Meet Christina

The fashion industry is one that is ever-changing, ever-moving, and new names and faces are always popping up. Last week, we got a chance to talk to FIT Fashion Design major Christina Adamo about her opinions on the fashion industry, her inspiration, and where she’s going from here.

Fashion Advivum: Welcome, Christina! How is New York City treating you?

Christina Adamo: Great, thanks! I absolutely love living and working here.

FA: So what kinds of things does a third year fashion design major get to do? Is it like one big episode of Project Runway?

CA: I wish it was! Well, there’s no Heidi and no prize, unless you’re counting your degree, but we do get to design pieces and put them on the runway. It’s usually just one or two at the end of particular classes, but when you graduate you get to design an entire collection and show it.

FA: Sounds exciting. Do you feel that the classes you take help you develop as a designer or that it’s something you either have or you don’t?

CA: A little bit of both. I think that some people are just born with the inspiration and drive to design, it’s like an itch. If you don’t have the passion for it in the first place, that will show in your clothes. But classes here definitely help us hone core skills that are necessary, like draping, making patterns, how to sew, (laughs) yea, that’s a slightly essential skill.

FA: We’ve seen some of your designs, and we have to say they’re really good. Where do you get your inspiration from?

CA: You’d think that’s an easy question but it’s not! I’m not really sure where I get it from. For me, it's so much easier to design for a particular person rather than to just pull a design out of the air. But ready-to-wear [clothing sold in stores in different sizes] is obviously a much, much larger market, and in most cases you need to work your way through ready-to-wear and really make a name for yourself before people will come to you for custom designs. A lot of the things I make are inspired by my friends or people I know. Everyone is different, and so is every piece I design.

FA: If you had to describe your designs, what sort of category or tag would you put them under?

CA: Most of my clothes have a bit of a vintage feel to them, that's just my style. Also, I would say they’re pretty wearable, in that they can be translated to petites or plus-sizes and still work. I know so many gorgeous girls that aren’t the perfect size 6 that deserve fabulous clothes. I really try to make my clothes for every shape and size.

FA: that’s actually the perfect segue into our next question. There has been a lot of media attention lately on super-skinny "waif" models and how the industry is trying to replace them with healthier looking models. Do you think that’s a good thing?

CA: Absolutely. Like I said, I know so many beautiful girls that aren’t the modeling standard, and I think that it’s important the industry shows these girls too. Its important that young girls that look up to the fashion industry see these healthier models and know that you can be beautiful without being a size 0.

FA: You obviously work with models at FIT to show your clothes, do you find that the school is looking for only super-skinny girls or that theyre going with the flow and getting models of different shapes and sizes?

CA: They definitely are changing with industry, I’ve seen a lot of diverse girls on our runway in the past year or two years, and I think it's really great.

FA: So you’ve got one more year to go here, what are your plans after that?

CA: Well I’m hoping to go to design school in London, there are such amazing opportunities there if you're good enough. You can work with really big names and do a lot of networking. So hopefully that works out, and I’ll be a famous designer soon! Keep your fingers crossed!

FA: Will do. Well, thank you for your time Christina, and good luck! We’ll keep our eyes open for your name on the racks!