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"         Mark your date books! On September 9th ELLE will stage a fashion show at New York City&amp;#039;s Lincoln Center showcasing the works of a group of immensely talented SCAD students selected for their sartorial savvy and technical skill. A panel of judges, including Karolina Kurkova, Iman, Linda Fargo and Costello Tagliapetra will critique their work and select winners from several different fashion categories. Don&amp;#039;t miss this opportunity to see the works of fashion&amp;#039;s next generation of stars.  Click through to get to know each and every one! Also, don&amp;#039;t forget to vote and tell us which designer deserves to win the People&amp;#039;s Choice award.      Ashley Austin      Katherine Crowley      Mary Disser      Liz Dunham      Tahnee Folsom       Breanne Harney      Ron Hedgepeth      Lindsey Hopkins      Lauren Jones      Josh Lacey       Marlow Larson      Lauren Mayhew      Merida Miller      Adriana Osorio Lugo      Kelvin Parker       Mary Patton      Chloe Post      Gabriela Reagan      Faith Thornburg      Kelly Wenrick       Katherine Williford      Raquel Zarin               PREV   Ashley Austin  NEXT   An avid Mad Men fan and former college golf player, Ashley Austin created a senior collection full of tailored neutrals and knits. &amp;quot;I researched metals and became mesmerized with the periodic table. I even topstitched an abstract shape of it onto a lot of the pieces,&amp;quot; she said of her collection&amp;#039;s inspiration. Corrosion is another one of its main influencers: &amp;quot;I collaborated with fiber artist Brooke McEver and created a screen-printing technique that looks like rust.&amp;quot; Despite her fondness for hard metals, the St. Louis native also has a soft spot: If she weren&amp;#039;t working as a fashion designer, Austin would &amp;quot;want to help people in some way. I&amp;#039;m really interested in doing nonprofit work with children.&amp;quot; What was your favorite book to read as a kid? I think it&amp;#039;s a toss-up between The Very Hungry Caterpillar and The Messy Monster. What did you want to be when you grew up? Lots of things, although they all had something to do with being famous. First it was an actress, then a basketball player, and finally an artist. What&amp;#039;s your first fashion memory? When I was 11, I had these bell-bottom jeans with silver flowers embroidered all over them. They were awesome. When and why did you start designing? I wanted to design clothes because I felt like there was a gap in the market. When I was younger, I had to shop in the children&amp;#039;s plus-size section\u2014the selection was very limited, and it was just an embarrassing experience. As I got older, I became inspired to create clothes that would make any woman feel confident. What inspires you and your designs? My everyday life\u2014I don&amp;#039;t think something has to be &amp;quot;extraordinary&amp;quot; to be inspirational; it&amp;#039;s my job to make it make it that way. Describe the first thing you ever designed? For my 13th birthday, I made all of my friends these really cool bandannas that were reversible and tied together with coordinating ribbon. I think one of the bandannas was blue with shooting stars on one side and cow print on the other. How would you describe your personal style? Describe your daily &amp;quot;uniform.&amp;quot; Eclectic. I have a lot of vintage pieces that I like to mix with new ones. I don&amp;#039;t like anything with glitter or sequins.    PREV   Katherine Crowley  NEXT   Katherine Crowley was once an intern at Michael Kors, and her industry training certainly seeped into her thesis collection&amp;#039;s overall aesthetic. Taking note from Kors&amp;#039; signature refined approach to sportswear, Crowley produced a well-edited round of nouveau Americana. Of her summer work experience, Crowley said, &amp;quot;I was in one of the greatest cities I have ever been to for two whole months!&amp;quot; She&amp;#039;s an avid watcher of Freaks and Geeks\u2014and identifies with the latter\u2014but the young designer, who appreciates clean, sleek, tailored lines, shows a less restrained side when performing her favorite karaoke song, &amp;quot;Pour Some Sugar on Me,&amp;quot; from Coyote Ugly.  Where are you from? I was born and raised in Evansville, Indiana. What did you want to be when you grew up? I always wanted to be an artist. I kind of refused to sit in a cubicle. What&amp;#039;s your first fashion memory? I remember always being interested in the history of fashion. The most specific memory I have is finding some old-fashioned sketches of my grandmother&amp;#039;s. They were rolled up, aged, delicate pieces of tracing paper from the 1950s.  When and why did you start designing?  I believe every girl thinks she wants to be a designer in the second grade. I remember sitting around with my friends under the slide at summer camp and drawing girls in jeans and tank tops.  Describe the first thing you ever designed. It was a crazy dress for my Introduction to Fashion Design class that I made out of plastic bags, tulle, feathers, and paper. My inspiration for the project was seed pods. I was interested in the fusion of structured and organic forms.  Which designers do you look up to? List three of your favorites. Vena Cava, Lanvin, and Chlo\u00E9. If you weren&amp;#039;t a designer, what would you do? If I weren&amp;#039;t able to be a fashion designer, I would be an illustrator, which is something I currently do on the side. I would also love to be a professor one day, or maybe even a chef. There are lots of things I would love to do! When you hear the word icon, what pops into your mind? Andy Warhol immediately pops into my head.    PREV   Mary Disser  NEXT   Mary Disser is the kind of fashion student who entertains all her sewing-room cohabitants with a signature devil-may-care-type humor. The Orlando native told us, &amp;quot;People like to think that I grew up in Disney World.&amp;quot; In her spare time, the 22-year-old enjoys watching movies (Amelie&amp;#039;s her fave) and crushing on semi-failed tennis star Andy Roddick. &amp;quot;My friends are rolling their eyes right now, but he will come around someday. He has the fastest serve in the world!