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Fashion is Self Care with Mark E. Menzie

For many, personal expression is the best way to treat fashion as self-care. Mark E. Menzie, a New York-based fashion designer, not only believes in this himself but he also offers that expression to young girls of color. Mark is the creative director and designer for Menzie by Design, a brand of Black-oriented and age-appropriate clothing for young girls. Mark has accomplished so many things during his time in the fashion industry and is humbled by his work. He said, “What makes me passionate about it is getting up every morning to do what I love.” Mark has dedicated his life to sharing his love for self-expression with Generation Z and hopes to continue to do it until his brand is known by everyone. Read below to hear Mark’s story and his idea of fashion as self-care and don’t forget to check him out on Instagram: @markemenzie.

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Photo by: Mark E. Menzie

 

CC: Tell me a bit about yourself. Where are you from? What do you do?

MM: I am a New York-based, tech-savvy, girls fashion designer skilled in branding, digital marketing, and styling. I’ve directed and assisted on various photoshoots for brands and companies such as Armani, LVMH, and Vogue. I also serve as creative director and designer for a girls fashion line I started called Menzie by Design. This month mark’s our two-year anniversary! You can view the collection on www.markemenzie.com/shop All U.S. orders get free shipping! 

 

CC: What are some of your greatest accomplishments in your work?

MM: Some of my greatest accomplishments in my work are booking my first celebrity job in 2017; Franky Valley and The Four Seasons - as a wardrobe stylist. I’ve always loved the music that he created for the iconic film, Grease. Working with Vogue  [China] magazine on an editorial shoot in 2016 for the second time was also a great accomplishment and very rewarding. The first time was the September issue in 2015. Lastly, doing a custom order for a girl’s birthday party was really fun. It was a high, low, ombre tulle skirt with a train. Really elaborate and very cute.

 

CC: What do you love most about your work and the fashion industry? What makes you passionate about it?

MM: What I love most about my work and the fashion industry is that I get to do what I love every day. It can range from sketching the next collection and choosing fabrics to casting models for photoshoots or even managing the website www.markemenzie.com. I’m just thankful that the fashion industry is where I am because that’s exactly where I’ve always wanted to be. What makes me passionate about it is getting up every morning to do what I love.

 

CC: Tell me a bit about Menzie by Design. How did you get started with the brand and what are your goals for the future of the brand? 

MM: After noticing a void in the market for age-appropriate clothing and Black-oriented fashion news that really spoke to Millennials as well as the Generation Z audience, Menzie by Design was created. We provide dresses for her first date as well as jeans to wear on the last day of school. Turn to us to keep your closet stocked with cool clothes and awesome accessories that express your individual style. That is what makes Menzie by Design #MadeByMeJustForYou. My goals for the future of the brand are to have it be so culturally relevant that I can overhear girls talking about it on the street or better yet, wearing it everywhere! 9D50B772-9D29-45DA-9872-8530D0173096

 

CC: What does Menzie by Design offer the Gen Z audience?

MM: What Menzie by Design offers the Gen Z audience is a magic portal into a world where clothes are cute and times, but still make you feel like that princess that you are. I design a lot of dresses and offer education in a way that encourages Gen Z to ask questions and shift the cultural narrative in a way that is empowering. If you want to be treated like a princess, then just dress like one. And who can deny the power of a smart girl?

 

CC: How did you find out about The Creative Cookie? How long have you been partnering/working with Lesley? 

MM: I found out about The Creative Cookie through Instagram. I’ve always been a fan of the books they produce on fashion design and recently shared it with my niece who is a creative type herself. It’s a great way to share the arts, design, and fashion with a younger audience. I’ve also talked with Lesley in passing and liked her ideas as well as point of view.

 

CC: What is your idea of “fashion as self-care” and why?

MM: My idea of “fashion as self-care” is really holistic because for me it begins with getting dressed. By expressing myself through fashion and showing the world that this is who I truly am, my confidence, peace of mind, and overall well-being are brought full circle. All because I chose to wear something that makes me happy or that I think might bring a smile to someone’s face.

Kasey Lettrich on February 23, 2021 at 09:00 AM in fashion is self care , interviews, love it!, meet | Permalink | Comments (0)

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Fashion is Self Care with Ella Rose Berhe-Lumax

Ella Rose Berhe-Lumax is an inspiring young creative who founded the Brooklyn Craft Club. She enjoys art, fashion, sewing and, most importantly, crafting with her friends. Read below to learn what self-care means to her in the world of fashion and crafting and make sure to follow along on her journey by checking out her club’s Instagram: @brooklyncraftclub!

