I admit it, I’m hooked on watching “Project Runway.”
I have a circle of friends who share my addiction (you know who you are), and we usually send group text messages throughout a given episode — mostly to complain about how wrong the judges are. (“Project Runway” is a fashion design competition TV show where aspiring designers compete for the opportunity to show a collection of their fashion designs at New York’s Fashion Week.)
Several area young adults have also been bitten by the fashion design bug, and they are hard at work to make their dreams happen.
Cayce Atwood and Zac Garcia both graduated from Artesia High School, Class of 2012, and they are currently finishing up their fashion studies in college.
Atwood has been interested in fashion since she was a little girl. She would spend hours drawing and designing outfits, and creating her own fashion magazines from scratch. After graduating from AHS, she spent a year studying architecture at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, only to realize that it wasn’t what she wanted to do. After switching to the Apparel Design & Manufacturing program at Tech, she knew that she had found her creative outlet.
Atwood’s target customer is a woman in her 20s and 30s — feminine, eclectic, and a little quirky. Her designs are “girly and artistic,” and she likes to mix prints and textures. She has already shown her designs in three student fashion shows and expects to graduate in August after spending a summer in New York City interning with design house Lela Rose. She hopes to stay on in NYC long enough to attend Fashion Week in September.
Her designs are not for sale yet — she needs them for her senior fashion collection show on April 15. But check out the Facebook pages “Texas Tech Senior Fashion Show” and “Hi-Tech Fashion Group: Texas Tech University” for more information, or consider attending the fashion show in Lubbock.
Garcia is currently attending classes in the Clothing, Textiles and Fashion Merchandising program at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. He was a skateboarder for years, and his designs appeal to young men and women with a street aesthetic.
Garcia grew up around design and art — his mother, Laura Wills, is a talented crafter who sells her designs at arts and crafts shows all over the Southwest. He has always accompanied Laura to shows, and he started designing his own wares at an early age. He began designing hats for men and women several years ago, and they have proven to be big sellers for him. His pullovers are also big sellers — his designs combine texture and fabric in unique, color-blocking patterns.
Garcia’s designs are for sale, and he can be found at art fairs when he’s not busy cramming for his classes and working on his senior fashion collection. A catastrophic accident crushed his leg in 2016, and he’s been forced to cut back his schedule temporarily, but this kid is a fighter — he’s slowed down for now but not stopped.
To Atwood and Garcia, fashion is art. It’s a form of personal expression through fabric and design, and they both have the talent to put it across.