&amp;quot; She&amp;#039;s also super competitive: &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m practiced in Pictionary and really into sports, too. I played soccer for 10 years, and my nickname was Bloody Mary&amp;quot;\u2014stand clear! But looking at Disser&amp;#039;s designs would tell a different story, one that&amp;#039;s certainly a far cry from grass stains and scraped knees. The angelic blonde is a fan of mixed-media knits, incorporating plastic and horsehair elements to create a collage effect. What did you want to be when you grew up? When I was little, all I wanted to be was a zookeeper\u2026then I thought again. I would deny this childhood dream, but it was published in my kindergarten yearbook. What&amp;#039;s your first fashion memory? My mom made me wear matching dresses with her. I am talking floor-length stripes and ruffles. Something had to be done. Describe the first thing you ever designed. I remember designing some sort of hooded, unflattering dress. Trust me when I say it was a low point in my career, which I try to block out. It is nice to see how much I have grown as a designer, though. What was the starting point for this particular collection? The thinking for my senior collection began by viewing an exhibition called &amp;quot;Haunted&amp;quot; at the Guggenheim in New York. I also did a study on modern architecture, which is how I got inspired for the shapes and angles in my pieces. Which designers do you look up to? List three of your favorites. Hussein Chalayan, Ann Demeulemeester, and Dries Van Noten\u2014I would give anything to study under these designers. The ideas that they come up with are truly magnificent. What&amp;#039;s the best thing about being a fashion designer? Creating things out of thin air. Very expensive, tear-soaked thin air. It is great to be able to start with a 2-D idea and turn it into a 3-D realization. If you weren&amp;#039;t a designer, what would you do? I would be an automotive engineer. I have a mild obsession with cars. My family is from Detroit, so I think it is in my blood. How would you describe your personal style? Describe your daily &amp;quot;uniform.&amp;quot; Hmm. Jeans always, military boots, button-up blouse, and a blazer. Somewhere between androgyny and schoolgirl. Anything, really, but never pink. What&amp;#039;s your karaoke song? The last karaoke song I sang was &amp;quot;Say My Name&amp;quot; by Destiny&amp;#039;s Child. Suffice it to say I was filled with a mixture of pride and regret. Describe your dream vacation. Something tropical, as long as the sea beasts know their place in the ocean. Yes, I saw Jaws and I have never been the same.    PREV   Liz Dunham  NEXT   &amp;quot;I can make boys look beautiful,&amp;quot; said Liz Dunham, a menswear designer who&amp;#039;s inspired by &amp;quot;the lines in cubism and art deco, combined with the details and silhouettes of vintage Boy Scout uniforms.&amp;quot; It&amp;#039;s an explanation that&amp;#039;s easily detectable in pictures of her senior collection\u2014one that&amp;#039;s crafted of a neutral color spread and features darting military lines accented by chestnut leather trim. Born in New Jersey on a frosty Christmas Eve morning, Dunham cites her biggest celeb crush as Colin Firth&amp;#039;s Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice, and she muses that if she weren&amp;#039;t working as a fashion designer, &amp;quot;maybe I&amp;#039;d just be a rent-a-cop.&amp;quot; What did you want to be when you grew up? I always wanted to be a fashion designer. I would not only dress up my Barbies in everything, I would also dress my friends in veils, sombreros, and gold lam\u00E9 pantsuits. Whoops! What&amp;#039;s your first fashion memory? When I was about eight or nine\u2014aka my unfortunate years\u2014my mother chopped off all my hair because I would cry every time she tried to brush it. I cried even more when I realized that I looked like a fusion of Corey from Boy Meets World and the little brother from Freaks and Geeks. I started to care more about my styling choices when people would ask me, &amp;quot;What can I do for you, young man?&amp;quot;  Describe the first thing you ever designed. It was heinous! I didn&amp;#039;t understand how to make skirt panels or even how to sew. I was 12, but it&amp;#039;s still the most disgusting pink-and-denim concoction.  Which designers do you look up to? List three of your favorites. I really look to Dries Van Noten, Band of Outsiders, and Acne. Their silhouettes, styling, and tailoring are just so on point.  How would you describe your personal style? Describe your daily &amp;quot;uniform.&amp;quot; Probably a fusion of &amp;#039;90s grunge and romantic vintage meets summer comfort. I can&amp;#039;t go anywhere without my combat boots. Literally\u2014I stepped on a glass bottle when I didn&amp;#039;t wear them.  When you hear the word icon, what pops into your mind? Edward VIII, Prince of Wales. Perfection.  What are you really good at? I make mean sandwiches. I&amp;#039;m goofy. I&amp;#039;ll nurse you back to health. And I can&amp;#039;t tell you where we are, but I can tell you how to get there.    PREV   Tahnee Folsom  NEXT   &amp;quot;As a kid, I used to crayon these little red shift dresses because they were the only clothes I could draw well,&amp;quot; said Tahnee Folsom, a Florida native. She&amp;#039;s certainly come a long way from wax renderings, recently inspired by interning at Theory&amp;#039;s corporate offices &amp;quot;and seeing the attitude of the Helmut Lang and Theyskens girls,&amp;quot; she said. Elaborating on her senior thesis, &amp;quot;the whole collection started with creating a wardrobe for these cool girl urbanites.&amp;quot; The resulting designs are graphic and monochrome with gold accents.  Folsom says that she looks for references in &amp;quot;all mediums\u2014art, architecture, photography, music, film, social influences, and cultures.&amp;quot; Consistent with her flair for vivid understatedness, she considers her favorite fashion icon to be the late Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, whom she describes as &amp;quot;Simple. Clean. Classic.&amp;quot; When were you born?  November 13, 1988, on Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines.  What was your favorite book to read as a kid?  The Giving Tree. What did you want to be when you grew up?  I wanted to have as many careers as Barbie: a teacher, doctor, astronaut, diplomat, model, actress, pilot\u2026. What&amp;#039;s your first fashion memory?  I was a mess. It was the &amp;#039;90s. I just remember jelly shoes and stirrup leggings!  Which designers do you look up to?  Phoebe Philo, Raf Simons, and Ann Demeulemeester. What&amp;#039;s the best thing about being a fashion designer?  It&amp;#039;s always changing and never boring! You&amp;#039;re constantly learning and immersing yourself with new ideas and creativity.  If you weren&amp;#039;t a designer, what would you do?  I think I would have been a journalist.  What are you really good at?  People tell me that I&amp;#039;m very hard-working, a great listener, and a supportive friend. What&amp;#039;s your karaoke song?  &amp;quot;Rehab,&amp;quot; Amy Winehouse (\u2026too soon?).  Describe your dream vacation.  Berlin in the 1990s.    PREV   Bree Harney  NEXT   Bree Harney is a self-described history buff. &amp;quot;Every collection I design is deeply rooted in the past. When beginning any design, I refer to places I have been or hope to visit and eras in time I wish I could have experienced, as well as the ones I&amp;#039;m glad I missed,&amp;quot; she told us. So it&amp;#039;s no surprise that her senior pieces\u2014heavy on brocade and velvet\u2014were inspired by the &amp;quot;religious roots of [post apocalyptic films&amp;#039;] stories, which eventually led me to early Christian and Byzantine art. The heavenly golden interiors of early churches offered the bold statement I was looking for.&amp;quot; The 22-year-old is also an aspiring Egyptologist. &amp;quot;I really want to see the pyramids,&amp;quot; she told us. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;d trade pi\u00F1a coladas on the beach for the mind-boggling structural feats of man any day!