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CC: Tell me a bit about yourself. What do you do? 

ER: My name is Ella Rose Berhe-Lumax. I am 10-years-old. I am the founder of Brooklyn Craft Club. I like dancing, crafting, drawing and writing. 

 

CC: What got you into crafting and what made you want to start something like the Brooklyn Craft Club? 

ER: When I moved into the school that I am in now, we had an art program but we couldn’t really express ourselves. Our art teacher had a really set image of what we could call art. So, we had to do everything in a really specific way and we couldn’t really color outside the lines. So, I wanted to make something where me and my friends could express ourselves and we didn’t have to follow the rules of her definition of art. So, I decided to start Brooklyn Craft Club!

 

CC: What is Brooklyn Craft Club?

ER: It is a club where me and my friends do crafts!

 

CC: Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

ER: I would like for us (Brooklyn Craft Club) to move onto a membership box so that we can deliver craft supplies to other people and not just the people in our community. Image6

 

Cc: How did you find out about the Creative Cookie?

ER: I met her (Lesley Ware) on another online craft series on Instagram. She reached out to me and we started talking that way.

 

CC: Why are crafting and fashion and art so important to you?

ER: I just like expressing myself! I love to do stuff with my hands; I’m always fidgeting with something. When I’m crafting or sewing, it helps me put the fidgeting to use.

 

CC: What is your idea of “fashion as self-care” and why?

ER: I actually would say it’s this scrunchie that I just made yesterday. I have a fun time with scrunchies! If my hair is up, I usually have one in my hair. So, it’s just really fun to make them and really easy to make them, as well.

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CC: How would you encourage others to start something similar to the Brooklyn Craft Club at such a young age?

ER: I would just say, find something that makes you happy! And, if you have an idea, make sure to write it down. I have so many ideas running through my head and I forget to write them down. Keep a journal with all your ideas! If you have an idea, stick to it and remember to always be creative!

 

By Kasey Letrich 

Kasey Lettrich on February 09, 2021 at 07:42 PM in Art, arts & crafts, creative inspiration, fashion & style, fashion is self care , love it!, meet, sewing | Permalink | Comments (0)

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Fashion is Self Care with Valerie Mayen

Valerie Mayén is a mom, a business owner, a fashion designer, and because of all this, a believer in fashion as a form of self-care. She began her business over a decade ago and spent a great deal of time on Project Runway where she refined her craft. Fashion has been a part of her life for decades and it’s because of fashion’s “transformative power”, as Valerie says, that fashion stays an important and poetic part of her life. Grab a cup of tea and read below as Valerie talks about her time in the fashion industry and the reason behind her belief in fashion as self-care. 

Make sure you check out Valerie’s brand Yellowcake Shop on Instagram: @yellowcakeshop to keep up to date on her journey!

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Source: @Yellowcakehop on Instagram

 

CC: Tell me a bit about yourself. Where are you from? What do you do?

VM: I’m from Corpus Christi, Texas. I grew up there but left when I was 17 and moved to Philadelphia to start my foundation studies at the University of the Arts for illustration. My BFA is in illustration and graphic design. I ended up transferring to the Cleveland Institute of Art, spent a year at Otis in Los Angeles and did some study abroad in Italy studying art history. I kind of bounced around all over the place, landed in Cleveland and never left. So, I’ve been in Cleveland since 2002 and I started my business here in 2009. 

 

CC: Tell me a bit about your time on Project Runway. What was your favorite piece that you made on the show? What was your favorite challenge?

VM: I was on Project Runway in 2010 for season 8 and went back for All Stars in 2016. My favorite piece from regular runway was probably the Marie Claire dress which was in the second episode. We had to make a garment for the every-day-woman, the “Marie-Claire-woman” and the winner got a spot on a billboard. I almost won that challenge! My second favorite look was the “party store challenge”. We had to make a garment from party supplies and I made this dress out of black and white napkins. I was in the top 3 for that one as well, but again, I was runner-up. 

I had a great time and I would definitely do it again, however, I would do some things differently. I was so lucky and fortunate to be a part of that experience!

 

CC: What do you love most about your work and the fashion industry? What makes you passionate about it?

VM: I think the thing I love most about my work is being able to materialize something that is functional, but also that acts as a catalyst to express who you are on the inside. Fashion can be a very superficial, self-serving, shallow industry, but there is also a lot of beauty that comes with it. There are some things that are very tangible and poetic about fashion and about the craft of cloth and tailoring. It’s kind of an industry trade that has been around for a very long time and is definitely more artisanal than some other trades. 

