them on time and at the highest quality that they can be.

How do you feel you innovated your own education this semester?

I innovated my own education this semester by creating my own work schedule for my project, as well as set up a large enough work space on my dining room table so I could create the garments properly and productively.

Overall, how do you value this project?

I am really glad that we had the ability to choose our own projects to do for the end of the year. I wasn’t able to get everything done that I wanted to, though. Since I was sick I didn’t finish all the outfits, I didn’t get a photo shoot with models done, and I didn’t finish the photo book that would have all the photos from the photo shoot. I wish I could have gotten more done for this project. However I am proud of the four outfits I was able to create in the month that I was healthy, and I will continue to work on my project and have a fashion show at the end of the year exhibition.

Illustrations