How VCU Arts has set me up for success
It’s the day before I move to Richmond. I’m preparing to go to one of the top public arts schools in the US, Virginia Commonwealth University. I have all my belongings packed up, spending my last day in Oakton, VA with all my friends. I was terrified, this was the first big change for me and I did not know what to expect. Little did I know that the next four years would change me into the fashion professional I am today.
Upon entering my freshman year classes, I was greeted with professors that were so welcoming, kind, and wanted to help us grow in any way we could. Their encouragement excited me, beginning the change of old habits into new ones. The first year of college, I was met with challenges of learning how to create visually appealing presentations that had enough evidence to back it up, which was something I had never done in public school. Learning how to use Adobe Applications in my Computers for Fashion class opened me up to so many possibilities, being the first class where I felt so proud of my work and stayed on top of it consistently. Throughout the rest of my academic career, I was able to use those visual skills in assignments and projects. This was the jumpstart to my learning progress, where I was next met with courses that tested my knowledge using in depth research about the past, present, and future of Fashion. Our professors insisted on treating each project like a real life situation, building a semester long project with weekly assignments that would then create a final presentation. This way of teaching us would build skill sets of teamwork, collaboration, communication, time management, and research. They provided us with many critiques and were always quick to respond to the countless questions we had, ensuring that we were creating the best versions of ourselves. This was the time to make mistakes, learn, and be guided by the amazing staff of the Fashion Department.
My most valuable and monumental time in the VCU Arts Fashion Program would have to be my senior year, where I solidified my strongest assets and experiences. In the first semester, I took a class in Fashion Forecasting. We were taught to read up on the news and current events, happening both in the world and social media. This class specifically intrigued me because this had been a special interest and hobby of mine. With the research we collected as a group, we had to forecast the 2025 Fall/Winter Trends based off the zeitgeist. I was blessed to be put into a group that had the same amount of knowledge and drive for this project, and each week we would hit it out of the ball park with our assignments. I acted as the team’s manager, making sure we met our expectations through numerous zoom meetings, creating a fun environment that grew us so close to each other. We all played a pivotable role in collaboration, which in the end, earned us the Critics Choice Award from Fashion Snoops! I couldn’t have been more proud of the team and work we created, which set me up for the next semesters senior capstone class: Line Development.
This class proved to be the hardest, but most rewarding time of my academic career. We were tasked with creating a line with a mass market brand of our choosing that had a relevant theme, focusing on aged denim by using Cotton Incorporated’s technology. My team decided to create a collaboration between Uniqlo and Diesel, choosing craftsmanship as our theme (you will be able to see the process and outcome in my portfolio). Our class was fortunate to have a Cotton Inc’s grant, providing us with once in a lifetime opportunities to visit their headquarters, New York Coterie, and Condé Nast Archive. We were able to use the knowledge from these experiences to put into our weekly presentations creating our collection. My team put hours and hours of work each week, being our #1 priority in perfecting the project. We were extremely passionate about what we were making, and it showed every critique. The biggest challenge and growth for me in this class was something that you wouldn’t expect, but presenting. Presentations had always been an achilles heal for me because of my performance anxiety, so being assigned one or two every week helped me grow and build that skill into something I’m finally proud of. Towards the end of the semester, I was able to overcome that challenge; something I never thought I could do, but now is new tool in my toolbox. I will never forget the judges, Mark Messura, Senior Vice President of Cotton Inc., and Epitacio Arganza, creative creator, coming up to me saying we had given the best presentation. We were the only group to have memorized and not use any notecards, which if you had told me a year ago, I wouldn’t believe you.
The tools and guidance I was provided by VCU Arts are extremely invaluable to me, I will be forever appreciative of what my professors were able to help me achieve. I am sad to be leaving and graduating from the program, but so thrilled to be using these unforgettable experiences in my career! Thank you, VCU, for helping me grow into the person I am today, I can’t wait to see what the future holds.