&amp;quot;  What did you want to be when you grew up? After Legally Blonde premiered, I was dead set on being like Elle Woods. Though after the Hollywood glow faded, I realized that I didn&amp;#039;t want to do anything with the actual law and really wanted to study the history of polka dots instead. What&amp;#039;s your first fashion memory? I distinctly remember this horrendous dress with one of those busy, colorful &amp;#039;90s prints\u2014oh, the nightmare of wardrobes past\u2014that I fell in love with in the department store and weaseled my mom into buying for me. Describe the first thing you ever designed. The first memory I have of designing would be an outfit that I attempted to make out of red handkerchiefs and an old pair of jeans to wear to a 98 Degrees concert. Thank goodness it never worked out. What&amp;#039;s your favorite meal?  A specialty found only in Springfield, Illinois, called &amp;quot;horseshoes&amp;quot;\u2014it&amp;#039;s Texas toast with a hamburger on top. You toss a heap of fries over the burger and smother it all in a pool of melted cheese. It&amp;#039;s worth the calorie binge. Which designers do you look up to? Marc Jacobs. Alexander McQueen. Veronica Etro. How would you describe your personal style? Describe your daily &amp;quot;uniform.&amp;quot; I wear a lot of black; it&amp;#039;s such an easy color\u2014or noncolor. I also like to mix just about any pattern with leopard print. Sometimes I just like to treat leopard as a neutral\u2026why not? What are you really good at?  Laughing.    PREV   Ron Hedgepeth  NEXT   Finding inspiration in the most unexpected of places, menswear designer Ron Hedgepeth was at a loss until he began watching the television show LA Ink. The series&amp;#039; star &amp;quot;Kat Von D had this cat that was so ugly and mysterious that I fell in love with it,&amp;quot; he told us. The feline&amp;#039;s a sphinx breed\u2014a cat whose &amp;quot;wrinkled skin, bare appearance, nude-colored big eyes, and slinky body were so vividly inspiring to me,&amp;quot; Hedgepeth said. The collection eventually became a texture study on varying types of skin, even taking cues from the albino African-American model Shaun Ross, about whom the New York City native told us that &amp;quot;to mimic his appearance, I bleached brown leathers, imitated muscle tissues with varying seams, and interpreted his wrinkles as different types of pleating.&amp;quot; All of which created a surprisingly nondescript yet remarkably detailed collection.  Where are you from?  I am from New York City and come from a multicultural family. My father is from an African-American and American Indian family in North Carolina, and my mother is from Puerto Rico.  What did you want to be when you grew up?  There was a time I wanted to be a vet or an R&amp;amp;amp;B artist. I loved animals and have had an interest in music since I was seven years old.  What&amp;#039;s your first fashion memory?  I remember one Easter while I was in middle school, my parents bought me a Rocawear tracksuit. At the time Rocawear was really the brand to wear in my neighborhood, and you were cool if you wore it.  When and why did you start designing?  I started designing when I was in high school. A friend of mine had really got me into fashion and labels, and I remember starting to just fantasize about clothes. Eventually I got into theater and established a passion for costume design. I think that fashion became my escape; it made me feel undefeated.  What inspires you and your designs?  What inspires me mostly is odd beauty. Finding beauty in unconventional items or beings. Different cultures and the supernatural are inspiring as well.  Do you listen to music while you work? List five of the top songs on your playlist.  &amp;quot;Moment for Life,&amp;quot; Nicki Minaj  &amp;quot;Novocane,&amp;quot; Frank Ocean &amp;quot;Time Machine,&amp;quot; Frank Ocean  &amp;quot;Wicked Games,&amp;quot; the Weeknd  &amp;quot;Loft Music,&amp;quot; the Weeknd Which designers do you look up to? List three of your favorites.  Tim Hamilton, Rick Owens, and Marc Jacobs. How would you describe your personal style? Describe your daily &amp;quot;uniform.&amp;quot;  I would like to think my style is eclectic and random yet clean. I have pieces that a lot of people would think I&amp;#039;m crazy for wearing, and there&amp;#039;s other times that I wear leather boots and some form of a hat (I&amp;#039;m bald, ha-ha).    PREV   Lindsey Hopkins  NEXT   Lindsey Hopkins lists Alexander McQueen as one of her favorite designers\u2014something that&amp;#039;s visible in her collection&amp;#039;s heavy use of digital Rorschach-like prints. Overall, they were inspired by old photographs, especially those that she thinks &amp;quot;would have been considered risqu\u00E9 at the time they were taken, like early-20th-century photos of prostitutes and cross-dressers.&amp;quot; Hopkins says that she excels at &amp;quot;tedious tasks that require a touch of OCD,&amp;quot; which certainly included the laborious pleating methods that were a main component of her collection.  It&amp;#039;s unsurprising that she went on to explain, &amp;quot;Most of my inspirations begin as intellectual pursuits. By the time a design is fully formed, I feel like I need to write an essay to properly explain its concept.&amp;quot; Where did you grow up? I grew up in the suburbs of northeast Atlanta, in a city called Lilburn. What did you want to be when you grew up? Although it changed every week, I distinctly remember wanting to be a maid at one point. I was always extremely organized and would spend my summer-vacation days cleaning and organizing the house.  What&amp;#039;s your first fashion memory? My first fashion memory was running across Isaac Mizrahi&amp;#039;s movie Unzipped just before high school. It was mainly filmed in black and white, but at the very end, it shows his fashion show in full color. The clothes are unexpectedly neon, furs and all! I immediately became infatuated with the drama and emotion of a fashion show. Describe the first thing you ever designed. It was the dress I wore to my sophomore homecoming dance. It was &amp;quot;ballerina inspired&amp;quot;\u2026not much of a stretch there! The dress was almost entirely made of pink stretch lace, with a very full tutu-like skirt and corset lacing up the back. My grandmother helped me sew and fit it, so despite its lacing up the back, the dress had a very &amp;quot;modest&amp;quot; fit. The pictures are definitely blackmail-worthy, but I was so proud of it at the time. Who&amp;#039;s your celebrity crush? This would be a tie between Anthony Bourdain and Mick Jagger, when he was young. List five of the top songs on your workroom playlist. While I&amp;#039;m working, I love songs that keep my energy up so I can sew and dance in the chair at the same time. &amp;quot;We No Speak Americano,&amp;quot; Yolanda Be Cool and Dcup &amp;quot;Criminal,&amp;quot; Fiona Apple &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;d Rather Dance With You,&amp;quot; Kings of Convenience &amp;quot;Mykonos,&amp;quot; Fleet Foxes  &amp;quot;Return to Innocence,&amp;quot; Enigma    PREV   Lauren Jones  NEXT   Lauren Jones thinks the best part of being a fashion designer is &amp;quot;playing with fabric,&amp;quot; something that&amp;#039;s evident in the whimsically draped pieces that she created for her SCAD thesis collection. Perhaps it&amp;#039;s personal? Jones describes her individual style as &amp;quot;oversized and comfortable clothing with a romantic flair,&amp;quot; which definitely applies to her project&amp;#039;s predominantly pastel textiles and trapeze silhouettes. Where would the Tennessee native travel to if she had her pick? &amp;quot;Iceland! I would tour all the beautiful landscapes filled with glaciers and flourishing wildlife. Then I would go on a search for the fairies and elves that are rumored to live under the rocks.