Reflections on my First Time Designing a Fashion Collection
My original inspiration board for my Galería de MODA collection. Read my designer profile on the blog here.
To those who asked me about my experience participating in the MODA Fashion Show as a MODA Designer Boot Camp graduate, I eagerly and invariably responded that my first time designing was “amazing.” This was my enthusiastic but shallow answer, until someone asked what qualified my success.
What did qualify my success as a first time designer? Besides the exhilaration of the show and the responses of the crowd, I knew no measure of achievement. I am not a large fashion house, and I was not seriously planning on making any of my looks to sell, so sales were not a metric either. I’m also not serious about my social media following—on my Instagram, I post whatever touches my whimsy. Gaining followers or likes through the clothes I designed was not a pressing concern of mine.
As I write this article, I still don’t have a metric in mind. Throughout winter quarter, I spent around 15 hours per week for 8 weeks creating my looks, and at the end, I still felt that there was more I could have done. That’s 120 hours total, more hours in that short of a period than I have likely ever put into any other activity or class. I don't regret a single minute of it. The show itself was not only rewarding because of the people who came to celebrate and critique my hard work, but because I was able to see how my fellow designers' techniques and ideas translated in person and on the runway. At the show’s conclusion, I was already brimming over with ideas and inspirations for my collection next year.
Throughout the process and even weeks after the show has ended and I reflect on my experiences, I cannot emphasize enough how grateful I am to have been able to step into the world of fabric manipulation. Without the proper training, equipment, and guidance, sewing seemed so inscrutable that even I (someone who enjoys attempting dangerously innovative paths of creativity) showed no interest in learning how to do it. MODA's Designer Boot Camp and the fashion show opened a new doorway for me, and taught me that where there’s passion and intention, there’s a way. I cannot wait to continue designing both my own collections and for my future shows: I am already making plans to shop for fabrics to shape my new ideas. My success is not in tangible goods, but rather in opportunities and inspirations. I plan on seizing them!
