Boned and corseted sleeveless wedding dress that I designed and constructed in 2005.
Fashion Design (2009)
and prior.
Summary
Prior to 2010, I was a fashion designer for 14 years, working across women's, men's, and children's wear for both global and smaller couture labels. I also created custom garments for special occasions, mainly wedding and evening dresses, specializing in corseted strapless designs with boning.
As a child, I spent a lot of time studying fashion designers and their creations. The walls of my bedroom were covered in fashion magazine tear-outs of whatever I loved in the moment, inlcuding Issey Miyake, Rei Kawakubo, and Jean-Paul Gaultier. I would spend time at local fabric stores learning about textiles and then attempt to stitch together clothing. I loved the fit and shape of garments but also the performance around fashion. The music, stories, and feelings associated with the clothes we wear has always excited me. So even though I studied Economics in college, upon graduating I shifted to fashion design, determined not to miss my chance.
Fashion provided me with many things: I was able to build a solid design foundation, using methodologies I would later apply to other aspects of design and ultimately teach in the classroom. I learned about the significance of material science and the technologies and techniques used to transform raw materials into garments. I also learned to anticipate trends, and finally to recognize that while clothing is utilitarian, it also carries crucial messages about culture and society.
Most importantly, fashion taught me about the body and time—how fabric moves and drapes on a body in motion, how garments shift and respond to gesture, and how they work with or against forces like gravity. This understanding of the relationship between materials, movement, and the human form has deeply informed my approach to wearable technology and how interactive objects can exist on and with the body.