&amp;quot; Rather fitting. What was your favorite book to read as a kid? The Giving Tree. What&amp;#039;s your first fashion memory? When I was a little girl, I would style my dogs in my clothes. What inspires you and your designs? My creative process usually begins with a technique or process involving manipulation of fabric, such as dyeing, pleating, or whatever else I stumble on while playing with fabric.  Describe the first thing you ever designed? I made my senior prom dress. I didn&amp;#039;t know how to make patterns yet, so I bought one and cut it to change the shape. What was the starting point for this particular collection? I was originally inspired by structures made from twigs by Patrick Dougherty and the idea of a strong, sound structure that is composed of delicate materials. Which designers do you look up to? List three of your favorites. Rodarte&amp;#039;s Laura and Kate Mulleavy, Viktor and Rolf, and Vanessa Bruno.  If you weren&amp;#039;t a designer, what would you do? Historical preservation\u2014that&amp;#039;s what I originally came to SCAD to study but found that I enjoyed the creative freedom of fashion design.  When you hear the word icon, what pops into your mind? Stevie Nicks.  What are you really good at?  Being a natural-born klutz, traveling, ordering the best thing on the menu, and telling stories, especially ones that involve my dogs.    PREV   Josh Lacey  NEXT   Patch-pocket utilitarianism is one way to describe Josh Lacey&amp;#039;s senior collection. Its sportif appeal probably comes from his Arctic-explorer inspiration, and looking at Lacey&amp;#039;s designs, you could almost envision his models as fashionable heroes, ice picks in hand. He describes his daily uniforms as including &amp;quot;very little color, a collared shirt buttoned all the way up, black jeans, and either ratty Converse or oxfords.&amp;quot; Lacey&amp;#039;s also a huge fan of the Internet&amp;#039;s abounding effect on the fashion industry: &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s brought a massive amount of information to the general public. I don&amp;#039;t think information is ever a bad thing!&amp;quot; he told us.  What was your favorite book to read as a kid? Anything by Orson Scott Card; I love sci-fi. What did you want to be when you grew up? I always told my mother that I wanted to be a brain surgeon. What&amp;#039;s your first fashion memory? I reached a strange point in development where it was hard for my parents to find any clothing to fit me. So I would take my old clothing, hand-sew patches onto them, and sometimes cut my pants into shorts; to make them new again. Describe the first thing you ever designed. My favorite pair of cutoff pants! The bottom was sheared at a 45-degree angle. I wore them almost every day to school and always got confused looks.  Which designers do you look up to? List three of your favorites. Martin Margiela, Marc Jacobs, Raf Simons. What&amp;#039;s the best thing about being a fashion designer? There&amp;#039;s something really beautiful in designing a garment and having it sold. It makes me feel like I&amp;#039;ve affected peoples&amp;#039; lives.  When you hear the word icon, what pops into your mind? The little things that I click on. Describe your dream vacation. I want to go to the moon!    PREV   Marlow Larson  NEXT   &amp;quot;My first fashion memory was watching Gone with the Wind and dying over Scarlett&amp;#039;s rich red feather gown- so outrageous,&amp;quot; Marlow Larson told us. It&amp;#039;s this admiration for opulence that&amp;#039;s inspired his collection with references like, &amp;quot;Man Ray photos of Peggy Guggenheim and British shipping heiress Nancy Cunard.&amp;quot;  It seems Larson took a similar approach to the first thing he ever designed, in what sounds like an impressively advanced, &amp;quot;cocktail dress in a cashmere flannel that had a boat neck and a slit down the back with corozo buttons. I still dream about it.&amp;quot;  In line with his fondness for buttoned-up grandeur, the Georgia native considers Ralph Lauren and Tom Ford to be two of his favorite designers.  What was your favorite book to read as a kid? Anything F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dark Romances like Wuthering Heights.  What inspires you and your designs? I&amp;#039;m inspired by lifestyle- I love creating a world for characters by analyzing how one lives, building a wardrobe around her culture. Do you listen to music while you work? List five of the top songs on your playlist. I only listen to music while sketching but need silence while draping and sewing. &amp;quot;Doin&amp;#039; my time (The Heavy Remix)&amp;quot; Johnny Cash &amp;quot;Strange Overtones&amp;quot; David Byrne and Brian Eno  &amp;quot;Need You Now&amp;quot; Cut Copy &amp;quot;Conversation 16&amp;quot; The National &amp;quot;Equestrian&amp;quot; U.S. Royalty  What&amp;#039;s the best thing about being a fashion designer? The best thing about being a designer is constantly being surrounded by beautiful things.  If you weren&amp;#039;t a designer what would you do? I honestly can&amp;#039;t imagine doing anything else, this has always been the plan.  How would you describe your personal style? Describe your daily &amp;quot;uniform.&amp;quot;  It&amp;#039;s New England picnic on the beach. A breton stripe shirt, (very) short shorts or jeans, loafers, and because I tend to sweat a lot, a bandana lovingly nicknamed &amp;quot;sweatdana&amp;quot;  When you hear the word icon what pops into your mind? Legacy, timelessness What are you really good at?  I&amp;#039;m really good at dancing... No really... No.  What&amp;#039;s your karaoke song? I can do a great &amp;quot;Like a Prayer&amp;quot; by Madonna. God I love a good gospel choir!  Describe your dream vacation. My dream vacation is a trip to the Greek Islands, and involves going to bed without setting an alarm- the ultimate luxury!     PREV   Lauren Mayhew  NEXT   Podcast and knitting aficionado Lauren Mayhew told us &amp;quot;I decided I wanted to become a fashion designer in the third grade. I would pretend to be the Spice Girls&amp;#039; designer and spend lots of time sketching outfits that were likely meant to be paired with platform tennis shoes.&amp;quot; Diverging from average fabric, the pixie-esque designer decided to get hairy on the runway\u2014using synthetic extensions, dip-dyed chlorine green, as her primary material. Mayhew told us, &amp;quot;I was inspired by a great Chris Rock documentary called Good Hair and looked to the hairstyles that women wore in art nouveau\u2013era posters.