For 18 of my 19 years, I’ve called the Comox Valley home. It’s full of creative outlets, and I was fortunate to attend NIDES [official name: Navigate NIDES – Ed.] as part of FAe (Fine Arts eCademy), which fostered my drawing, musical, and all-around creative skills.
Discovering a passion for fashion design
During high school, I found myself becoming interested in fashion. After graduating from Vanier [official name: Georges P. Vanier Secondary School – Ed.] in 2024, I moved to Victoria and enrolled in Pacific Design Academy (PDA)’s fashion design program. As soon as I stepped into the classroom on the first day of college and met my classmates, I knew: “This is what I want to do.” I can’t imagine a more enjoyable, yet challenging, school experience. I graduated in 2025 with a diploma in Fashion Design.
PDA’s Fashion Design program is only one year, but it’s intensive. During the year, you go from being “just” artistic to being able to bring any idea about a piece of clothing to life. You learn to draw in many different formats, draft out different sizes, make patterns, drape, sew together mock-ups, and make digital mock-ups.
After that, there’s a lot of tweaking, choosing fabrics, choosing hardware, and creating a final product. I created six looks and 12 pieces that hit multiple runways and international magazines.
Building a sustainable first collection
I knew right away I wanted to have sustainable aspects whenever possible in my clothing brand. In my first collection, which I called Unfit For War, I used second-hand fabric and deconstructed military clothing that I sourced from thrift stores and military surplus stores on Vancouver Island.
“There’s something cathartic about sitting down at the sewing machine set up in my living room and getting pulled in for hours, bringing clothing back to life that would normally end up in a landfill”
Obviously, there are many ways to be creative and artistic. While in college, I also ran my own business buying and reselling vintage clothing from thrift stores across Vancouver Island. I learned a lot from this.
I love the idea of being able to wear—and have others wear—something I’ve created from an idea or spark in my mind. In Grade 12, I started my own brand called Sonder Studios. The word “sonder” was invented in 2012 by a video maker and writer named John Koenig. It means “the profound realization that every individual is living a life as vivid and complex as your own.” This concept has become part of my way of thinking about design—and everything else.
Giving vintage clothing new life
Currently, when I’m not designing new products for Sonder, I do repairs for vintage-clothing stores in Victoria. When I’ve finished with these items, they’re ready to go out onto the floor. There’s something cathartic about sitting down at the sewing machine set up in my living room and getting pulled in for hours, bringing clothing back to life that would normally end up in a landfill.
I’m beyond grateful to have the opportunity to pursue this line of work. Being self-employed and not having a 9 to 5 means I need to push myself and believe that others will love what I create. But, as they say, nothing ventured, nothing gained. I’ve been very fortunate to have my creations well received.
