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Houston, Texas, is a long way away from Newark, Del., and from the catwalks of New York City for that matter. However, for Caitlin Stevens, a couple thousand miles weren't going to prevent her from exploring her diverse interests and passion for art.
Growing up, Stevens divided her time between her mother's home in Houston during the school year and her father's Wilmington, Del. address during summer.
This exposure to two very different environments encouraged Stevens to cultivate her creative talents. Although fashion wasn't necessarily her first love, Stevens did have a knack for design in high school.
She resourcefully created her own Homecoming dress after her mother taught her how to sew. Nonetheless, in an area where couture fashion was hard to come by, Stevens felt like an outsider when it came to conveying her attraction to design.
" 'Ew, what a shallow industry', " she says people told her.
Even so, Stevens marched to the beat of her own drum and expanded her repertoire with each passing year.
She says her look went from preppy to risquè after growing six inches between her freshman and sophomore years of high school. Eventually she resorted to comfort, coming to school in pajamas or sporty attire. This need to merge comfort and function would later influence her design philosophy.
During this time, Stevens' enthusiasm for art increased, but she soon realized the profession would not afford her the life she desired.
"I love art," she says, "but I decided I actually wanted to eat when I grew up."
After much deliberation, Stevens packed her bags and returned to her summer home for college. She enrolled in the university in 2002 as a psychology major, a far cry from the colorful sketches and sewing machines of her youth.
This alternate course would not last. During her sophomore year, Stevens switched majors to apparel design and soon came to know the meaning of dedication.
Stevens says last fall was the most demanding time during her tenure at the university. The semester of collections, as she calls it, is one in which fashion majors literally don't sleep.
Stevens recalls a particular weekend in which she arrived at the "sweatshop," or sewing lab, in Alison Hall West at 9 a.m. on Saturday and didn't leave until 10 p.m. on Sunday.
Nonetheless, the scene isn't one of complete silence and concentration.
"It's social," she says. "There's music and we bounce ideas off each other."
In these close quarters, Stevens says she became extremely close with the people she worked alongside.
Meghan Russ, another senior apparel design major, witnessed Stevens putting together her collection that won a slot in the Synergy fashion show.
"It's very fun, colorful and catches your eye," Russ says. "Each piece is different from the next with a lot of versatility."
Stevens' approach, focusing on contrasting colors, and what she calls "avant-garde" combinations, is a take on her own sense of style.
The tall, thin senior, donning flowered shorts, an orange shirt and playful curls, exudes an effervescence her fellow designers use to describe her collection.
She says she considers more subtle colors to be unbecoming on the female form.
"I don't think pastels are flattering," Stevens says.
Great-fitting long jeans, big, dangling earrings and wifebeaters are among her must-haves. Not one to consider herself overly trendy, Stevens says she wants her prospective clients to be able to go to the store, buy her clothes and wear them right away.
"It's more important to be comfortable, functional, feminine and classic," she says.
Despite only resting her imaginative mind for three to four hours a night at times, she says she definitely made the right decision.
"I would rather do this any night of the week," Stevens says.
Stevens says she sees herself working under other people for at least five years and hopes to start a business with her sister who's in finance. Still, the Texan doesn't rule out moving back to her roots one day.
"I love the people down there," she says. "I would move back when I retire."
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