By Elisa Garcia
Go behind the scenes of the fashion industry with Latinitas Design Chica, the second week of our virtual summer camp where the chicas explored inclusivity, diversity, sustainability and representation in the fashion world.
Each day, the chicas were instructed to create a magazine page. Each page would be collected at the end of the week to showcase their very own magazine!
“Throughout this week I learned that fashion is not just about wearing clothes,” Maia said, a Camp Latinitas participant. “It’s the process that goes behind it.”
Throughout the week, the girls learned about different fashion styles such as bow tie, goth, business and street style as well as curriculum over cultural appropriation, colorism and media representation.
Program Leader Vanessa Batz, one of the co-creators of the Design Chica curriculum, said her goal for the week was to create informed consumers. Batz said she wants the chicas to leave with the knowledge to create spaces for women of different backgrounds.
“As much as I love creating outfits and learning about the fashion industry, the industry itself isn’t all positive,” she said. “To be able to teach younger girls about how to help (this problem) and become a more accepting industry is amazing.”
To show the chicas how diverse the fashion industry is, fashion blogger Mariana Valencia and former Editor-in-Chief of Spark Magazine Joanne Xu hopped on to the Zoom class to give the girls words of encouragement.
“Never forget that your voice is special and deserves to be heard,” Xu said. “As beautiful, smart young girls of color it’s important for you to know that.”
Xu, a recent graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, led a team of 200 writers, photographers, stylists and models to create three fashion issues of Spark Magazine. Each magazine under Xu broke records at the publication, featuring covers that showcased the first Asian-American, the second African-American and its first male models to make the front page.
“I care about making sure strong women of color are seen,” she said. “A lot of firsts were accomplished, but again, it’s about making space for everyone to be seen and heard.”
For Citlali, another camp participant, getting a chance to dive into the world of fashion showed her how much writing, design and representation can show consumers that colorism and lack of diversity in fashion is not right.
“You don’t choose what skin color you’re born with,” Citlali said. “Some people take other people’s clothing and wear them to make fun of them or sell them online really cheap. That’s not OK because you are taking their culture away from them and abusing it.”
Jasmine Juarez, a program leader and Latinitas said she was beyond proud of the chicas individual work and their creativity.
“(The girls) were so engaged in all of our discussion,” Juarez said. “Even though the camp is virtual we are happy we go to establish these amazing relationships with each of the girls and hope to stay connected.”
Check out the recap video to see the chicas magazine pages!
