MODA Designer Profiles: Nadine Faisal

Feb 1

Feb 1 MODA Designer Profiles: Nadine Faisal

Every year, the MODA Fashion Show wraps up winter quarter with the perfect homage to student talent, hard work, and creativity. In anticipation of the show, we will be interviewing MODA Designers. Meet Nadine Faisal, a 2nd year History/Econ/potential SALC major!

1. What are some sources of inspiration for your collection this year?

Like Anita, my major source of inspiration has been where I’m from – tropical, sunny Malaysia. (Not to taunt you this Winter season…) Firstly, in terms of the motifs that will feature in my line themselves. Tropical flowers have such simple, elegant shapes. Think anthuriums and heliconias. Secondly, speaking of shapes, as a woman who chooses to cover up the way I do, it is difficult finding great clothes designed with someone like me in mind in the States! This used to be the case back home too, but now Malaysia is burgeoning with amazing designers catering to the urban, cosmopolitan, ‘modest’ female market. I also take inspiration from them.

2. Have you ever done fashion design work before? What are some of the most challenging and rewarding aspects of the process?

I learnt how to sew and draft patterns before coming to college, from a lovely old Chinese aunty who ran a fabric shop near my neighbourhood. I never created anything other than basics though, or any garments outside of that course for that matter (which I didn’t even finish… had to come here), and certainly not of my own creative design! So this is a first; a dream come true. Keeping up with what needs to be done on a full UChicago load plus other non-academic commitments has been a challenge. On the other hand, one very rewarding thing was going through my mom’s old patterns that I’d brought with me to the States, thinking how she was about my age, also a young university student, when she used them herself.

3. What are you looking forward to most about the MODA Fashion Show?

Seeing my actual designs in actual reality on actual people in an actual fashion show, of course!