Hi to whoever may read this, and thank you for being interested enough in my endeavorers to have clicked this post. As we all know, 2020 has really thrown us for a loop. I am writing this for myself, as well as anyone who's feeling lost or uncertain. I want to look back at this post in 2025 and see a compilation of the successes within this rocky year. Actually, after reading this, you should go write down all your accomplishments during 2020, no matter how small. Don't look at this year as holding you back, look at it as if its propelling you forward.
Europe 2020
Before shit hit the fan, I had an incredible start to this year. In January, I was lucky enough to be able to attend Bath Spa University for 2 weeks, to study the art of Textile Manipulation. As a then Fashion Merchandising student, I wasn't interested as much in creating garments, as much as I was learning what the United Kingdom had to offer within the world of fashion and what they teach their students. I was geeking out the entire trip due to Europes' admiration and dedicated protection of our environment! To not much surprise, this school was much more advanced in sustainability than most American universites, and implamented numerous initiatives within their garment classrooms. This left me with a desire to bring back some of their principles, and I am now working with my schools fashion lab to donate all left over scraps to local janitorial services (for their mops). Instead of being in England to finish designing an elaborate collection, which a lot of the other students were respectively there for, I was able to have complete freedom, tapping into my creative wants and abilities. It was an unforgetable and formative experience, and just so happened to inspire me to change my concentration at Columbia College Chicago. I realized there were bigger parts to this industry, parts that needed help. I need to be proactive and innovative as possible when it comes to helping America combat our waste problem.
Switching my Major from Merchandising to Product Development
Some may not know the difference between these two so I will explain real quick. Basically I studied Fashion Merchandising at Columbia for 3 years, which is essentially the planning and promotion of sales as well as making the exterior image of a brand or window visually pleasing. Think people who set layouts at Zara, or market brand content at Anthro. Ultimately I realized that I wanted to have an impact on the entire industry, and my aspirations are bigger than just visual adjustments.
One of my biggest goals in life is to reduce the unquanitifable amount of waste that the fashion industry produces everyday.
And for me to be able to reduce waste on a global scale, I had to understand how much waste actually gets created from garment construction. And for me, understanding means getting up and doing it myself. So during my second semester of junior year, I declared a new major in Fashion Product Development. Meaning all my marketing classes from the past 3 years do not count towards my degree anymore. Thats okay though because I will hopefully get to apply that learned information within anything I decide to pursue.
So here I am.. a senior in college taking fashion design classes with a bunch of freshman and sophomores, trying to obtain a different major and learn new sewing techniques. I do not have plans to become the next Versace, I just simply need to educate myself on all parts of the fashion industry, so I know what needs to be changed. I also wanted to squeeze as much out of my undergrad degree as possible and get my moneys worth. $$$
Fashion Sustainability Club
One thing that has stayed constant through my undergrand is my minor in Environmental Science due to my extreme admiration and borderline obsession with the environment. In order to combine my two passions, I teamed up with some other kids at school to start a Fashion Sustainability Club. We had a lot planned for spring semester of 2020 but obviously our world got turned upside down due to a global pandemic. So we have had to express most of our ideas over Zoom, which obviously isn't ideal since we had very tactile events planned. Such as clothing mending classes, vegetable dying workshops and live seminars. Its okay tho... we are still finding ways to educate our classmates and get them to join this super cool club.
Another thing that is an almost direct relation to the start of this club is a NEW MINOR that Columbia is introducing called a Fashion Sustainability Minor! Thats right.. now kids will not have to take endless biology classes just to make the fashion industry see that they are passionate about it (Just me? Ok). So was this because of the few of us that kick started this club? Opening Columbias' eyes to the problenms within our industry? I guess well never know... but I'd like to think it was ;)
Graduation
Trying to teach myself a completely new art form over Zoom has had me ending most days in tears... but tears only because I am pushing myself as hard as possible. I would rather cry over the difficulty than cry over what I did not accomplish! (Put THAT on a T-shirt)
I am HOPEFULLY graduating in May of 2021 and am overwhelmed with all the places I could go! When making these decisions, I tend to become a bit over-ambitious. I assumed I'd obtain my dream job of a Sustainability Director at a major fashion brand right out of college, BUT turns out I am very unqualified and that position barely exists yet. I continue to get tons of rejection letters and a handful of interviews. But out of all I have learned from my dad, it was that..
"There is no such thing as too many interviews".
Going to countless interviews (pre-covid) taught me so much about myself and my career goals. If you answer those mundane questions enough times, it becomes much easier to pull new educated answers out of nowhere. I have discovered I am very good at answering questions about myself, on the spot, professionally. It must have been all the interview practice, OR I just know exactly what I want, and employers see that. With that being said, that has also been a huge disadvantage of mine. Being so passionate about a specific topic hinders a lot of companies from hiring you, but at the end of the day, all it takes is one job to see your potential! Never undersell yourself, you are IMPORTANT, TALENTED, and UNIQUE. (The more you tell yourself that, the more true it gets)
Lastly, when it comes to bringing European sustainability practices, I want nothing to do with 'westernizing' their procautions. I want to spend time overseas, studying everything they do to protect our planet, and bring it back to America! We are very sheltered over here, and often LIED too about Americas recycling systems... SO with that being said, what if we stopped westernizing things, and just bringing them over as they stand?!? Whether thats foreign films, or recycling practices, when we Americanize anything, I have a feeling we are just digging ourselves in a deeper hole of capitalism.
THANKS FOR READING
Be kind to yourself today xx
Carley
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