&amp;quot; Where are you from? Saint Paul, Minnesota, aka Minnie-snow-ta. Where did you grow up? At the crafts table. What inspires you and your designs? Definitely unconventional materials and bold prints are mainly what inspire me. I could spend ages looking at historical images of clothing from cultures all over the world\u2014through this, I find details and constructions that I never before considered possible. Describe the first thing you ever designed? I just recently came across one of the first things I ever designed: It was a troll doll wrapped in a rectangular piece of navy-blue felt, with slits for armholes and a large green button hot-glued to the front. Tr\u00E8s chic! Which designers do you look up to? List three of your favorites. Christopher Kane, Miuccia Prada\u2014specifically for Miu Miu\u2014and Margiela. What&amp;#039;s the best thing about being a fashion designer? I think the best feeling ever was finally seeing my ideas and hard work actually come to life and move down a runway. The garments seemed to develop attitudes.  If you weren&amp;#039;t a designer, what would you do? Most likely a veterinarian. I&amp;#039;ve discovered that this answer seems to be surprisingly common among design students. How would you describe your personal style? Describe your daily &amp;quot;uniform.&amp;quot; I always make sure I have something that&amp;#039;s feminine, combined with an edgier, more masculine piece. For instance, I love my floral-print Doc Martens\u2014the silhouette is so clunky, yet it&amp;#039;s covered in dainty flowers! Odd pattern combinations are another favorite thing I like to use in my outfits.    PREV   Merida Miller  NEXT   Outerwear champion Merida Miller&amp;#039;s collection began at the Smithsonian museum in Washington, D.C. &amp;quot;I love colors and prints that evoke emotions that you can tell were designed to tell a story, not just to look pretty,&amp;quot; she told us. Miller showed four coats fabricated in a glistening moon rock\u00AC and volcanic lava\u2013type textile\u2014futuristic athletic wear for her favorite pastime, snowboarding.  If she could choose any dream vacation, the 22-year-old would &amp;quot;snowboard, deep-sea fish, ride a bear, cuddle with a unicorn, surf, skydive, carve a pumpkin, meet someone 111 years old, snowboard again, scarf down bagels, snorkel, pet a lion, build a snowman, more snowboarding, go dog-sledding, and find a dinosaur skull.&amp;quot; We wish we had that imagination. What was your favorite book to read as a kid? Eloise and War and Peace. What did you want to be when you grew up? A Victoria&amp;#039;s Secret runway model (duh), an orca trainer, Catwoman (still in the works), the girl who jumps out of big cupcakes, a horse, a bounty hunter, etcetera\u2026. When and why did you start designing?  I started designing and creating pretty much the second I left the womb. My mom was an amazing jeweler. I remember playing in her studio while she worked and getting little tools and crafts to do alongside her. I think she is the main reason that I&amp;#039;m where I am now.  Describe the first thing you ever designed. A skydiving outfit for my cat, fully equipped with parachute and matching space goggles. She pussed out right before the jump, though\u2026(hah, get it?). Which designers do you look up to?  The Moncler design team, Yohji Yamamoto, Jim Henson. How would you describe your personal style? Describe your daily &amp;quot;uniform.&amp;quot;  Jorts, climbing-rope belt, reindeer-fur cuff, cutoff Jacob Black Twilight T-shirt, fresh kicks with hiking socks. Hair purple, jeans skinny, lipstick pink\u2026I go to work.  What are you really good at?  Life\u2026and animal whispering.  What&amp;#039;s your karaoke song? I never limit myself to just one song. Here is a list so that you can fully understand my vocal range. Keep in mind I also have really good dances to go along with each: &amp;quot;Summer Lovin&amp;#039;,&amp;quot; from Grease &amp;quot;Band of Gold,&amp;quot; Freda Payne &amp;quot;Baby,&amp;quot; Justin Bieber &amp;quot;Diva,&amp;quot; Beyonc\u00E9 What&amp;#039;s the best thing about being a fashion designer? I can wear a dead fox on my head and people just assume it&amp;#039;s chic.  When you hear the word icon, what pops into your mind? Mentos, the fresh maker.     PREV   Adriana Osorio Lugo  NEXT   &amp;quot;Carolina Herrera is an icon for me because of all the work she has done, both professionally and philanthropically,&amp;quot; said Adriana Osorio Lugo, a SCAD student who shares Venezuelan lineage with the New York\u2013based designer. Born in Caracas, Lugo decided to enter the world of fashion upon moving to the United States to learn English. &amp;quot;I wanted to go to school and study what I love to do, something I could do over and over and never tire of,&amp;quot; she told us. Her thesis collection is a series of pieces covered in oversized braided ropes whose silhouettes are inspired by strawberries, with added influence provided by Spanish clothing artiste Agatha Ruiz de la Prada. Lugo&amp;#039;s designs are structurally unique, so it&amp;#039;s no wonder that if she weren&amp;#039;t working in fashion, she would want to be &amp;quot;an industrial engineer.&amp;quot; What did you want to be when you grew up?  I wanted to be a doctor\u2014until I saw blood.  What&amp;#039;s your first fashion memory?  When I was 13, people would laugh at me because I&amp;#039;d turn my shirts into skirts using the sleeves as a belt tied around the waist.  What inspires you and your designs?  I am a designer who gets inspired by visual curiosity, abstract illusions, and natural forms.  Do you listen to music while you work? List five of the top songs on your playlist.  &amp;quot;Waka Waka,&amp;quot; Shakira  &amp;quot;On the Floor,&amp;quot; Jennifer Lopez featuring Pitbull &amp;quot;Empire State of Mind,&amp;quot; Alicia Keys  &amp;quot;Time of Your Life,&amp;quot; Black Eyed Peas  &amp;quot;Peace on Earth,&amp;quot; U2  How would you describe your personal style? Describe your daily &amp;quot;uniform.&amp;quot;  It&amp;#039;s classic, contemporary, and elegant\u2014a modern woman with a touch of spice and edge. I like to wear New York &amp;amp;amp; Company button-down shirts with H&amp;amp;amp;M pants and a killer pair of Louboutins. What are you really good at?  Problem solving and technical design. I have a strong ability to bring complicated sketches to life with pattern design and draping. I love the developmental stages of design. Describe your dream vacation. A trip to India! I would like to help communities in different regions of the country. I love trying new food, and I would really enjoy eating all the exotic dishes they offer.    PREV   Kelvin Parker  NEXT   A native of Little Rock, Arkansas, Kelvin Parker designs clothing inspired by his affinity for the postmortem. He told us that his senior collection at SCAD was &amp;quot;symbolic in the sense that it would mark the end of my [childhood] dream to be an embalmer or a mortician.