Claire Comfort

Excerpts from an Interview with the Designer

Recorded on: March 8 2023

Tell me about your collection!

My concept for the collection is I'm doing five looks, and I'm doing them all in like a suffrage white. They're all female models, and I'm doing a very ultra feminine, and sexy take on traditional like male silhouettes, whether that be a shoulder pad look, or a dress shirt, or a tuxedo vest. So anything to add femininity to that, to talk about the opportunity of women in political participation and power. with that suffrage while tying all together.

How does your double major in political science interact with fashion design for you?

So that's kind of where my concept stems. When I pair the two majors together, I like to conform them in a way, because a lot of fashion intersects with a different study, whether that be history, going back to old silhouettes, or technology. And so I like to do it with subtle political activism or some type of statement. That kind of concept of having both sides: the very male dominated field of politics and having the confidence of a woman in an outfit that they like. Personally, I really like dressing up, and I think a lot of young girls have that passion to dress up. And I think that's important to have, but I would say maybe that's their narrative because when you look good, you feel good.

What’s suffrage white, and why did you choose to use it?

Normally, women in political roles, for example AOC and Hillary Clinton, have done it too, where they wear like white in support of women voting. And so I want to do that as the theme for my collection, and I like the look of monochrome too. 

Was there anything else you were inspired by as you are creating this collection?

For me, I'm very tactile. I'm not super into digital stuff, so I always look at my Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar magazines. I like to flip through that, and for the start of this I was ripping out pages. I've always ripped them out and saved them. It's basically like watching the runway shows too, whatever is in season at the time. But I like to have them in person. And sometimes they'll have mood boards in the magazines where you can tell people were pinning fabric. I feel like that's more of a creative process.

Because that's what we do too, putting fabrics on things and seeing how they all look together. For me, it clicks better in my head.

What challenges have you been facing?

A challenge I've been facing currently right now, I have all my mock ups. I made them larger than I thought my model would be. So I could make those changes. But I made them too big. So I'm going back in, toning those down a little bit. Alteration of patterns right now is the part that's lagging me. 

What has been your favorite part of this process?

My favorite part is seeing them all come together. Because I know at the first part there's so much ideation, and you have so many ideas, and which ones do I narrow down to? And then, when that first mockup of muslin comes together, you're like, “oh my gosh, I can kind of see it.”

Because before then, it's like, “Am I getting sick of my designs?” But then when you see it, like on the model fitting well, you're excited. That's the part that's thrilling. And then when I got my fabric in too. Cause that's fun.