“They need to be convinced that you’re worth something,” Ricketts said. “You need to be persistent. Sometimes, it takes weeks and weeks on the phone just to get one person to look at your collection.”

Ricketts also said that a fashion designer must have the character to deal with the different temperaments of those in the fashion industry. “People in the fashion industry tend to be more argumentative and aren’t afraid to give you a piece of their mind,” she said. “There’s a lot of friction and not everything is smooth, but it’s fun!”

Many welcome the challenge like senior Jacqueline Lum, who plans to pursue fashion styling in a “dog-eat-dog world.” “I love the fast-paced creative world of it; it’s full of innovation, variety, and excitement,” she said. “I’m willing to put myself in there and thrive.”

However, the competitiveness frightens others who worry about the lack of job security in the fashion industry. The parents of City College freshman and ’06 Lowell alumna Crystal Fong initially opposed her decision to major in fashion design because they worried about her future financial stability. “It’s a thing my parents didn’t really want me to do, but I figured if I didn’t do it, I’d have a midlife crisis,” Fong said.

Fong currently studies fashion and costume design at CCSF and is applying to the Fashion Institute in New York. Though she didn’t take any fashion classes before college, Fong worked on costume design at Lowell for school plays, gaining experience and drawing inspiration from ideas rejected from past theater productions. In “every show that I costumed, there’s always an idea that the director doesn’t like but I like,” she said. “I used that idea for my next line of clothes."

Because successful fashion design requires setting a new trend, Fong finds fresh inspiration from her hobbies and interests. Like Lowell ’46 alumnus Donald Fisher who founded Gap, Inc. as a result of his frustration with the lack of fashionable styles available at other retailers, Fong wants to solve her own fashion crises by designing clothes for petite clientele. “My sister and I are rather petite, and we have a hard time finding clothes that are short enough,” she said.

Ricketts, recommends building a strong foundation first. She started her line in Bulgaria five years prior to moving to the United States and began by freelancing for companies such as Mervyn’s and GG Blue. Now her clothes sell at boutiques and department stores like Henri Bendel, where one of her dresses was bought and used for an episode of Sex and the City. “Get into the industry fast and establish your contacts before you branch out on your own,” she said. “Don’t cut corners.”

Suzanne Henley, who designs and creates gowns that sell for an average of $2,000 at her own store, Atelier des Modistes, said that potential designers have to be willing to work hard. She also said that a reputable fashion school is a good place to start for students exiting high school in order to learn the technical skills of designing.

As a student at one of the best fashion design schools in the country, Kay works on different art projects instead of writing papers and reading textbooks. The first year at Parsons, called the foundation year, requires that all students take the same classes to explore different areas of art. Through this rigorous training, Kay hopes to follow in the footsteps of her role models Marc Jacobs and Coco Chanel. “There are so many talented people and we learn from each other, but (the school) is also very competitive,” she said. “There are different projects that are all due around the same time and you are given a short amount of time to do them.”

Fashion schools attract a wide variety of students, some fresh out of high school and others who are not so fresh. Among the students in Fong’s fashion classes are lawyers and civil engineers who return to school to pursue their other interest. “They all have their degrees and other jobs, but they come back to take the classes because they like fashion,” Fong said.

Kay, on the other hand, describes her interest in fashion design as an obsession that started in middle school. “I would draw sketches all the time and all over my notes during class,” she said. “And I subscribed to all the fashion magazines.”

For Fong, however, fashion design is more than a passing hobby. She would like to use fashion as a way “to change society’s ethics,” especially regarding the use of animal fur, which she opposes. “People protest against buying fur, but it’s really the fashion industry’s fault because they won’t change,” she said.

Many other budding designers and stylists like Kay and Lum hope that their looks will bring the international fame associated with haute couture, as well as close intermingling with celebrities. “I want to be able to get a big name,” Lum said.

In her quest for fame, Kay hopes to dress the world in her urban/elegant chic designs. “I just want people to wear the clothes that I make,” she said.