The thing I love most about fashion is that it has transformative power. When we’re making garments, we’re not just making them for people to wear to bed or to buy their groceries in, we’re making them for job interviews or because they lost a bunch of weight and want to treat themselves. We also do a lot of custom work for clients, whether it’s brides or birthdays. What you put in your body affects your mood, your thoughts and your health. The things that you put on your body also affect your productivity and your efficiency and your attitude. A really great fitting pair of jeans can really make you feel different about yourself and about your day. Fashion is transformative, it’s a way to make something out of nothing, and it’s functional.

 

CC: Tell me a bit about Yellowcake. How did you get started with the brand and what are your goals for the future of the brand?

VM: I started the brand in 2009 on a whim. I was a nanny for a couple of years and I just wasn’t really satisfied with my position. I always loved fashion design, but I didn’t really know enough about it. I’d never used a sewing machine in my life. I was 25 at the time and took a class at the community college 10 minutes from where I lived. I was able to take a few classes and I learned how to make a skirt, a blouse and a dress. Then I had to drop out because I couldn’t afford it. I didn’t have the $3000 to pay for the next semester, so I dropped out. I panicked because I had already quit my nanny job and the back-up job that I had lined-up fell through. I didn’t know what to do with myself until my friend introduced me to Etsy. It was slow-going at first and it wasn’t until I started making outerwear that I noticed a difference. I think women are more prone to buy everyday wear more cheaply, but outerwear is kind of like a utility product that you use all year long or all season long. So, I was able to charge a higher price point for outerwear and women were willing to spend it because it was an investment. So that’s how I built my business- by sticking to one product and being really niche and really good at making that one product. It’s better to be the master of one thing, be really good at it and be well-known for it than to be just okay at several things. 

So, that’s how it began and it slowly evolved and Project Runway helped a little bit. We had a storefront for about five years until we converted to a studio and showroom only. Now, we are primarily e-commerce because of COVID-19, but also because that was the direction we wanted to take. It’s more sustainable and it’s more financially lucrative. And now, we’ve been in business for almost 11 years!

 

CC: What are some social issues and organizations that Yellowcake supports? Why?

VM: A big part of the reason why I started Yellowcake was because a lot of the fashion industry is produced overseas. Not only are these garments possibly being made unethically with cheap labor, but it’s also traveling further to be made and shipped back. So, the emissions are much higher, the carbon footprint is much higher and the quality of the product may be different. If Americans, that are so hell-bent on bringing jobs back to America, aren’t willing to pay American prices for their products, then there’s a disconnect. The reason we started doing this is because we felt like we could do our part to contribute to our local economy, to bring small manufacturing back to the midwest and employ our neighbors. This was something that one of my biggest mentors taught me, Kathleen Fasanella. When I was thinking of getting some of our products manufactured down south or even overseas, she said, “Well why?” I said, “I don’t want to make this on my own anymore.” She said, “If you have more time than money, then you need to use your resources wisely and, until then, make the things yourself. Employ when you can but employ locally. Employ your neighbors.” So, that’s what we did and it took a bit longer, but it was more beneficial for us in the long run. We were able to pivot really quickly when the pandemic hit and, now, our clients know exactly where their products are being made. 

We also noticed that a lot of men and women who are being marginalized for the sake of fashion are Black and brown people. I’m Latin American, myself, so part of the social organizations that we heavily support are initiatives that we know are going to help eliminate homelessness, poverty, hunger and other social justice issues, like this year when we got to work with Know Your Rights Camp and Freedom Minneapolis. We work with the Cleveland Foodbank and Laura’s Home, which is a rape crisis center for women and children. Every year we used to do a fashion show that would support different non-profits like Halo, a children center that has orphanages in Latin America, India and Africa. We try really hard to work with organizations that are smaller to mid-size. We try to do our part to bring awareness to our clients of who they could be supporting in ways that they hadn’t considered before. We also know that any fundraising that we do for these organizations, that money is going directly to programming and not the pockets of CEOs. 

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CC: How did you find out about The Creative Cookie? How long have you been partnering/working with Lesley? 

