I have always been interested in fashion. As a 6-year-old, I would draw pictures of girls wearing beautiful dresses that I had designed. When I was 8, I started putting on fashion shows for my parents. In elementary school, I first took sewing lessons, where I learned how to use and make patterns and create basic garments. The feeling I got from creating wearable objects out of ideas in my head drove me to expand my design capabilities.
As I grew older, my interest in fashion broadened, and I began to explore fashion design as a career and no longer as a simple hobby. In the summer of 2016, I attended the Summer of Art program at Otis College of Art and Design and specialized in Fashion Design. After participating in this program, I began researching collaborations between fashion and other disciplines, which led me to an interest in wearable technology, or technology that can be worn on the body as an implant or accessory. The project that led me to choose my official path as a designer is a Documentary Book that I created during my junior year. This book, which was part of a project for my English Honors class, required me to do intense research on a subject of my choice and write a book on my findings. As part of my research, I visited Intel and spoke with the VP of Sports and Fashion, Sandra Lopez. My conversation with her enlightened me to the expansive possibilities of fashion design. One of the concerns I had about going into a career in fashion design was how I would be able to stay connected with STEM and continue my interest in STEM related fields in addition to studying fashion design. However, after learning about how Ms. Lopez, who majored in fashion design, is able to use her creativity to amplify products made and used to create better technology, my apprehension disappeared.
The following project at Freestyle was the Explorations project, which allowed me to explore a topic of my choice by researching it and creating a product as evidence of my findings. I used this project as an opportunity to learn more about fashion design, specifically fashion illustration. I also went into this project with the mindset of using it as a test for the potential subject of my future Zenith project at the time. After being able to explore fashion illustration and designing my own line, I knew I wanted to take this same passion into my Zenith project for Senior year.
For the project, my initial proposal was to create a brand with looks that depict my personal meaning of ‘Youth’ that would reflect a positive lifestyle and appeal to teens and young adults. I wanted to use the pieces to inspire people and send a positive message about optimism in the face of uncertainty. After illustrating and constructing the pieces, I planned to create a lookbook with pictures of models wearing the pieces. This proposal changed after I was inspired by companies such as United Colors of Benetton and Chanel which used fashion to commentate on highly controversial subjects such as HIV/AIDs, LGBTQ rights, and gender equality. This caused me to want to take a different spin on the meaning of my brand to increase its social and civic responsibility. Additionally, in light of recent events regarding gun violence and police brutality against minority groups, I wanted to center the designs of my project to reflect these issues to spark important conversations as I had read about when doing my research.
As a result of my change in direction, I created my brand New Dust. The name represents the way that these “new” problems we are facing today actually stem from deep rooted, older problems, and people associate “dust” with old things. Additionally, dust is constantly covering items if they are left alone, much like how our social and political problems will continue if we continue to turn a blind eye to them. With this brand idea in mind, I created three pieces with hope that they would be cohesive, fashion forward, and bring awareness to a social cause that is currently affecting our society. For the main piece, or the statement piece, I created a trench coat with a design of influential people from the Black Lives Matter movement with tired expressions on their face and chains draped over the back and sides. I titled this piece “Tired Eyes” in order to demonstrate how racial segregation and prejudice against African Americans have followed us from the times of slavery and continue to affect people across our country.
Through this project, I was able to not only practice my fashion illustration skills but also physically create my designs and see people wear them. Additionally, I was able to practice managing my own time which has been a struggle for me in the past. I especially valued being able to reach out for help and collaboration with others when I needed it. In the past, I had very little trust in others because I was worried that if I reached out, the final product would not be what I had in mind. However, all the people who helped me on this project; the models who wore the clothes, my friends who gave me inspiration when I was stuck, and my peers who gave me constructive criticism and aided me when I needed help using editing programs; enabled me to create a project better than any project I could have done alone.
Although I am proud of my process and the final product, there are a few things I would have done differently. For example, I would not try to be a complete perfectionist when it comes to finding items similar to my illustrations because it took a lot of time to find the specific pieces I had in mind which slowed down my process. However, along the way I learned that not everything will go as planned and that it is okay to stray from my initial vision. Additionally, I forgot to show the lookbook on my website in my Zenith presentation.
In terms of which 21st century skill I improved upon through this project, I would have to say social and civic responsibility. While doing the research for this project, I gained a lot of insight into how social and civic responsibility comes into play when creating anything that is being produced for a mass audience. I learned a lot about marketing and advertising strategies through my reading and became aware of how important it is to use fashion as more than just for aesthetics. The skill that I improved upon the least was probably tech literacy. Although I used photography and videography to document my pieces in the lookbook and promotional video, I feel as though I did not go beyond my comfort zone. Particularly in the promotional video, I feel as though I could have used more effects in either Premier Pro or Adobe After Effects to create a more visual piece.
This project gave me the opportunity to learn more about the process of creating and designing a fashion brand. It also allowed me to practice reaching out to others for help and being more aware of social issues that are affecting us today. Personally, I was really grateful to be able to accomplish what I have been wanting to do for quite a long time by being given the time and space to do so. In the future, I will view this project as a landmark for me to look back upon as the launch pad for my future career in fashion design. Not only will it provide evidence of the early stages of my career in fashion, but also enable me to reflect upon what Freestyle allowed me to cultivate as a high school senior.