&amp;quot; All ghoulish references aside, Parker&amp;#039;s design crushes are purely rooted in romantic, dream-inducing couturiers like Valentino Garavani and Karl Lagerfeld. Perhaps it&amp;#039;s because of some zodiac-type runoff? &amp;quot;My Virgo heart is a sucker for love songs,&amp;quot; he said. Although Parker claims he&amp;#039;s a terrible singer, he boasts excellent sewing, creative writing, and patternmaking skills. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m also really good at sensing what others are feeling\u2014without them even telling me!&amp;quot; The perceptive 22-year-old would one day like to travel to Hong Kong. &amp;quot;I love the landscape and the Chinese perspective of earth and the environment,&amp;quot; he said. What&amp;#039;s your first fashion memory? Sketching a dress by accident because it started off as just scribble, and I tried to shape it into something. I was in middle school at the time. What inspires you and your designs? I am inspired a great deal by the medical-science field and the human body because I had originally studied medical science in high school. Also, I am inspired by lines, paintings, and the poetry that I write. Describe the first thing you ever designed? The first thing I designed was a pair of pants in middle school. I decided to take apart my jeans and make it how I wanted, but the crotch area turned out terribly wrong. If you weren&amp;#039;t a designer, what would you do? If I was not a fashion designer, I would have been doing something in the medical field. How would you describe your personal style? Describe your daily &amp;quot;uniform.&amp;quot; I like to dress with distinction, and I dress carefully and with authority. I like for my style to show that I am a serious individual and expect others will approach me as such. Do you think the Internet has been good or bad for fashion? Explain. I think the Internet has been good for fashion because it has allowed businesses to meet the demands that consumers have and to better understand their needs.    PREV   Mary Patton  NEXT   &amp;quot;Being able to create something that is thought-provoking&amp;quot; is what Mary Patton considers her favorite part of fashion design. Looking at her senior collection, you wouldn&amp;#039;t guess otherwise. It&amp;#039;s filled with exaggerated chunky knits that were inspired by a welding class she was enrolled in last summer. &amp;quot;I was so out of place in that course, but I loved it!&amp;quot; she said of the uncanny experience. Inevitably it seems that Patton&amp;#039;s always been up to insanely complicated challenges. &amp;quot;The first thing I made was a dress that had over 70 pattern pieces,&amp;quot; she explained. Quite the first outing. What was your favorite book to read as a kid? Chicken Soup With Rice by Maurice Sendak. What did you want to be when you grew up? As a kid, I narrowed it down to either an ice skater or a geologist. What&amp;#039;s your first fashion memory? It would have to be of one of my very first swimsuits. It was this adorable sailor swimsuit that I could have worn every day. What is your favorite meal? Honestly, my favorite meal is a bowl of rice. I love rice!  Do you listen to music while you work? List five of the top songs on your playlist.  Definitely\u2026   &amp;quot;Cheap and Cheerful,&amp;quot; the Kills &amp;quot;Machu Picchu,&amp;quot; the Strokes &amp;quot;Just Like Heaven,&amp;quot; the Cure &amp;quot;Bone Broke,&amp;quot; the White Stripes &amp;quot;Tighten Up,&amp;quot; the Black Keys  Which designers do you look up to? List three of your favorites. Phoebe Philo, Raf Simons, Alexander Wang. How would you describe your personal style? Describe your daily &amp;quot;uniform.&amp;quot;  To be honest, I have no idea how to explain my personal style, but my daily uniform always involves a crazy pair of shoes. Preferably, a pair of giant wooden wedges. You can usually find me in something vintage, oversized, and/or short. What are you really good at?  Dancing and knitting, but not at the same time\u2014maybe someday.    PREV   Chlo\u00E9 Post  NEXT   Chloe Post&amp;#039;s introduction to fashion started as a third-grader. Long terrified of dresses and skirts thanks to exploration-prone boys lurking in her class, the then-conservative youngster (and unsurprisingly, a native of Fairfield County, Connecticut) eventually went for it and &amp;quot;mustered up the courage to finally wear this gorgeous dress that my mom had bought me to wear to school,&amp;quot; she told us.  Sadly, &amp;quot;at the end of the day I noticed that a bully\u2014ironically enough, he&amp;#039;s now my gay BFF\u2014was missing from class. I looked down only to see his head between my feet sneakin&amp;#039; a peek!&amp;quot; Perhaps a move down South to Savannah, Georgia, prompted Post to shift her design focus from prim modesty to emphasizing the female form (namely, below the waist). She describes her personal style as &amp;quot;body-conscious, with bold prints and colors, yet always relaxed. I don&amp;#039;t like things that look too put-together or too perfect. I like incorporating unexpected elements.&amp;quot;  What was your favorite book to read as a kid? Miss Nelson Is Missing. Looking back, I can tell why I loved it: Miss Nelson got down in her little black dress whenever she disguised herself as Miss Viola Swamp. And how totally amazing is that name? What did you want to be when you grew up? In all seriousness\u2014I confirmed this with my parents\u2014I wanted to be the Pink Power Ranger. When and why did you start designing? I started designing at a really early age. My parents are both artists, so they always encouraged me to be creative with whatever I was doing. I definitely would not be as inspired as I am today with my designs if it weren&amp;#039;t for their influence. I loved drawing as a kid, and whether it was a deformed clown, a half-naked lady dancing on a beach, or mermaids, I always remember paying particular attention to what my characters were wearing. It also didn&amp;#039;t hurt that my parents encouraged me to dress up at playtime. What inspires you and your designs? No matter what theme or mood I am using as a basis of my designs, I always revert back to a nostalgically cinematic blend of memories from my childhood and the people who influenced me as I grew up. I always pull from my upbringing\u2014it was a mash-up of gritty city life and Connecticut&amp;#039;s very strait-laced culture. I love using opposing forces as a means to bring forth new ideas. Describe the first thing you ever designed. I started out pretty basic\u2014after returning from Warped Tour when I was like 13\u2014I know, I&amp;#039;m really cool\u2014I had acquired a ton of XXL shirts. I had a really awesome Brand New band tee that I transformed into this really cute skirt with intricate detailing on the side. Nothing fancy, but I was def the envy of a scenester or two. What was the starting point for this particular collection? My collection was influenced by a book that I&amp;#039;d finished reading at the beginning of my design process called 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl. It features forward-thinking subject matter and looks at emerging new cultures. So I thought about what types of clothing people in a new culture would want to wear. My collection came together into what I like to think of as a &amp;quot;cocktail soir\u00E9e for a tribe of high-fashion underwater aliens.