The Secret Society of Semstresses: An Interview with Leticia Rosales on the St. Kate's Fashion Department

Leticia Rosales is a junior here at St. Kate’s in the Apparel Design program.  Did you know St. Kate’s has an Apparel Design program? In fact, St. Kate’s is home to a secret gem in the basement of Fontbonne - the Fashion Department. A Wheel journalist sat down with Rosales to discuss her views on this department, and its recent student-led, end-of-semester student fashion show, the Katwalk. 

The Fashion Department is a small, but highly successful department here at St. Kate’s, with even more successful and talented students and alumnae. Students in this department work aggressively to create industry-level articles of clothing, all while learning the necessary business, marketing, and technological skills to be successful at the trade. The department faculty consist of a core group of a few “amazing professors that treat us like family. We are all their ‘fashion daughters,’” said Rosales. 

However, this department is high on the list of unknown and underfunded departments on the St. Kate’s campus. “Most students don’t even know about the Fashion Program,” stated Rosales. The department functions heavily on donations: financial donations, time donations, and supply donations. A majority of the fabrics, sewing machines, threads, and other various supplies are all donated from outside resources. “We just got new sewing machines this winter! We are still in the process of setting them up, but we are so excited for them!,” said Rosales. Rosales works as a teacher’s assistant  in the department. Due to a lack of budget availability, teacher’s assistants in the Fashion Department must go through the AMP program in order to get paid for their work. 

In the interview, Rosales discussed how she felt about the Fashion Department’s place at the school. She commented saying, “I think it’s very separate from the actual school.  We may team up with classes in other parts of the university, but I don’t see myself connected to my non-fashion classes. Those are classes where you leave home in the Fashion Department, and you take those classes, and then you come back home to the Fashion Department.” She described the Fashion Department as being the one place on campus where she is learning and preparing for her future and the ‘real world.’ “ Because,” said Rosales, “unlike St. Kate’s in general, the Fashion Department will teach us the business, teach us the trade, and teach us how to create in a sustainable way - which is just different than the other core classes. So, taking classes outside of our department is entering the ‘university world,’ where taking classes in the Fashion Department are for the real world.” When discussing how she felt the fashion department fit into the St. Kate’s community, she said, “The Fashion Department is a nice little corner of St. Kate’s where you’re just protected from the politics and the drama that goes on in the school because it’s such a stable, small, department.” 

Every year, the highlight of the Fashion Department is it’s completely student led and organized fashion show, featuring only St. Kate’s fashion students, called the Katwalk. On May 4, the Fashion Association hosted the Katwalk in the Frey Theater. This year, the Katwalk fell at the end of Minnesota Fashion Week, and the students were ecstatic when members of Fashion Week MN staff showed up for the Katwalk, even featuring the St. Kate’s fashion designs on the Instagram page. 

Rosales designed 3 different looks for the show, and brought home two awards at the end of the night. Her line, called “Yeux Verts”, earned her the Junior Designer People’s Choice Award and the Junior Pattern Maker Award, awarded to the student showing the highest proficiency in their pattern making skills. “Yeux verts means ‘green eyes’ in French,” said Rosales, “I have a lot of people in my life that are close to me that have green eyes. My best friend, Alma. My mom. My boyfriend. I drew my inspiration from them.” She intertwined the green and gold colors of the green eye color pallette. One of her looks paired her line inspiration with her own personal aesthetic of corseterie in the creation of a pair of corset pants that were her “showstopper.”

Rosales design at Katwalk

Rosales design at Katwalk

To see more about the 2019 Katwalk and the St. Kate’s student fashion designers, follow the SCU Fashion Association on Facebook @StKatesFashionAssociation and Instagram @stkatesfashion