VM: I knew of Lesley several years ago before I was her mentor. In 2011, she started following us after Project Runway and we really liked her work so we started following her back. It wasn’t until this past year, in 2020, that we got to know her a little better. After the protests, we realized that we weren’t doing our part to elevate Black and brown voices the way that we could. As a business owner, I know that my strengths lie in giving business advice however I can. I’m not a huge expert, but I’ve been in business long enough to know more than new business owners. There’s always room to teach, regardless of where you are at in your journey. As a Latin American woman, it surprised me to realize that I hadn’t invested enough time in female or minority-owned businesses. So, I reached out to 5 Black-owned businesses that I knew of. I reached out to Lesley to ask her if she knew of anyone that needed guidance and she said, “Me!” So, I said, “Okay, sure!” She has been one of my most successful mentees this year! Lesley’s a really unique person and I really enjoy working with her!

 

CC: What is your idea of “fashion as self-care” and why?

VM: Especially in this pandemic, I think a lot of us have been delegating ourselves to sweatpants or loungewear and not really trying. It’s easy to do because I’m at home most of the time. When I take the time to put on real clothes and fix my hair and put on some makeup and be intentional about what I’m wearing, it does make me feel different. It makes me feel a little bit more lively and gives me a bit more “Moxy” to take on the day. For me, that is important because it’s easy to lounge around in your pajamas all day because you just feel like “blah”. That has a lot to do with what we put on our bodies, not just what we put in them. For me, I think self-care is really just about taking the time to do that (get dressed, do your hair and do your makeup). Whenever I make the time for that, which is maybe twice a month, it’s really important and special. Taking the time to put in the effort to coordinate your outfits, being creative with what you put on your body and trying new things- that’s important to remind yourself of your identity.

 

By Kasey Lettrich 

Kasey Lettrich on January 26, 2021 at 06:17 PM in fashion is self care , love it!, meet, project runway | Permalink | Comments (0)

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Fashion Is Self Care with Weaver & Artist Morgan Hale

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Morgan Hale, a weaver and artist, is one of many people who see fashion as a form of self-care. Morgan adores weaving and works to make the coziest garments and woven items. So naturally, Morgan defines a fashion-as-self-care garment as something that is comfortable. Read below as Morgan shares her experiences in the fashion industry, her upcoming projects, biggest accomplishments, and her idea of fashion as self-care. 

Check out Morgan’s Instagram, @m.h.a.l.e, to see her beautiful creations! 

CC: Tell me a bit about yourself. What do you do? Where are you from? 

MH: I’m a weaver! I spent most of my childhood and teenage years in rural Vermont, but before that, my family and I lived in New York and Connecticut. Growing up, I loved creating in many mediums but my mom sparked my interest in the textile world by teaching me to knit and sew. I went to MassArt in Boston for college but at first, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to major in. I considered illustration, photography, printmaking, and fibers, but I decided on a major in fibers, which is where I learned to weave. After college, I moved to San Francisco and made functional woven pieces like scarves, blankets, and pillows for a while. Currently I’m living and working in New York and I still make some functional items and take on commissions but this past year things changed a bit. The pandemic provided me with extra time to get back to my fine art practice, something I had been hoping to do for a while. My process has grown and changed but weaving is always at the root of it.

 

CC: How did you get into weaving? What makes you passionate about what you do? 

MH: When I toured the fibers department at MassArt I fell in love with the studio spaces filled with beautiful wood floor looms, big windows, and a huge yarn closet. I knew I wanted to learn how to weave and be in that amazing space. I took the weaving courses offered and after I learned the ins-and-outs of weaving, the process became second nature. While the setup process is relatively similar each time, the possibilities are endless. There are so many patterns and colors to try and ways to vary a design on or off the loom. Even after nine years of weaving, the repetitive and ancient process still feels a little like magic and it keeps me coming back to explore new ideas.

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CC: Tell me a bit about your upcoming gallery exhibit. What's it called and what inspired it? What was the most challenging part to get ready for it and what risks did you take?

MH: My work is being shown at Shelter In Place gallery. It’s a new and unique miniature gallery that opened during the pandemic. The gallery was made at a 1:12 scale, meaning 1 inch = 1 foot. This miniature set up allows for more accessible opportunities for artists to show their work. It also makes the work look huge - something I don’t currently have space or resources to pull off. 

 

The five pieces I made are part of my Time Isn’t Real series and are each 5” x 7” in real life but will look 60” x 84” in the gallery. The inspiration for this series began at the beginning of the pandemic. With my daily life slowed down, I was spending most of my time inside and I started to observe my surroundings more. I took note of the changing shadows and light and started to archive these moments by applying plaster to woven panels. Eventually, I broke away from the reality-based imagery and took this idea further by creating my own shadowscapes, like in the pieces for this show. You can read more and see more of the works in this series on my website.