&amp;quot; When you hear the word icon, what pops into your mind? Brenna from Toddlers &amp;amp;amp; Tiaras\u2014if you don&amp;#039;t know who that is, look her up immediately. What are you really good at? Improvised baking, dance battles, and road-tripping.    PREV   Gabriela Reagan  NEXT   A proud New York City native, Gabriela Reagan is inspired by all things pilgrim. &amp;quot;Historical children&amp;#039;s clothing, especially anything that includes a bonnet, a farm, milk maids, and Amish people,&amp;quot; she said. Her fondness for all things pre-industrial extends to her thesis collection&amp;#039;s starting point. &amp;quot;I found a sheet of wrapping paper with an illustration of a boy wearing a top hat and socks with Mary Janes, and a girl with a big yellow bow in her hair, each playing with a retro wooden toy on a string. They were kind of like Wendy and John from Peter Pan,&amp;quot; Reagan told us. Beyond kinder affinities (her favorite show is Sesame Street), Reagan swears her personal style is purely adult\u2014a slash rocker at that. &amp;quot;By night it&amp;#039;s glamorous, either sandals or combat boots, and depending on the season, tight jeans and any shirt I can find. It&amp;#039;s like a Ke$ha song,&amp;quot; she said.  Where did you grow up?  The Upper West Side of Manhattan. What was your favorite book to read as a kid?  Bunnicula was pretty good. When and why did you start designing? I started officially designing my first year at SCAD\u2014when I started school, my major was still undecided. I took a fashion class not knowing what to expect and found it to be one of the most creative studies that I&amp;#039;d ever come across. I learned what I was really capable of as an artist. I still think of it as a turning point.  Describe the first thing you ever designed.  It was a hooded cape covered in feathers with a gold chain and my name draped around the bottom. It was inspired by Big Bird and New York City and made entirely out of paper.  Who&amp;#039;s your celebrity crush? I think James Franco has it all. Which designers do you look up to? List three of your favorites.  Viktor and Rolf, Olivier Theyskens, and Rei Kawakubo. They have an artistic darkness that completely excites me.  What&amp;#039;s the best thing about being a fashion designer? Being conceptual and creating a phantasmagoric story for my muse.  When you hear the word icon, what pops into your mind?  Nefertiti, and I have her tattooed on my body, but I&amp;#039;m not saying where.  Describe your dream vacation. Going to any tropical beach with a Rum Runner in hand, eating a grass-fed beef burger with goat cheese, and sunbathing with my friends and two cats.    PREV   Faith Thornburg  NEXT   The only bridal designer of the group, Faith Thornburg creates white gowns that certainly aren&amp;#039;t outshone by her classmates&amp;#039; more colorful fare. The Indianapolis native&amp;#039;s fashion memories go back to elementary school, when &amp;quot;I would take the sheets off my bed and drape them around my body, pretending I was walking down the runway at Fashion Week. Our hallway was my catwalk, naturally.&amp;quot; Thornburg cites special-occasion mavens Elie Saab and Oscar de la Renta as her favorite designers, additionally listing her mentor Christian Cota. &amp;quot;He&amp;#039;s such a sweetheart!&amp;quot; she said.  Unsurprisingly, The Young Victoria is one of Thornburg&amp;#039;s favorite films (the young queen was a bridal trendsetter), though Thornburg insists, &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s not just because she started the tradition for brides to wear white for their weddings.&amp;quot; The best part of her job? &amp;quot;Seeing a bride shed a tear when she sees herself in the dress I created for her; it gives me the warm fuzzies!&amp;quot; When and why did you start designing?  I started doodling sketches in high school. I carried a sketchbook with me, so whenever I felt inspired, I&amp;#039;d draw a little something. I still have those notebooks and recently found them when I was packing my things in Savannah; they&amp;#039;re pretty hilarious to look at!  What inspires you and your designs?  Women I meet, history, art, music, natural textures\u2014anything! I can usually find inspiration in whatever surrounds me, but women are especially inspiring to me. It doesn&amp;#039;t matter if they&amp;#039;re five or 85, they&amp;#039;ve all got a unique beauty, a story to tell, and a sense of personal style to enhance it. Describe the first thing you ever designed.  The first thing I can actually remember was a blue gown. It was pretty simple, and I&amp;#039;m pretty sure I sketched it out when I was 15, so it wasn&amp;#039;t amazing. The first thing I remember seriously designing was a chic feminine collection my first year at SCAD. It was full of sleek black suits, cocktail dresses, and silhouettes that really show off a woman&amp;#039;s body! What was the starting point for this particular collection?  I was looking at lingerie and the romance surrounding women in the 1920s and &amp;#039;30s. I knew I wanted to incorporate a lot of texture, so I researched things of nature that led me to creating this fantasy dream of beauty. If you weren&amp;#039;t a designer, what would you do?  I definitely would have studied history and ended up doing something with that. I honestly can&amp;#039;t see myself doing anything else. I&amp;#039;m a designer\u2014and that&amp;#039;s that. How would you describe your personal style? Describe your daily &amp;quot;uniform.&amp;quot;  I stick to the chic basics. Black is the dominant color in my closet. On any given day, I&amp;#039;m usually in jeans, a classic shirt, and maybe a cardigan thrown in, with a pair of flats. Most of my wardrobe probably has a Gap tag on it. I love dressing up whenever I have the chance, though! When you hear the word icon, what pops into your mind?  Michael Jackson. Ha! I think of all the greats in fashion, history, and music\u2014Frank Sinatra, Balenciaga, Audrey Hepburn, Jackie Kennedy, Queen Victoria, Chanel, Manolo Blahnik, etc. The list goes on forever. Describe your dream vacation.  Ryan Reynolds/Ryan Gosling/both\u2026and a beach. Enough said.    PREV   Kelly Wenrick  NEXT   Former tomboy Kelly Wenrick designs fluid menswear pieces inspired by adventure novels. &amp;quot;Most notably The Shackleton Expedition. I loved how rugged and hands-on the men were. Their purpose in life was rough work, exploration, science,&amp;quot; she told us. She loves &amp;quot;Swedish and Japanese designers, for their edge, their androgyny, and their innovation,&amp;quot; and she includes the likes of Andrew Buckler, Ann Demeulemeester, and Ato Matsumoto amongst her favorites.  The Georgia native describes her personal style as &amp;quot;casual, deconstructed, and functional. Senior year, a few of us went &amp;#039;witchy,&amp;#039; which meant we listened to lots of witch house music and wore black. I&amp;#039;m about to buy a $40 T-shirt from this great brand called Actual Pain that I&amp;#039;d love to wear to Fashion Week; I wonder what our dean would think of that.