SAM MAZZARINO-REENO

@reenostus

Q: Describe the process for creating the clothes in your line.

A: I need to be inspired to make designs or else they won’t be good. I try to watch good movies and do stuff that will inspire me. Then I just sit down, draw things, and see what I think would look good on clothes.

Q: How did your first clothing line change the way you approached your second line?

A: I started selling to just my friends at first, and then it was expanded. I didn’t really like my first line though, and [I] wasn’t proud of it. I thought it was really corny. Then I wanted to keep [making clothes] after I stopped, so this time around the designs are taking longer and hopefully the result will be better.

Q: To what extent is designing your own clothing a creative outlet?

A: It’s a way for me to share my art, so it’s an outlet in that way. The drawing part of [creating] is the true outlet for me, and then sharing them by putting them on clothes and being able to sell them is on another level.

ALISON MACCLOUD-MACCLOUDY.CO

@maccloudy.co

Q: What is it like designing your own line, and how did you go through with it?

A: The designs of my shirts all have a similar quality to them. I tend to make prints of abstracted faces of people I’m close with, so my shirts all have a personal connection to myself. The first designs I made were made by a process called screenprinting that I had the luxury of having free access to in my printmaking class last year.

Q: What does it feel like to see other people wearing a design you created?

A: It’s really satisfying to see people wearing my shirts. I’ll see my friends wearing them and I’ll be like, ‘yeah that’s cool,’ but to see people I don’t even know wearing one is insane. It makes me feel like I’ve actually done something productive.

Q: To what extent is designing your own clothing a creative outlet?

A: My clothing, to be honest, is one of the only things I enjoy creating in my art area at school. The traditional stuff I’ve made at Dreyfoos the last few years feels almost forced upon me. Creating my shirts, however, is something I choose to do because I enjoy it, so it is an authentic artistic outlet for me.

ALEXANDRA SHERMAN-XAN

@officialxanclothing

Q: What plans do you have, and what do you hope to see in the future?

A: The last few months I have been taking a break from selling. I haven’t been producing as much because I have been creating new designs. A lot of my work was going toward my portfolio. Right now, I’m producing a new season of clothing, and I will be sending it off to a new patternmaker in New York since I’ll be moving there. I’m trying to reinvent the clothing.

Q: What would you like for people to know about your clothing and you as a designer?

A: The clothing is my art. It’s stylistic as well as streetwear, but I’m trying to also go down a more avant-garde route where I take my art pieces and dial them down into becoming everyday wear. Making clothing has inspired me to not care what other people think about what you look like. It’s really about personal style coming through.

Q: To what extent is your own clothing designs a creative outlet?

A: My fashion illustrations are my art and it becomes an artistic outlet to a heavy extent. I have grown up being uncomfortable with the way clothes look on me because I’ve wanted to be in the industry, which is really about how you look a lot of the time. Making my own clothes has shown me that what you’re wearing is an art, so it shouldn’t matter.