Published on Oct. 2, 2020
As a young girl from Little York, Illinois, Adriana Martin loved being creative. She liked to draw and style her Barbies in different outfits.
“Going into a creative field such as fashion felt natural,” she says.
Based on the strength of her design work, VADS artist Adriana Martin traveled to New York City through Fashion Scholarship Fund.
But it truly clicked when Martin was on a Mizzou campus tour and she visited the Textile and Apparel Management (TAM) headquarters in Stanley Hall. When she saw the sewing machines, laser cutters and digital printers, she was excited about the opportunity to produce her own work and to learn about all facets of the industry.
Another driving force in her decision to pursue fashion was the TAM faculty members. After talking to some, she could see how passionate they were in their work and found it inspiring.
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As a senior, Martin used those same machines in Flight of Flutter, her garment exhibit shown at the 2020 Undergraduate Visual Art & Design Showcase. For this project, she found inspiration in the monarch butterfly, one of nature’s pollinators. Adriana wanted to bring awareness to their decreasing population and decreasing amount of food, which is the milkweed plant. The color palette of her garments was chosen based off of similar colors found in milkweed such as light pink. The structural shapes of the garments were inspired by the butterfly’s wings and silhouette. Adriana also used laser cutting to mimic the monarch’s unique patterns.
Adriana is currently working towards a degree in Textile and Apparel Management with emphases in Product Development and Merchandising & Marketing.