How did you get into fashion design?
Both my parents are artists. My mom is a photographer and my dad is a leather smith. I've been surrounded by art my whole life. My mom actually taught me to sew when I was pretty young. I would even do clothing designs on paper without realizing what I was doing. In high school, I started making my own clothes--mostly altering or adding on to other things because I never liked anything the way it was when I bought it. I also made a lot of jewelry--turquoise was the stone of choice--so when I started college, that is what I studied.
Where did you go to school? What did you study?
I went to Massachusetts College of Art in Boston. I started out as a jewelry major (small metals). After randomly ending up in a textile (surface design) class, I realized that I could make my own fabrics and then make clothing out of it. I completely fell in love with all aspects of textile design and had to sort of give up the jewelry thing. I became both a fashion design and fibers major. I mainly did surface design work; hand painting on fabric, silk screening, etc. Then I would use the fabric for my assignments in the fashion department.
Did you have to train or apprentice with another designer? How was that?
The last two and a half years of school, I worked for Iro Design, a small business that makes hand-painting silk clothing, bags and accessories. The owner, Peggy Russell, was actually my teacher freshman year, the one who got me into surface design. ... There were four of us altogether and we hand-painted all the fabric, then shipped it off to be sewn by a friend of Peggy's in California.
When I moved to NYC in August of 2003, I interned a little at a showroom and during Fall Fashion week; it was definitely interesting. I'd recommend it. From there I did freelance and worked at a clothing store while I got Safe Clothes started.
What inspired you to get into fashion design?
It was something that started when I was really young. I always had a strong desire to look a certain way and dress a certain way and stand out somehow. One theory I have is that since I have always been an extremely shy person---extremely--clothing was something that drew attention to me and made people talk to me so I wouldn't have to [start conversations]. This helped me a lot.
I think that's also where [my thing for] turquoise comes in; it's such a unique color and in my experience, people are really interested in it, they're sort of drawn to it.
Describe your philosophy about the art of fashion.
Fashion design is a functional art. Not that all art isn't functional in some way, but it's art you can actually touch and feel and interact with and not be afraid to wear. In a way, it's sort of like music--it's a part of our daily life, something we can't live without, something we all interact with and so should be something we really love. I mean, our bodies are the most interesting elements, everyone does art about themselves. With clothing, mine anyway, it's the same thing but you get to wear it and interact with it on a daily basis and get all this feedback and reactions out of people and their thoughts on what you're doing. Which, of course, at times can be tiring but for the most part, you accept it and it's interesting. Above all, I just really believe that the right clothing and color can make you feel better about yourself and can give you more confidence. I think we dress in a very boring manner in this country--sometimes even ugly--and I just don't get it. We like to be surrounded by beautiful things so why wouldn't we want our clothing to be beautiful as well?
What about fashion as a business?
I started making clothing because I had to; I had to satisfy something that I couldn't in any other way. Even if I had no clothing line or never sold another thing in my life, I would have to make clothes. I just want to make my art and show it in the way I want to. It's not always that easy though. I think it is important for young artists and designers to know this: everyone gets so much crap these days for "selling out" or whatever, but sometimes you have to do certain things, compromise, in order to keep doing to real thing that makes you happy. I started making clothing to sell because I needed money, not because that was my goal. I started with the idea that everything would be hand-made and one-of-a-kind, I wanted to do costume and custom orders only. I would love that, but right now it's just not possible for me. I have to start producing more of one thing because that's the only way I can survive, reach my goals and keep doing what I love.
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