This is a fashion-related story that I wrote for one of my journalism classes. Sonja is a young new designer from Smithers B.C. and she'll be starting design school next week. I've seen some of Sonja's designs (a few of which are pictured below) and I think that she's definitely someone that we should keep an eye on. She's definitely worth checking out so we'll keep you updated on her and what she's up to.
Sonja Coates: Designer by Mistake
Sonja Coates wasn’t thinking about a career in fashion design the first time she walked into John Casablancas Institute; she was headed for the building upstairs.
“I was down in Vancouver and decided to check out the massage therapy school I was going to go to,” Coates said. “But it was on the second floor of the building.”
The building just happened to house John Casablancas Institute, a school for hairstyling, makeup artistry and fashion design.
“I absolutely loved the building. It’s right in Gastown and it’s absolutely gorgeous,” Coates said. So when the receptionist asked her if she would like to have a look around she jumped at the chance.
“I told them about my interest in fashion and I ended up going to talk to the director for an hour. She gave me all of the forms and then when I got home I applied.”
Later that November Coates was one of twenty people accepted into the fashion design program for January 2011.
Coates has been sewing and drawing since she was about five years old. “I’ve always liked fashion and when I lived in Montreal I got really into it. I think just going through high school you get so bored of the mould, especially coming from a small town. A lot of people think that when you’re from a small town you don’t get interested in fashion but I think it’s the opposite because you’re surrounded by a lack of fashion,” she said.
The 19-year-old soon-to- be-designer went to high school in Smithers, British Columbia, a small northern town with a population of about 6,000.
Coates admitted that, coming from a small town, she’s a little nervous about going to school because she doesn’t know a lot about today’s popular designers and models. “But I think that’s only one part of fashion, the other part is what designs you come up with on your own and just having a sense of style, so I don’t think you need to know who all the major [designers] are to know fashion,” she said.
“In my last year of high school I took a fashion class just because I thought it would be easy to get some credits and it would be fun, but then I broke my leg, so I had nothing else to do, and I started to do a lot of sewing again.”
With a huge blue cast from her foot to her knee (which she wore with her prom dress later that year), Coates found that she couldn’t wear pants, so she started to sew herself some skirts.
“That’s when I made my first structured skirt and I thought, ‘Hey, I really like this’, so I kept going.”
And when she said she kept going she really meant it. She doesn’t start school until later this month, and she’s already started to develop her first line. So far the line has a little bit of everything. It consists of floral and lace dresses and skirts, a striped blazer with chunky, vintage-style, bronze buttons, an evening dress with a fun twist and some great belts and other accessories.
“I’m trying to branch out from skirts and dresses,” Coates said. “That’s why I’m making a jacket right now and I’m going to make a pair of shorts, but [skirts] are my favorite thing to make. I’m also thinking about branching out and making some menswear.”
She's also made dresses from old floral skirts that she found in thrift stores (photo below). She sewed pockets into them and they can be worn as strapless dresses, styled with a skinny belt.
A vintage skirt that Sonja re-invented.
I love all the little details she puts into her designs to make them unique. Like the rouching, lace details and vintage-style buttons (like the ones on the black and white lace dress). I also like how she always puts so much into the back of her dress.
“I never really have a full idea until I get to the fabric store and start buying stuff,” Coates said. “I usually go to the fabric store and I walk through the aisles until something catches my eye and I think, ‘Oh, what can I make with that?’ There’s always a point somewhere in the middle where I’m like, ‘this is not going to work,’ but it always seems to come together in the end.”
An evening dress made by Sonja.
As for her design style, Coates said that it changes from day to day.
“Right now I like the whole retro revival look that’s in, and I love the florals, but I don’t like it to the extreme,” she said. “You go down to the city and you see girls that go to the extreme. Like everything has to fit to that look, all the florals and the shades, they look like they’re right out of the seventies. And I like that, I like pieces of it, but I don’t want that to be my style, I don’t like to dress the same from head-to-toe. I like to add something that’s a little bit newer and classy. I like mixing it up. I like a little floral dress with some big chunky military boots and a jacket.”
Coates has big plans for after graduation. She eventually wants to start her own boutique gallery that promotes everything from local artists to local designers and jewelry makers. “Ideally, it will be everything from the art on the walls for sale, to the clothing and furniture, and then next door I’d like to have a little café that plays local artists,” she said.
“I don’t know if I would ever want to be a designer where you have other people make your designs, because I like that part. I just like making things for fun, and I like to wear clothing that I’ve made because I know that it’s unique,” she said.
“I’m not doing this program to be a designer or a huge stylist or anything, I want to get the experience so that I can open a store and people will see that I actually know what I’m doing.”
XoXo, Kari
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