 

The most challenging part of creating these pieces was actually working small. Applying the plaster at such a small scale was a bit fiddly but I made it work! I also ended up having custom stretcher bars made to keep the illusion of the scale accurate after finding no ready-made options available. You can view the pieces on the Shelter In Place gallery Instagram or website.

 

CC: Tell me about some of your creations. What are some of your greatest accomplishments in your work?

MH: Transitioning from creating functional work back to fine art took me a long time and while I could do without the pandemic, I’m glad quarantine gave me the push to really get to work. I know many people have struggled to just survive through this so I’m grateful for the encouragement from my support system to keep going. The Shadowscapes series I’m currently working on is one of my proudest conceptual works. My work has always been process-driven and I’ve struggled with conceptual work in the past but this came naturally. Having this work to propel me through this heavy time has kept my mind and my hands busy. 

CC: What is something interesting about your work that many people wouldn’t know?

MH: Many people don’t realize that to create a weaving, it is a time-intensive and multi-step process. Since most textiles today are produced by machines, it can be hard to imagine creating cloth one thread at a time with your body and a hand-operated loom. Sometimes the process to set up my loom takes longer than the actual weaving! I’ve been sharing videos of my process on Instagram reels and it gives a little insight into the many steps it takes for a weaving to come together.

CC: How did you find out about The Creative Cookie? How long have you been partnering/working with Lesley? 

MH: I found Lesley and The Creative Cookie in the “creative gigs” section of Craigslist over the summer! She was looking for help sewing masks and when we met via Zoom, we really hit it off. Since then I’ve become her studio assistant helping to sew masks, keep things organized, make sure things run smoothly behind the scenes, assist on photoshoots, and more. We both live in the wonderful neighborhood of Ridgewood, Queens which has made moving materials around and doing photoshoots much easier, especially during the pandemic.

CC: What is your idea of “fashion as self-care” and why?

MH: For me, fashion as self-care is about comfort. Wearing something that feels comfortable on my body makes me confident. Along with being comfortable I also want to look cute which led to my love of jumpsuits and overalls. Comfort has become a bigger priority for me lately and I love how versatile jumpsuits are. They’re great for the studio, for relaxing, or for that rare occasion of dressing up and going out. When I’m looking for a quick self-care boost I put on a pair of fun earrings. Adding something small but special to my look always makes me feel great!

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By: Kasey Lettrich 

Kasey Lettrich on January 12, 2021 at 07:40 AM in fashion is self care , interviews, meet, textiles | Permalink | Comments (0)

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Fashion Is Self Care with Designer Bianca Norris

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Photo by: @melodyjoyco

The meaning of fashion is customizable; for some, it’s self-expression, or a way to rebel against social standards, a way to make a statement and stand out, but for many people, fashion is a form of self-care. It’s an art form that makes you feel confident and comfortable in who you are, bold and unafraid. Bianca Norris, a Chicago fashion designer and educator, is one of many who believe that fashion is a tool for self-care. She interprets that fashion as self-care is, “anything that brings you healing, real joy.” Read below as Bianca shares what fashion means to her and how she believes it plays into self-care. And, keep an eye out in the coming weeks as we continue to hear from fashion folks, we love, who practice fashion as self-care.

Make sure to check out Bianca on Instagram, @biancanorris, to follow her creations!

CC: Tell me a bit about yourself. What do you do? Where are you from? 

BN: So I am originally from Prospect Heights, IL. a quiet little suburb of Chicago where my family still resides. I went to Pratt Institute in Brooklyn for college and graduated with a BFA in Fashion Design + Philosophy in 2017. I’ve worked for several fashion designers including Lululemon, Eileen Fisher, and Cushnie et Ochs in addition to creating my own one-of-a-kind pieces. In my current role, I work in the jewelry industry; I manage an art jewelry shop + studio called Adornment + Theory in Chicago, so my day to day involves a lot of marketing, communicating with our artists, and helping clients find gorgeous one-of-a-kind pieces! Aside from my day job, teaching is a big passion of mine. I teach youth fashion classes (now via Zoom) to middle & high school students and I absolutely love it. 

CC: Why do you do what you do?

BN: As a Latinx woman, I have always been passionate about BIPOC + women-owned small/independent businesses, and I hope to have my own someday soon!  In my career so far I’ve made a conscious choice to seek out positions at companies where I would be working on a small team, where I could get to know the people I was working with and not have the pressure of corporate America influence my creative decisions. Where I work now I’m right in the middle of a super cute neighborhood of Chicago called Logan Square and we have tons of regular clients who I’ve gotten to know really well;  there’s something so cool about being able to connect with your clients and coworkers on a personal level and you just don’t get that at a big company. 

