Upon completing my fall semester, I was immediately handed a project for a scholarship competition which I was to do with no instruction. In this way I embarked on what I was calling the Beautiful Boy project.
Pardon my frankness, but I worked my balls off for a solid 3 weeks. A week before the deadline for the scholarship, the project was turned in to a comity of instructors from my school. After one round of recommended revisions, which I lost a full night of sleep for (since I only had one day to do it) my school returned the project, declining my submission for the scholarship. I was crushed- primarily because my school refused to even offer the project up to the competition. They wouldn’t even give it a chance… and I quote: “The heads of our department know what it takes to win a competition. If they said it wouldn’t float, it won’t.”
The feelings of rejection and defeat have dissipated and burned the feelings I have regarding the larger fashion world deeper into my being. Now I’m more determined to work harder at what I’m doing and solidly confident that I will not slave in this industry for some big fashion conglomerate. I’ll continue to put my heart and creativity into my work and submit to all the competitions, the runway shows, and scholarships. And if they don’t want me, I don’t want them either.
At the same time, I’m grateful to know that I have more to improve upon. As it turns out, I’m still a student; I still have things to learn. It’s taken three solid meetings with my design instructor to suss out what I need to improve on, but I finally have a solid idea. This semester is proving to be the most challenging yet.
It’s been three weeks now, and I have another scholarship submission due in two weeks.
Wish me luck.