&amp;quot; What did you want to be when you grew up? A librarian, a circus contortionist, an artist. What&amp;#039;s your first fashion memory? Making clothes for my Beanie Babies out of socks. What inspires you and your designs? I&amp;#039;m inspired by street culture and people&amp;#039;s spirits, attitudes, and lifestyles. I want to create valuable, original clothes for people who are too busy inspiring me to worry about clothes. Describe the first thing you ever designed. A wedding dress for my best friend in sixth grade, with a heart-shaped bodice with a tweeny flouncy skirt. What&amp;#039;s the best thing about being a fashion designer? Being able to craft things for people and turning a vision into a material object that&amp;#039;s functional. If you weren&amp;#039;t a designer, what would you do? Become DJ Boy Scout, one half of a dub-step super group with my friend Matt. I would also love to study motion media or historical preservation. Or be a sailor. Or a street artist. Or remain a pedicabber for the rest of my life.  Do you think the Internet has been good or bad for fashion? Explain. Yes, it has spread subcultures and broadened horizons. What are you really good at?  Fitting into multiple situations. Going from being a focused, workaholic fashion student in a predominantly female environment to the wild, dirty, smelly, predominantly male world of Savannah Pedicab, where I work.  What&amp;#039;s your karaoke song? Deftones&amp;#039; &amp;quot;Change (in the House of Flies)&amp;quot;\u2026four days ago at McDonough&amp;#039;s Pub in Savannah. Describe your dream vacation. Biking from Seattle all the way down the West Coast, camping on the beaches, and ending up in Mexico.    PREV   Katherine Williford  NEXT   Southern belle Katherine Williford discovered a love of fashion at her debutante ball in Raleigh, North Carolina. &amp;quot;All of the girls wore beautiful white dresses, some of them made from pieces of their grandmothers&amp;#039; dresses. I loved the idea that one piece of clothing could hold so many memories,&amp;quot; she told us. Her senior collection, mainly composed of ombr\u00E9 silks (which bear resemblance to Williford&amp;#039;s multicolored hair), was inspired by a recent trip to Turkey, where she rode a hot-air balloon and adored &amp;quot;the colors and textures of the surrounding landscape and the way the wind had carved out these amazing natural rock pillars.&amp;quot; Where did you grow up? I grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina, and lived there until I went to college. I love the South! It&amp;#039;s always warm, and guys hold doors open for you.  What did you want to be when you grew up? I changed my desired occupation daily, but I vividly remember wanting to be a candy man when I was five. What inspires you and your designs? Right now, I&amp;#039;m really inspired by Southern culture and old cotton mills, but in the past I&amp;#039;ve been inspired by ballerinas, the texture of water, and Native American battle armor. What&amp;#039;s your favorite book?  I love reading! My favorite book of all time is The Time Traveler&amp;#039;s Wife. My favorite recent find is The Seamstress, which is about two sisters living in 1930s Brazil. Cowboy bandits kidnap one sister, and the other moves to the city and becomes a fashion designer. I couldn&amp;#039;t put it down! Which designers do you look up to? List three of your favorites. I really admire Yves Saint Laurent for his revolutionary ideas about women&amp;#039;s fashion in the 1960s and &amp;#039;70s, but my three favorite current designers are Phillip Lim, Haider Ackermann, and Chris Benz. Describe your dream vacation. Every year, I go to this family camp\u2014think Dirty Dancing\u2014on a lake in New Hampshire. Weekly activities include island picnics, covert skinny-dipping, wacky canoe races, night hikes up mountains to see shooting stars, and my personal favorite, square-dancing.     PREV   Raquel Zarin  NEXT   &amp;quot;Around 2005, I read this tiny article about Zac Posen and his first fashion show. There was a photo of a pink dress, and it made me feel like fashion had no limitations,&amp;quot; said Brazilian graduate Raquel Zarin. Like Posen, she&amp;#039;s partial to blush tones, which make up the majority of her sophisticatedly understated senior collection.  Zarin told us that it&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;about an elegant 1930s society woman who&amp;#039;s lost at sea on a tugboat and kidnapped by an alluring sea captain. The story evolved from there. What would she wear? What would she look like after a week?&amp;quot; Not surprisingly, Zarin holds a deep appreciation for the classics. Her biggest celeb crush? &amp;quot;Cary Grant is as good as it gets. He was funny, charming, and gorgeous. There hasn&amp;#039;t been anyone else like him.&amp;quot; Where are you from?  I was born in Belem, Brazil, a large port city at the mouth of the Amazon river.  Where did you grow up?  I grew up all over the Eastern hemisphere. Moving around Brazil and all over the East Coast of the U.S. I&amp;#039;m a bit of a nomad. Some of my favorite places include New Hampshire and Cape Cod because I love changing seasons and the ocean.  What was your favorite book to read as a kid?  Anne of Green Gables\u2014she was so great! She stood up to the boys, got dirty, never gave up, and was always daydreaming. She tried too hard to fit in and be perfect, but in the end she had to be herself. Plus, she loved fancy clothes!  What did you want to be when you grew up?  A doctor. I enrolled in college to be a nurse. That lasted 30 minutes into my first math class. Literally.  What&amp;#039;s your first fashion memory?  I didn&amp;#039;t understand fashion until late in high school, but even as a kid I would walk down Fifth Avenue with my grandmother to check out the windows at Saks and Bergdorf&amp;#039;s. I would walk in and try on Dior gowns and cashmere coats. I had no idea what I was doing, but I loved the clothes!  What inspires you and your designs?  Women I&amp;#039;ve met. I grew all over the place and have had the privilege to meet inspiring women who make their own destiny and have the courage to pursue their passions. I want to create wardrobes for women who are confident and free, to whom sexy is a relative word. Bringing function and elegance together is a driving force.  Which designers do you look up to?  Donna Karan. When a Donna Karan woman walks into a room she owns it, people stop and listen. Dries Van Noten\u2014a modern icon. I also love Band of Outsiders. I love the mixing of patterns and textures. I think he has reinvented the word classic for the millennial generation.  If you weren&amp;#039;t a designer, what would you do?  A lobster fisherman.  How would you describe your personal style? Describe your daily &amp;quot;uniform.&amp;quot;  Gray and black. I&amp;#039;m very low-maintenance. Maybe too low-maintenance\u2014a skirt or trousers, a button-down, and loafers.  When you hear the word icon, what pops into your mind?  Katherine Hepburn. I think something becomes iconic when it breaks boundaries and expectations and goes on to become a standard. Warhol. Marilyn. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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