Recommendations for aspiring fashion designers

Kristina is a talented fashion designer with a passion for what she does.  She works full-time as a designer for a well-known brand and runs a women and menswear line, Fischer Clothing, that she started on her own a few years ago.  She sewed up her first collection in about 2 weeks, put together a photoshoot, and went from there!  Here’s a little bit from Kristina about her line and her recommendations for aspiring fashion designers:

What was the final motivation that got you to start the line?

It really started as a personal project. I wanted to put together a collection to add to my portfolio of my “ideal clothing line.” Kind of an authentic Americana look with vintage influence and modern fabrics. I was really happy with the outcome and decided to put a lookbook together and send it out to a few stores. The response was positive and I just let it evolve over the past few years.

What keeps you inspired as you work on new collections?

I’m pretty much just obsessed with clothing. I never stop finding inspiration in music, art, design, nature, travel, etc…. I just collect bits of fabric, trims, images, etc. and when the time comes to put a season together I let all my findings tell their story. Working makes me happy, so it’s easy to get completely immersed in it.

Do you still have your full-time job?  Would you ever consider leaving that to work on Fischer full-time?  What would get you to do that?

I do. And of course, I would love to work on Fischer full time, but it’s just not there yet, and I would hate to put that much pressure on it at this point. I’m still building the brand and the line in so many ways and everything that the line makes goes right back into the company.

Any recommendations for someone else thinking of starting a line?

Take your time, keep your expectations realistic and your mind open. You need to be as flexible as a cat with a core of steel to manage all the curveballs that come from production, stores, etc.  And I can’t really stress enough the fact that it’s not really glamorous at all, or at least 99% of it isn’t. It’s really more work and expense than you could ever possibly imagine. Really.