Sami D. Moon

Excerpts from an Interview with the Designer

Recorded on: March 8 2023

Tell me about your collection!

My collection is personally inspired by the anime, Bleach. All of my work always has anime influence to it. I think that anime is one of the best paths of inspiration for fashion just because there's so much creativity and so much imagination in what you can make. It gives you a bit of a challenge because you're like, “but that piece could never exist in real life.” And you're like, “I think I can make that happen.”.

My collection is based off of the Espada from Bleach. They’re called hollows, they’re spirits. They're all black and white and stark contrasts. There's an element of mafia to them, so I wanted to make their outfits very gala-esque.

I wanted to make them the type of thing that you would see in a black tie event. Because if they were gangsters, they would definitely be wearing black tie outfits. My outfits are all black and white, and there's six suits and one dress, so I'm making seven looks.

Apart from the clothes that I'm doing, I'm also making 3D printed masks, because all of the asadas have masks of some sort. Because I don't want it to feel like, this is just a regular day at the ball. I want this to have a specific effect of an other worldly event.

What are your thoughts on the medium of fashion as a way convey your concept, in comparison to animation/illustration found in anime?

I think that fashion gets a lot of stigma, and there are a lot of expectations of fashion because, while it is art, it's an art that is constantly used by the masses of people that may not think about art.

If you are an artist and you create a painting, there's a community of people that will appreciate that, that will understand that. But as a designer, you have to create something that the masses will love. If I create something that I want to make aesthetically pleasing, that is artful yet useful and breathable, then I have to factor all of that in into making it. I think that fashion is one of the most difficult forms of artwork. Because you are creating art for other people, not just for yourself. You have to make something that is usable, on top of just creating something.

So I think there's a lot that goes into it, and I don't think that people give designers enough credit. I don't think they get, enough flowers, especially designers that do everything. What we’re doing right now, we’re doing every single part. We're designing, drafting, patterning, fitting, teaching our models how to walk, choosing the hair and makeup, choosing the concept for all of it. And that normally takes a team of 20 to 30 people and we’re each doing them individually.

Why did you choose to major in fashion?

Because I've never been in a school where I've had so much creative freedom. And as a creative person, this is the only, I can ever imagine myself doing is making clothes.

What is your favorite part of this process?

I think the most exciting part about this is that we've had to do like, um, all of our projects up until now, you have to maintain a sense of requirements to make things happen. But this is just free reign, and so you really get to see everybody's fashion intake and what they think is fashion and how they would make it and all of that.