Sasha Barker

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About Me:  My name is Sasha Barker and I am a senior, majoring in Fashion Design at the University of North Texas. Being a fashion designer has been a dream of mine since I could walk well enough in my click clack heels to give my mom fashion shows. During my college years, my inner-child and I have grown very close. I have the most fun feeling like a kid during the design process. I throw all my markers and pencils on the ground and let the rainbow speak to me. I especially love to experiment while making my own fabric prints through fabric paint, dying, markers, and printing. This process for me is a sort of art therapy as a scribble and doodle fun characters and patterns. My goal is to work for a sustainable Kids Wear company. I believe that we should all wake up and play a bit of dress up in our closet. Clothes should be accessible for all bodies and bring us as much joy as possible!

A drawing of 5 separate garments (2 dresses, 2 shorts and shirts outfits, and a pair of overalls) drawn on fashion croquis. Drawn in color using markers, colored pencil, and graphite pencil.

For my five piece collection, I decided to have each outfit tell a different messy story. I sketched out 15 first draft sketches and decided that I wanted to create these garments in real life. They were drawn with marker, colored pencil, and graphite.
 

A photo of a fashion designer with her 5 models wearing her designs. On the very left is a dress, then a vest, shirt, and shorts set, then me the designer, an overalls outfit, then a dress and finally a shirt, vest, and bloomers set. Made using varying materials such as: silk, tufted burlap, cotton, muslin, spandex knit, and jersey knit. All outfits worn with colorfully dyed tights.

Each final garment I created tells a different messy story. The first dress on the left is an oversized tea party dress for making mud pies. The second outfit is a shirt, vest and shorts set that embodies when you can see the fun day a kid has had based on the stains/smells on their clothes, such as grass stains, grape juice stains, and vanilla ice cream and sprinkles. I'm standing next to the second outfit. The third outfit is a knit bodysuit with overalls made for baking with your grandma. The fourth outfit is a rainbow-flavored ice cream dress with tufted rainbow sprinkles and a waffle cone collar. The last outfit, on the right, is a shirt, vest, and bloomers set inspired by kids drawing on surfaces they aren't supposed to, such as the walls, tables, or themselves. Together they are one huge fantastic mess!