introduction

Hi there! Welcome to my showcase page, my name is Sylvia Chen and I’m a second year Freestyle senior in Design. For my showcase project I would like to mainly go over my senior year Zenith project and junior year exploration project in Design. Both project were inspired by my own life experience and ensembled with my passion in fashion, art, styling, design, and photography. I’ve been exploring and breaking the boundaries between these fields to form my own artistic expression method. I will be majoring in Fashion Design at Parsons School of Design this fall, I hope you enjoy my showcase!

showcase video

My zenith project is a cinematography using my own fashion design works, inspired by my experience with the college application process. I’ve always been very interested in fashion my entire life; therefore, I combined the outfits I made with my skills in styling and photography to assemble this collection as my Zenith project. Because I think this is the perfect opportunity for me to present a complete vision of what I want to keep investigating in my future in terms of art forms. Visually, I’m inspired by my favorite fashion designers such as John Galliano, Thierry Mugler, and Serge Lutens. Therefore, I want to learn their way of visual storytelling through fashion photography that is mythical and cinematic, and the dramatic, performative fashion looks. 

I started my process by designing the looks and writing my script. I took a narrative line from my art portfolio from my College Application process and recreated it into fashion-based works to celebrate my future as a fashion student in NYC. I created more than eight designs and took four from them, and decided to make all four of them. The most significant issue I faced was the low energy level and motivation after applying to colleges, but my workload is heavier than most people’s; therefore, I need to be very conscious of my time. However, all of them turned out very well! The shooting and editing each took me 2 days, with eight photos in total. After making this project, I’m even more sure and confident about how much I love and am passionate about fashion, I’m very looking forward to my college!

showcase reel

Here’s my reel including my junior year Exploration project and my Zenith project, I hope you enjoy!

reflection

I’ve been doing and loving art and fashion since I was 2 years old, they have been the love of my life, and maybe what I’m born to do. Every time I’m creating something new, it feels like I’m completely a part of myself, and exploring different materials and art forms always makes me feel free. Freestyle provided me the place to be with a group of creative people like me to learn the techniques and courses under the guidance of unique teachers who can always understand and encourage our imaginations, and this difference from traditional academic schools is what I appreciate about Freestyle so much. I not only gained technically, but most essentially, I think I understand what I truly want to do and who I am as a creative individual.

What I did here is just a start. This innovative and risk-taking process will continue in my future when I’m studying my dream program in my dream city and even in my career; it is my core of the creative process.