How to fund your senior collection with scholarships, from a fashion design major

Each year, SCAD’s brave fashion design majors embark on a tiring journey of patterning, cutting, and sewing to create their very own senior collections. Current senior Richenelle Isip, class of ’24, is a receiver of two prestigious fashion scholarships. Isip met with me to delve into the application, ideation, and production processes of her senior collection. 

Photo courtesy of Richenelle Isip.

Can you give us a basic rundown of what the Fashion Scholarship Fund (FSF) is?

“Basically, FSF is a scholarship that is given to college students who make a case study around a brand, involving a certain theme. This year’s theme surrounded sustainability and we had to create an ESG initiative for said brand.”

How many students win this scholarship annually?

“About 150 students around the U.S. get accepted into the case study, and from there, they get named scholarships.”

How did you find out about the program and apply?

“SCAD provides a lot of workshops, and there are community pages about scholarships. A lot of time, staff will reach out to students and encourage them to apply, so I applied in my very first year here. But I didn’t get it, so my professor told me to keep trying. My second time trying was this year. I developed my idea for an entire year, almost as soon as the prompt came out. There was a professor who implemented the FSF case study into our course. So that’s how it began, and I continued development until now.”

Photo courtesy of Richenelle Isip.

You also won the Solstiss Lace Scholarship, which helps you with your senior collection. Can you explain what Solstiss Lace is and how this aids in the production of your senior collection?

“Solstiss Lace is a lace manufacturer based in France. This year, the company is sponsoring a few SCAD students to receive their lace and incorporate it into their senior collections. During fall quarter, my professor suggested that I should apply because of my concept involving Filipino embroidery and lace. I’m really thankful that he pushed me to do it.”

What was the application process like?

“To apply, I had to create a presentation showing my concept, sketches, and how I would involve lace in the collection. From there, the selection process took about a month, and then they announced that I was the only student from the Atlanta campus to receive the sponsorship. Four other SCAD students won at the Savannah campus.”

How much lace does Solstiss supply?

“$1500 worth. Once I got the scholarship, they asked for another presentation that described what kind of lace I wanted and the overall aesthetic of the lace. Do I want stretch? No stretch? What kind of trim? Do I even want trim? From there, they go through their own catalog of lace, pick the ones that are closest to my ideation, send me those samples, and then we pick more. This goes back and forth until we reach the lace I envisioned.”

Photo courtesy of Richenelle Isip.

Can you explain the overall concept for your senior collection? And how do you actually develop the ideas from fall quarter to the fashion show in the spring?

“Yes, so I actually started my senior collection in the summer with concept development. With this, we dive deep into what we genuinely want to create. At that time, my concept was out of a lot of frustration. I have had a lot of struggles with my identity as a Filipino-American and I held a lot of anger stemming from outside prejudices. That’s where the concept started, but as I’ve continued making this collection, I’ve become a lot more accepting of who I am. My question has been, well, I’m Filipino but I’m also American, so how can I incorporate those two identities in order to be authentically myself?”

So how does lace play a part in the conceptualization of your collection?

“A lot of traditional Filipino garments include lace. Also, very classic Filipino silhouettes, like the menswear barong and the womenswear terno sleeve, are pleated with lace. For the American side of me, I wanted to encapsulate that with 1920s fashion, which I consider the peak of American fashion. A lot of the American aspects came in with tailoring, so I have a lot of pants and trousers with cuffs on them, a lot of pinstripes, large collars, and jacket details. A lot of the stylization of my collection showcases those 1920s elements more explicitly.”

Photo courtesy of Richenelle Isip.

Since you’re trying to get this collection into the spring fashion show, can you give us a rundown of the SCAD fashion show process?

“Automatically, every senior fashion design major is considered. But you have to show up on critique days, which are days when all of the department professors and the dean look at what we have thus far and assess how things are going. In May, there will be a jury show. Industry professionals will assess our finalized collections, lookbooks, photoshoots, etc. Then, the jurors vote on their preferred collections. For a collection of five looks, typically three or four completed looks will be chosen for the fashion show, per designer.”

Can you explain what it means to receive both of these scholarships as a full-time student?

“In preparation for the lace presentation, I researched the pricing of Solstiss’ lace. To get 15 yards of lace — let alone quality lace, which is not cheap to produce — is so helpful financially. The other fabric I’m using, wool, is also pretty expensive for a college budget, so the scholarship has been a huge help. It really elevates the entire look of my collection. I recommend applying to any scholarships you can to help in any way.”

Photo courtesy of Richenelle Isip.

To wrap things up, what does this whole process mean to you? What does it mean to be a fashion designer?

“I got into fashion because of my cousin, who took me to a student fashion show in Los Angeles. At that moment, I thought, I think I can do this. Over the years, I’ve definitely lost a bit of the sparkle in my eye, but I’ve gained so much experience.”

“I think it’s really important to represent who I am in my designs. If you do a collection that’s not you and not personal, it falls short. I’ve been through a lot with this collection — I’ve hated the whole process at some points — but at the end of the day, it’s so rewarding. It’s a lot of ups and downs. I’m not gonna be the perfect Filipino, and I’m not gonna be perfectly American. But while I might not be the most perfect person, this is still who I am, and I am proud to represent that.”