As a graduate from The High School of Fashion industries, I was inspired to start a career in the beauty industry. During my senior year of high school I met with Mary Alice Stephenson, a producer, fashion and beauty expert. Ms. Stephenson is the founder of Glam4Good, a non-profit organization and movement that shares heart touching stories, voices, and events through style, fashion and skincare. This inspired me to continue my interests and make a bright future for myself. My goal is to become a Dermatologist and I believe a background in Cosmetology and Fragrance Marketing at the Fashion Institute of Technology will provide a strong foundation to pursue this career.
During my final year in High School, I was able to meet with designers from the fashion industry. Our Career Day program gave us the opportunity to meet with industry leaders and learn about their lives and careers. That’s where I met two inspiring sisters, Jordana and Gillian Warmflash. Jordana is the designer of their clothing company, Novis, and Gillian manages their company. The reason they started a clothing business was because Jordana fell in love with textiles and garments at the age of 14 and her Grandmother is her biggest inspiration. Her Grandmother would wear floral and striped patterns with minimal colors and Jordana gets her ideas based off her Grandmothers style. Before I left the presentation, Jordana and Gillian said “inspiration is around us, and sometimes it’s in front of our eyes, we have to dig deep to find it!” Similarly, I looked within myself, I discovered that my acne and hair loss inspired me to create solutions to prevent and manage these types of issues while sharing the knowledge with others as well. This is a job for a Dermatologist and I want to help myself and others look and feel beautiful about themselves.
During the same year, I was in charge of creating our school magazine. My first assignment was to do a photoshoot, the prompt of the shoot was ‘Reversed Roles’. Seeing this as an opportunity to express my leadership skills in the group, I created the idea of adding my culture and everyone agreed, I am a Bengali-Muslim. I dressed our male model in a “Sari”, a South Asian womenswear, which is a twenty foot long drape, with Indian jewelry and heels. The female model was dressed in a “Kurta Pyjama”, a South Asian menswear, along with mens headwear, and shoes. After the photoshoot, my group project was voted number one in the class because it was different from the other group projects. Our project was on the second page of the school magazine.
Another project where my fashion skills showed success was when I was assigned a freelance prompt. In this project I decided to show my ethnic culture in fashion with a twist. I submitted four pictures of me with four different outfits: a Sari, Salwar Kameez, Lehenga, and a Blouse. The twist I added was the exaggeration of facial accessories and jewelry. I chose to do this because I wanted to show that everybody has a way of dressing and should not be judged for their own style. Ms.Cuffie, the creator of IMag, loved my idea because it was different and unique and she decided to put my project on the school magazine.
After graduating from high school, I went to Pace University. College made me realize I want to continue fashion after I attended the ‘Fashion Marketing Minor Info Session’ hosted by the University. I was inspired by the Instructor’s story, who is also an FIT alumni. Andrea Reyes is a designer who goes to Africa and uses a method called Upcycling, reviving old clothing into new creations. She brings her products back to the U.S to sell and also donates to the ones in need. She makes apparel and accessories such as, bags and childrens blankets. During this presentation, I learned that Fashion Marketers help retailers stock their fashion lines, coordinate sales, and promote their products. Fashion Marketers decide how the product gets sold and how it looks so consumers will come back and buy more.
Through my early exposure to the beauty and fashion industries, I was able to interact and learn from people who gave me the inspiration to begin a journey and create a company where I too, hope to bring a positive influence through my work. Obtaining a degree in ‘Cosmetology and Fragrance Marketing’ will help me start my path to Dermatology.