As for teaching, my main motivation comes from wanting to make sure that anyone who’s interested in fashion design has the opportunity to explore their interest without being exploited by a higher ed institution. Everyone I went to fashion school with decided to study design because they loved it and they just wanted to learn the skills they needed to make whatever popped into their minds, but the reality is that art + design schools aren’t accessible to most people for a million reasons. College education in the U.S. is ridiculously expensive (I personally took out 6 figures in student loans for an undergraduate degree in fashion, where the entry-level salary is around 40k/year), and almost everything I learned in school I could have gotten from books and the internet had I known what I needed to look for. My mission is to give teens the tools they need to explore and experiment with fashion however they like, and if it ends up just being a hobby that brings them joy and not necessarily a career, I think that’s awesome.  6a00e551c5dab188340263e9804865200b-500wi

CC: How did you find out about The Creative Cookie? How long have you been partnering/working with Lesley? 

BN: I found out about The Creative Cookie when I was looking for a part-time job during my sophomore year of college! I was only 20 at the time, and I had never taught a sewing class but I had worked with children for years. In my first class with Lesley, she asked me to help the students make patterns for these emoji pillows and then offered me a part-time teaching position immediately afterward. I had so much fun working in Lesley’s studio, and it’s honestly what made me realize I loved teaching. From there I worked with Lesley on tons of other classes; from workshops at the Met to speaking to her classes at Parsons and guest teaching courses for pre-college students up until I left New York in 2018. It’s just this year during the pandemic that we’ve gotten to team up on some virtual classes again! 

CC: Why do you love design?

BN: I was always into art, but I was never very good at drawing or painting, or even doing ceramics. When I stumbled into a sewing class in high school, I caught on very quickly and I felt like it was the only medium I had ever worked in where I was able to translate exactly what I had envisioned in my mind into a 3D, real-life object. It felt like magic. It was really powerful, honestly, to be able to just think up some imaginary piece of clothing and make it a reality. 

CC: Tell me about some of your collections. What are some of your greatest accomplishments in your work?

BN: I’ve actually taken a bit of a design hiatus the past couple of years. After I finished design school I was so emotionally and physically drained from years of poor sleeping habits, constant critique, and the 3 jobs I had held down at the same time to pay for my fabric and supplies for classes that I needed a break. My senior year, designer Adam Selman (who just did a collab with Rihanna’s SavagexFenty-so good!) came to one of our classes and told us about how absolutely done with fashion he felt immediately out of school. The burn out is real. His suggestion was to just take a step back from it until we were ready again; the industry will still be there when you’re rested. So I took his advice and really just halted my designs up until this year. That being said, I think the designs I’m proudest of are the ones I made for myself! I just made a wool camel coat with a gorgeous plaid lining and welt pockets; super warm and honestly necessary for these Midwest winters. 

In order to be taken seriously in school we could only make clothes for a size 2-4 model (I wear a size 16/18 and made clothes for myself one year, got completely ripped apart by faculty during a critique in front of all 45 of my peers because I modeled them myself instead of “hiring a professional model”) so I just never tried it again until I graduated and was free from the persecution of the Pratt Fashion Department. 

CC: What is your favorite texture to wear in the fall and why?

BN: I actually really dislike fall/winter clothing; I like to wear light, thin fabrics that feel silky + smooth next to my body, like a second skin. That being said, I also love a great structured denim look. There’s something that feels so secure about wearing well-fitted denim; I’ll wear it any season! But my absolute favorite fabric is stretch silk charmeuse. I’ll have it in skirts, dresses, tops, you name it! 

CC: What is your idea of “fashion as self-care” and why?

BN: I think that anything that brings you healing, real joy (not the fleeting kind you get from online shopping), or personal development is self-care. Fashion doesn’t have to mean heels and a sequin top. I know that when I get to wear something I love it does make me feel good. For other people, putting together an outfit might be stressful; if your concept of fashion is putting on a sweatsuit and that’s what makes you feel great and comfortable in your own skin, then that’s fashion. Personal style is so special and I don’t think anyone should ever sacrifice it for the sake of a trend or pleasing others. 

 

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Photo by: @melodyjoyco

 

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By: Kasey Lettrich 

Kasey Lettrich on December 15, 2020 at 08:30 AM in fashion is self care , interviews, love it!, meet, sewing | Permalink | Comments (0)

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