Senior Nicole Chen, who currently attends the district’s Middle College program at West Valley College, enjoys the 30 minutes to an hour she spends getting ready every day for school. She loves to carefully pick out her outfits and do her makeup each morning. 

To her, clothing is an “object for the body” and also a way of looking at the world, however absurd it may be.

“Clothes are a way to personally express myself,” she said. “They represent my attitude for the day.”

Initially, Chen said she became interested in fashion because it gave her more confidence and security. Soon, she started further exploring the industry, intrigued by the glamour of it and its abundance of styles to explore. 

She loves to follow fashion designers such as Alexander McQueen, who used to design for Givenchy, and Rei Kawakubo, the founder of Commes des Garçons, because they all viewed fashion through an artistic and philosophical perspective.

“It was fascinating to me how they found beauty in abstractness and weirdness and extracted it to form new and unusual aspects in design,” Chen said.

 Her favorite brands, including Comme des Garçons and Maison Margiela, inspire her to create outfits of similar styles, but not as expensive.

“I think my style is more edgy and unique because I love combining different elements, and I don’t usually follow trends,” she said. 

Hence, she gets her clothes from all over the place, including vintage stores like Urban Outfitters and Zara. Usually her budget is $100 to $200 a month. However, if she is traveling a lot, she will usually end up buying more clothes. Most of her clothes are usually oversized and unisex. She also wears a lot of black, as she believes that black will never go out of style. 

This summer, Chen furthered her love for fashion by learning how to create clothing for herself. She attended a three-week course called “Fashion: Construction and Sewing” at the Parsons School of Art and Design. During the last week of the course, participants were required to design a portfolio and create one original piece from it for their final project.

“I got my inspiration from the trash on the streets in New York City,” Chen said. “I was concerned about the environmental impact of so much litter, so I made a jacket that mimicked the look of a trash bag.”

For the project, she was required to create everything from scratch, whether it was sketching the designs by hand or buying specific types of fabric. Because her piece was about trash, she tried to use as little waste as possible while creating her it. She initially  planned to use sustainable materials for her fabric, but because of the time constraint, she ended up using polyester fabrics instead.

The whole process took about four to five days, from designing the collection to picking materials and sewing everything together. 

“It was very challenging and I barely got any sleep, but finishing it was very satisfying,” she said.

The result was a cross between a shirt and jacket. One side was white and had a big pocket resembling a trash bag. The other side was black and accented with grey tweed fabric on the collar and sleeves. 

During the summer program, Chen was able to learn many sewing and designing skills and connect with others who also share the same passion as her. 

“I discovered how much I love doing anything for fashion despite the pain and challenges,” she said.

In the future, Chen plans to pursue fashion design as a career. She wants to explore everything about it, including fashion design and photography. 

“I’m never tired of learning more about this field of art and design,” she said.