Betsy's confidence and well-developed skills has laid the foundation of her becoming a formidable fashion designer. Her work ethic and determination has helped her be recognized as October's student spotlight. Read below to gain more insight into Betsy.

1. How would you define fashion?

Fashion can be defined as one's personal style but where do we come up with these styles? And how do they change? When we look at events that take place worldwide we can see how this has a major impact on the style or fashion trends people take on. For example, many decades ago when women started to work in the corporate world, they started to wear pants/trousers more often than dresses and skirts. This changed where now pants are an everyday wear for women. Fast forward to the present day; Covid had a huge impact on fashion where sweat pants and sleepwear have become very common in everyday wear. In time of war, the colors in fashion become duller; we see more browns and dark greens, which we currently see more of considering the Middle East war. Fashion is a form of expressing our mood which creates a style or trend according to that time period. Fashion is a revolution

 2. With the skills you are gaining at Fashion Institute of Florida, what excites you most about your unlocked potential and future career as a fashion designer?

What excites me the most about becoming a Fashion designer with the skills that I've learned so far is the confidence I’ll be able to walk away with. We tend to have great ideas to create but not be able to make the actual garments. Well with the skills learned I’ll be able to do this at a level I didn’t think I could.

3. Where do you gain inspiration from? List some of your design influences, both past and present.

Inspiration for me comes from being able to influence in a positive way. Putting on a casual dress and trendy sandals to the supermarket seems like so long ago, but just in the 1960s women still did this and men still wore dress shirts and ties. Dressing up is something that inspires me to create modest apparel for the modern time. Design influences for me would be derived from the 1950s – 1960s. It displayed femineity and daintiness in women that we don’t see too much of today and I look forward to creating this trend soon~

4. What is a fashion design related achievement you are most proud of so far? n/a

5. Advice Corner for Future fashion design students: what lessons have you learned during your time as a fashion design student at FIF? Did your perception of the Fashion Industry shift as you’ve ventured through the learning process? Since I started attending FIF about a year ago, my confidence in sewing has grown. And the instructors truly care about your skills improving. They really push you to do your best. Regardless of your schedule FIF has many different short course options for you to choose from.