This project is centered around garment making and sewing, for all of my life clothes have always been important to me, whether it was to fit in or stand out I have always considered what I wear very important. It was a way I could express myself and my interests for example during elementary school I was very focused on baseball so I wore athletic clothes from my baseball team. It was like a symbol of status for me since my team was a travel team and I felt pride repping my team. Once I made the transition to middle school I started getting into streetwear brands such as Supreme and Bape. Once again these clothes were a sort of status symbol for me, a way to show what I was interested in. Now that has progressed to now where clothes have become much less of a status symbol and much more of a personal expression. Certain outfits go with certain moods, weather, time of day, and activity. I take my personal style very seriously as I see it as a way to present myself to the world, I get to show my version of Levi to the world. Because of this longtime interest in fashion, I have always dreamed of making my own clothes one day, when I was in 7th grade me and my best friend had a youtube channel and we made designs for merch that we wanted to get printed on shirts. I never executed it but it has continued to be an undying dream. Now as a senior with a much more developed fashion taste I have so many designs in my head that I am ready to put into existence taking inspiration and references from designers like Junya Watanabe, Matthew Williams, Rick Owens, Demna Gvasalia, Yohji Yamamoto, Virgil Abloh (rest in paradise) the list goes on. 

Our project is based on the idea of reconstruction and repurposing. Repurposing has been used in various collections from various different designers, and we are going to follow suit. In our project, we will thrift some clothes as base pieces and for the spare fabric to create brand new garments. This will be taking place while we learn the mechanics of garment making (sewing, pattern making, designing, etc.). We will attend the provided sewing lessons at school and we are going to utilize Levi’s grandma, who is very well versed in that regard. All through this process, we have been and will continue to design garments in our sketchbooks. We will buy zippers, buttons, and different fabrics for detailing on the garments.  After this, we will then deconstruct our thrifted base pieces and add our own details accordingly, based on our sketches. At this moment, we do not know the exact amount of pieces we will produce, we will just work for the required hours and see where our passion takes us. This is our essential question: How can you run a fashion label sustainably? Our project covers 3 buckets; Academic, Service, and Creative. For academics, we will be learning how to sew and how to create garments. For service, we will be working at a homeless outreach program at the Manhattan Church of Christ every Saturday. For the creative aspect, designing garments and drawing the designs on paper will fulfill the creative aspect of the project.