Name: Nichole Shuster
Class Year:Grad Student (2018)
Hometown: Southington, CT
Major: Masters in Fashion Marketing
Job/Internship: Event Coordinator at Hawk’s Landing Country Club
Extracurricular Activities: HerCampus and LIM College Fashion Show Designer
Why did you choose LIM to complete your graduate degree?
Since I already have an undergrad in both Merchandising and Design, I wanted to go to a school I felt would best help round out my degree. After doing a lot of research, my grad school choice was between LIM College and Pace University. LIM ended up appealing most to me for a few reasons. One reason was that I did not have to go through the struggle of taking the GRE’s with a learning disability. Two, they seemed to be much more focused in the fashion industry over Pace, and the offered a lot more ways for me to obtain a job in fashion after graduation.
Tell us about your previous experience in the fashion industry.
I actually have quite a bit of experience since I graduated college in 2013. I started off interning the summer before my senior year. It was a design internship at a little atelier called Maggie Norris Couture on the corner of 35th and 8th in New York City. From there I obtained my capstone internship at Diane von Furstenberg where I was located in the design department in their midtown location of 37th and 8th. This internship was fun but it was not to demanding of design work since there were way too many design interns.
Once my capstone internship was done I tried a job as a visual merchandiser, but realized the job was not for me and so I decided to look on LinkedIn for a job in NYC instead. On LinkedIn I came across an old contact from DVF who switched jobs to Oscar de la Renta as the Fabric Coordinator and was looking for interns. Since I worked closely with her at DVF I felt the need to reach out to her. She ended up remembering who I was and gave me the internship right through LinkedIn with no need for an actual interview. Interning at Oscar de la Renta was probably my favorite internship/job I have held to this day. No one treated me like an intern, they treated me as if I was an employee and that means a lot in my mind. Since my internship was not paid, I had unfortunately spent the majority of my money commuting from Connecticut 4 days a week and had to leave. When I went back home, I made sure to keep myself in the fashion world and I ended up working/interning at a little boutique in West Hartford, CT where I learned all about owning your own clothing store. This was great for me since I eventually want to own my own business and allowed me to gain a tremendous amount of knowledge about how to do so. Through this internship/job I kept my feet wet in the NYC scene by volunteering at Stylecareers.com’s job fair to try to land myself back into the city. I ended up accepting a Full-Time job as a Project Manager/Design Consultant at a company called New York Embroidery Studio on 36th and 8th in the fall of 2014. I learned a ton about the embellishment industry that I had no idea about, like how a smocking machine looks like a torture device from the 1800, or that 3D printers can be used to cast molds for hardware pieces. It was a great job where I learned a lot and gained a ton of new connections, but the atmosphere itself was not the best so I left and am now where I am today, as an Event Coordinator at a country club working with/booking weddings, bridal showers, reunions, and more. All of my jobs (I also worked retail) and internships were strategic to give me an overall knowledge of the industry so I do not start a business blind and fail. It was also important that I not only liked the brand, but when interviewing liked the atmosphere as to not feel stressed (Reading my Dear Anxiety article you can see why haha.). I never took a job or internship that I questioned whether or not I would like it.
Where did your passion for fashion design start, and how did you learn to design clothing?
My “passion for fashion” actually started as a passion for architecture. I was obsessed with blocks, my brothers Lincoln logs and going down to my dad’s workshop to “build” stuff; by build I mean just cut, drill holes into wood and try to nail pieces together with whatever he had lying around. From there it transformed into a love of drawing where my mom actually signed me up for drawing classes at one point. Once I hit high school, I took two sewing classes, an interior design class, and a computer drawing class to see where exactly I wanted to go with my creativity. I ended up really enjoying the sewing classes, one of which was called designer originals and taught you more than the basics of sewing. This is where I really learned more about designers and the industry as a whole and fell in love. I would love to be one of those people to say, “Yeah I’m a self-taught designer”, but that is only partially true. My grandmother gave me my first sewing machine in middle school, yet I insisted on stapling fabric together to make “pillows”. I could have easily chosen to stay up north and attend FIT, Parsons or RISD (Rhode Island School of Design), but I wanted the overall college experience. My heart was set on UCONN since my dad’s whole family went, and continues to go there, but I chose to go to West Virginia University where my mom’s family went due to the similarities in their atmosphere. At WVU is when I really learned the whole “designer” life of sewing, illustrating, patterning, draping and more. Instead of just focusing on merchandising, I decided to concentrate in design. My teachers teaching methods may have been old school, which isn’t the case if you attend FIT or Parsons, but I actually learned quite a lot. You are always learning as a designer and being creative, therefore schooling can only teach you so much. I continue to learn every day through Pinterest posts, and am always inspired by thing around me, recently being rock n’ roll.
What’s your favorite type of piece to design?
I am obsessed with designing dresses. They can be flowy and pretty, or hard and edgy. They have timeless silhouettes or can be manipulated into something super intricate. When it comes to actually sewing a garment together, I love to sew pants. I think this is because the first time I tried to make pants the fit my model perfectly, and there is a rare occurrence, so I was super proud of myself. I also really love to draft patterns. In undergrad, I had a hard time draping my garments. My mind thinks more structured when it comes to how to manipulate a garment and my draping class turned into a mix between an advanced patterning class and the current class, so draping is something I am still continuing to improve.
You recently had pieces shown in the LIM Fashion show, congrats! What was that experience like?
Thank you! There were a total of 10 designers that were chosen and two of the three pieces I submitted were accepted and closed the first act, which was even more exciting! Typically, when a piece is chosen to walk first or last in a show (or in this case in one of the 8 acts), means that the garment is strong and can tie the collection together. I honestly almost didn’t even notice my piece walking since they added a silver jacket to the garment, which was beautiful. Since my top was VERY see-through and only lace, it needed something extra to make it more refined and not trashy. It really was a great show that was 50% like a normal fashion show and 50% not. When I was in undergrad you had to create pieces to fit the theme of the fashion show, which is the case for typically any show. For LIM’s Fashion Show, you did not. I actually spent a lot of time talking to the professors in charge about this because it was so strange for me, but I ended up making garments that helped boost my portfolio and fit the theme “Colors of the World”. I also was not backstage with my garment to make sure it fit the model properly, which also happens in a typical runway show. I left everything up to the styling club who runs the show, and I was super happy with the outcome. I plan to keep creating work for the show as long as they will allow me to!
Do you have any advice for prospective students?
Keep your mind open. This is something I learned along the way and continuing to learn. At the beginning of my career, I only wanted design and did not realize that I was being so close-minded. With my job at the embroidery company, I was in charge of all of their social media and marketing and fell in love with that changing my path to marketing. I will always want to design, but sometimes a job comes up that you would never have expected to like and I would say just go for it. You’ll end up where you’re meant to be eventually and things change so much that you have to be open to everything that crosses your path. Also find that one teacher who resonates with you and keep in contact with them. I have one of my design teachers from WVU that I keep in constant contact with and whenever I am looking for something new, I reach out to her for other alumni’s information. She is great at helping keep the alumni connected and allowing us to help each other when needed. My teacher also coincidently knows a professor here at LIM whom she has put me in contact with. You never know who people may know so it’s really important to keep people close.
What’s next for you?
Project Runway Here I Come! Kidding but not really. I am actually submitting an application to Project Runway the end of this week, but I really like my job as an Event Coordinator so I plan to stay there for a while. I may branch off into Wedding Design or even a wedding planner since I am learning a ton about the industry that I knew nothing about before. I’m content but still on the path to build my own brand. All of my design and illustration work can be found on my brand Instagram @NicholeMarieDesigns or on Facebook with the same name.