Fashion designing seems like a glamorous dream, one that only Marc Jacobs, Coco Chanel, and designers on Project Runway can ever realize. However, students at South are making fashion designing a major part of their lives.
“I believe in the power of arts and crafts beyond anything. It’s really therapeutic to put all of your attention into one thing, and it’s a really enjoyable process. It’s a really great outlet for creativity,” explained junior Hazel Bryan.
Both Bryan and Ruth Kendrick, a senior, started out making clothes for their dolls and stuffed animals.
“Once I grew out of both of those things, I started designing and making clothes for myself,” Kendrick explained.
“It got to be a really big part of my life. I’d devote like three days to just making a dress or something- which is really fun. I’d just make a whole outfit in three days,” said Bryan.
Kendrick finds the amount of work she puts into her clothes extremely satisfying. “I enjoy the product and the satisfaction of how much work goes into it, and then you get this amazing thing out of it… it’s something to be proud of that you can wear something that you made,” she said.
She also appreciates that you can make things that you wouldn’t normally find in stores. Kendrick’s clothes are usually “really different style[s] than you’d ever be able to buy in a store. I really push my creativity by creating dresses out of designs that are entirely different.” She enjoys making clothes that you wouldn’t normally see, and that aren’t commercially common. “[I] challenge myself to not just have a tight pencil-skirt-esque bottom of the skirt, but a weird pattern or design on the bottom.”
“I have a pretty out-there sense of style,” said Bryan. “Anything that I’m going to make isn’t going to be normal. I kind of just go with it. It’s a form of art.”
She said that normally the more creative stuff is “stuff I can’t buy, all that stuff that’s super expensive. It’s fun to make imitation, even if it’s way worse quality.” Bryan added that while making things can be more expensive than buying them, “it’s not the most expensive hobby, but it’s not cheap”, which is, she believes, why “it’s gotten to be more of an obscure hobby.”
Minneapolis designer Danielle Everine, who many might recognize as a contestant on Project Runway, encourages students to get started in clothing design at a young age.
“Start following fashion publications and blogs. Attend fashion events and introduce yourself to people that are doing the work you someday would like to be doing,” she recommends to anyone looking to get involved in fashion design, or even doing it as a hobby.
However, she does recognize that clothes making can get expensive. “A great way to begin working with fabrics and apparel is to take apart old clothing and purchase fabrics and trims from second hand stores.”
Both Bryan and Kendrick have found cheaper ways to get around the expenses. “A lot of people think that if they don’t have a sewing machine, or don’t have the money to buy fabric, or don’t have the resources to do it, which isn’t necessarily true,” Kendrick said, who usually likes to use recycled fabrics.
“I find or buy ugly dresses, or I take shirts or jeans that no longer fit or have been worn through. I once made a dress entirely out of denim, of pairs of pants that no longer fit me,” explained Kendrick. “One thing I pride myself on is the ability to just use a ton of old clothing and hand sew.”
Both Kendrick and Bryan stressed the fact that sewing machines are not necessary for someone making clothes. “You can hand sew. I feel like people just pass it over, not really thinking it would be anything interesting, but honestly it gets fun,” said Bryan.
Buying additional fabrics, zippers, buttons, or whatever a person needs to complete their outfit can get pretty expensive, but there are several places in the Twin Cities that sell cheaper clothes. If you’re willing to hunt, you can make clothes-making a cheaper hobby.
Bryan recommends staying away from more prominent stores like Jo-Ann fabrics, and instead hunting around for cheaper stores. Everine said that she often frequents outlet stores, such as S.R Harris. “If you go to more low-key places, like S.R harris – a warehouse- they have a ton of stuff that’s [cheaper],” said Bryan. S.R Harris is a fabric outlet in Brooklyn Park that sells all their fabrics for 50% off their normal price.
Making and designing clothes can be easy, cheap, and accessible for high school students. As Bryan said, “If anybody is considering sewing, I would highly recommend it. Don’t get discouraged if you stab yourself in the finger.”
