When I applied at the University of Santo Tomas, I picked my course by just simply reading the "career options" area at the description. Creative director, art director, photographer, graphic designer, painter, and fashion designer to name a few were some of the career options listed at the Advertising Arts department. I was very ecstatic to see 'fashion designer' in the list of opportunities because ever since I was 10, I really dreamt of becoming one. When I got accepted and experienced the life of a freshman CFAD student, I wanted to experience taking electives already. I was really impressed with the higher batches especially when they exhibit their works at the Beato Gallery.

Fast forward to the present time, I really still can't believe I finished taking electives already. For the first semester, I took Exhibition Design. I was planning to take up Textile Design but I was so clueless that curriculum changed. Exhibition Design was pretty hard for me because I have no patience with floor plans and the like. But I survived. This semester, I took up Costume and Fashion Design. I experienced illustrating fashion sketches around 3am and getting no sleep at all. But I enjoyed every minute of it. For our finals, we had a fashion show featuring the designs of fashion students from both the morning and afternoon class. Being a part of the morning class, the theme that our class decided to do was the color of the year: marsala.

I first went to the seamstress and asked about the rates. For long gowns it will cost around P8,500.00 and above and for short dresses it will cost around P5,000.00. Take note, the prices don't include the fabric and bead work yet (crazy right). I didn't have any other choice but to redesign. I designed a short dress inspired by a ballerina cross-stitch I made back in high school. I wanted it to look very classy but I really had no idea how the dress would look like because I've never worked with the seamstress before. After this experience, I vow to study how to sew and construct clothes after graduation! I went to Tabora Street aka heaven for people searching for fabric, beads, and the like. I also want to be educated with all kinds of fabrics because I really had a hard time finding the perfect fabric for the dress.

When I saw the dress for the first time at the fitting, it was a perfect fit for my model. I had issues with the skirt because I imagined it to be bigger, but I had no time for revisions because of the bead work that I planned to do the same day. Also, I feel like the seamstress didn't use all five layers of the fabric that I bought (which cost around P2,000.00) which was kind of disappointing. Oh well, lesson learned! The whole experience was so stressful. From sketching and finalizing designs to buying fabric to creating a bead work design... ahhhh. I can't believe that after experiencing everything that I've experience throughout this elective, I still want to become a fashion designer. It's a challenge that I enjoy and would love to learn more about. Hopefully, this will not be the last fashion show I'll be part of!






Until next time xx