Passion for Fashion Competition - Local Winners

California native Arianna Janelle Moultrie comes from a family of hardworking entertainers and educators but she is the first in her family to pursue a fashion design career. Arianna became interested in fashion in third grade. Her teacher introduced her to the art of design by assigning students to sketch three outfits to display in the classroom. When the students were all done, the class was filled with bright and decorative illustrations. At that moment, Arianna knew what career she wanted to pursue. She continued sketching croquis and then took up sewing with her grandmother. At fourteen, her grandmother bought Arianna her first sewing machine. Now she looks to designers like Valentino and Chanel for inspiration.Moultrie’s entry is a vibrant evening gown collaborating two different types of fabric inspired by the autumn leaves that fall from the trees in front of her house in Inglewood, California. Arianna is a senior at City Honors High School in Los Angeles, California.  Her plans to study Fashion Design were inspired by her personal interests- cheering, gymnastics and beauty pageants. She plans to build her skills and work as hard as she can to get to the top. One day she hopes to develop her own unique design style and she is clearly already on her way.

Brittney Paulson was always drawn to fashion.  Even as a child growing up in Fremont, Nebraska, accessorizing wasn’t just for fun, but it pointed toward what she was interested in doing most; a career in fashion.  It wasn’t until she was 13 that her dream started to come together.  That’s when she first became aware of Lauren Conrad’s work.Conrad, former star of MTV’s “The Hills”, is also an accomplished fashion designer and author.  Her sense of style and ability to create “high end” fashion at an affordable cost with her fashion lines was an inspiration to Paulson.  Another was Margaret Maldonado, whose Margaret Maldonado Agency (MMA) regularly dictates the look of the season for fashion magazines like Vogue, W, and Elle.  Maldonado has also worked hard to develop ways to build bridges between fashion and commerce.Both of these influences were at work in Paulson entry in The Art Institutes Passion for Fashion Competition.  Her entry, titled “Iconic”, is a fashion retail store with five different styles (chic, classy, edgy, boho, and glam).  These styles are represented by five major fashion icons.  The trends that each celebrity wears will be recreated to a more affordable item and then sold.  So the terms “Be Like Miley” or “Be Like Lauren” are literal because a customer can buy items that they see their icon wearing.“My entry was unique because there is no store out there like this,” said Paulson.  “With my concept the customer not only will know what their icon is wearing, but it will also be available.  Research and availability are no longer a problem.  They can just go in the store and look at the celebrities and what they wear.”Paulson plans to study Fashion Marketing at The Art Institutes International – Kansas City.  Upon graduation she hopes to be a stylist in order to help people put outfits together and show them what looks good, but a future as a fashion buyer is also not out of the question.Paulson credits her parents for allowing her to pursue her love of fashion.“Ever since I was thirteen and told my parents that I’d really like to have a career in the fashion industry, they’ve been behind me 100%,” says Paulson.Paulson has set her sights high and has big goals for herself and the fashion world.“The biggest thing that I can bring to the fashion world is my creativity,” she says.  “I have a lot of ideas that are very unique.  I think that if I share my ideas and goals for the fashion industry, it will only help the industry become more successful.”