Q&A with Future Fashion Designer, Shelby Steiner

This week I thought I’d give you a peek at the life and thoughts of a future fashion designer. Hailing from a small town in rural Iowa, Shelby Steiner, 18, began her first year this fall as a fashion design student at Columbia College in Chicago.

Q: Why did you want to become a designer?

A: Fashion design has always been my dream; I wanted to become a designer since I was 7 years old. I was always making dresses for Barbies out of washrags when I was little.

Q: What are your career goals?

A: My main career goal is to open up my own boutique some day with my own designer line. I want to be self-employed. My biggest dream is to have my line featured in the New York fashion week.

Q: Who or what is your inspiration for your designs?

A: I can get inspiration from almost anything. A lot of my inspiration comes from other designers. I really like Danielle Scutt‘s designs this year. She has a lot of techno, edgy stuff. And Audrey Hepburn is my fashion icon. In general, though, I like to look at things with texture and color when coming up with ideas for designs.

Q: What are the similarities and differences between fashion school and a regular university?

A: There’s really no partying in the fashion school; everybody’s really focused on their major. The fashion world is really competitive for designers. Another way it is different is that there are not any sports teams here. As for classes, we take a mixture of subjects as gen eds, but there are not a lot of requirements for science and other subjects outside fashion design. For instance, I only have to take one math class.

Q: What is the best item of clothing you’ve designed? The worst?

A: I haven’t sewed that much yet at Columbia. We’re mainly focusing on drawing flat design sketches. For instance, right now for class we’re designing our own fashion line. I have to make 7 pieces that are all cohesive inthe same group. But I have sewn dresses in the past, and I really liked making them and the way they turned out. My worst designs are handbags. I’m terrible at them.

Q: Favorite place to shop for clothes and why?

A: My favorite places to shop are probably Betsey Johnson and Akira, which is a Chicago boutique. Betsey Johnson isn’t very affordable, so I can only get so much there. But Akira has trendy pieces and classic pieces that I can mix and match, and they’re all fashion forward.

Q: How can a person best recreate runway styles?

A: Shopping bridge lines is a great way to get runway looks. Many designers, for example Calvin Klein, design high-end fashion but also have bridge lines for stores like Younkers. Klein  uses the same ideas from his design line for his bridge line except that he uses less expensive fabrics and less detail. And then they do it at mass production.

Q: What should every girl have in her closet this winter?

A: Textured tights and knee-high, flat boots.

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