Designer Confidential: First-year designer's passion

Designer Confidential highlights the work of SU's greatest fashion assest: its student designers. 

First-year Fashion Design major, Shaina Mendelaw is proof that her “lower classman” rank doesn’t mean she is not already a thriving designer full of creative ideas. Her passion for fashion is already pulling her in the right direction: Shaina is making a big impact by being heavily involved in SU’s fashion design program and the corporate fashion world.

First-year Fashion Design student Shania Mendelaw

Arriving at SU this past fall, Shaina became a member of FADS, the Fashion Association of Design Students. She helped put on the Parent’s Week Fashion Show last October, which featured one of her pieces was: a sexy black pencil skirt.  

Her latest internship at Marc Ecko’s studio in NYC played a major role in her designs and student work. Last summer, Shaina interned for Marc Ecko’s handbag division and worked under Lela Listo, who now works for Kathy Van Zeeland. Taking Listo’s instruction, she learned a lot about the industry and how to create successful aesthetics. 

She prepared bags for photo-shoots, took photographs and documented specs of the bags and switched out the showroom displays daily, depending on the clientele. Macy’s, Target and other large department stores carry the Marc Ecko handbag line.  

Shaina was also responsible for designing Marc Ecko’s Buyer’s Guide for the stores carrying Ecko at the time. It’s no surprise that this aspect of her internship is closely related to the objective of her favorite class this semester: Visual Thinking. 

In Visual Thinking, Shaina is allowed to experiment with her creative skills by designing inspiration boards and mock fashion lines. She firmly believes that interesting visual lay-outs are a large part of the world of fashion and exist as little pieces of art. 

Shaina’s passion and achievements show that upperclassmen are not the only successful and established fashionistas on campus. SU’s fashion design program is full of them—from first year to final collection! 

Her Dream job: To design evening-wear for elite clientele attending red-carpet events; self- employed.

Designer Confidential: Shaina believes that “passion is essential” in the fashion world. She is a passion fanatic when it comes to clothes, colors, and fabrics and claims that enthusiasm is necessary to survive in this industry; and it’s clear she has lots of it.

- by Danielle Haygood