Between balancing her school work, blogging, and preparations to serve a mission in Argentina this upcoming May, Sheyanne Root, a freshman in graphic design from Burns, Ore., is pursuing her dream of becoming a fashion designer.As an 11-year-old girl, Root’s dream of being a fashion designer was born when she first watched Lauren Conrad pursue her dream of attending fashion school and interning for Teen Vogue on MTV’s “The Hills.” “I thought that what Lauren was doing was so fun and cool so I started reading fashion magazines against my mom’s will, and fell in love with designing.”Since her mother did not know how to sew, Root had to teach herself the trade. “I would hand sew wash cloths together to practice,” Root said. As she got older, Root watched YouTube videos to learn sketch designs and started sewing on her mother’s old sewing machine. She even started a fashion blog to network throughout the fashion community.In 2011, Root was accepted into Teen Vogue’s Fashion University in New York City, a prestigious and competitive program in the fashion industry. The program only accepts five hundred students from all over the world. During her senior year of high school, Root individually made 60 dresses for little girls in Africa. The project was titled “Dress for Change” and was extremely successful, said Root. “It took me so long to make all the dresses, but it was worth it. It was fun and I became better at designing and sewing.” She continues to hone her craft by attending sewing classes here at BYU-Hawaii.Q: Why is designing your passion? A: “Well there are two reasons. Mainly because whenever I went shopping, I would see cute dresses but I could never get any of them because my mom would criticize that they weren’t modest enough. I would get so frustrated because I wanted to be fashionable, and so that’s when I started saying, ‘I’m gonna alter this, I’m gonna make that so that I could actually wear them.’ That’s where the passion started, but it really blossomed when I went to New York. I discovered the high-end designers when I saw their gowns at award shows. I thought, ‘Someday I’m going to make those gowns. Someday I’m gonna do this too.’”Q: Do you have a theme to your designs? A: “I am really inspired by the 1920’s. I like to take 20’s fashion and make them more modern. My designs are very old school elegant, chic, European, and sophisticated. They are not abstract, I want to be a designer whose line gets worn at galas. Most of my designs have a part that relate to the 20’s.”Q: Who are some of your influences? A: “I have so many, but I ultimately want to be the same kind of designer as Oscar de la Renta. He is my muse. When I first started getting good at designing, after watching his shows, I would instantly sketch and take things that he did and put them into my designs. I also love Zac Posen and Kate Spade.Q: Who do you see wearing your designs? A: “Blair Waldorf from Gossip Girl for sure. I just love her style. She is my girl. They always say have a girl who you can see wearing all of your designs and she is mine. I always ask myself ‘Would Blair wear this?’ Also, I try to make my designs modest. I never have anything that’s super risqué. Women who wear my designs will be lady-like and classy. I’m going for the higher end looks. I want to allow girls to be both modest and fashionable. When you see a girl in a beautiful dress, she feels different, she feels confident and I want to be able to do that and have someone feel that when they wear mine.”Q: How do you find inspiration? A: “From all around me. You never really know where it will come from. When I went to Italy last year, I went to all these museums and saw all these paintings, and I really like to put things I see in art into my designs. I have a sketch incorporating the flowers I saw along this cobblestone street in Rome. I was just inspired by that. Recently, I’ve noticed that ever since I’ve been here, my designs are more loose and it’s because of the ocean. You don’t really realize what goes into your designs. But whenever I sketch, I always make sure that I’m in a different place.”Q: What are some challenges and struggles you face with designing? A: “I come from a very small town and during all of high school I was made fun of. Everyone would say, ‘Why are you dressed so weird? You’re never going to make it’ and ‘No, what’s your real job going to be?’ This was my biggest struggle at first because I wasn’t really confident. I thought, ‘What if they’re right? What if I don’t have what it takes?’ But when I took a step back, I realized that I love to do this, why would I not try? Another challenge is that there are a lot of aspiring designers who had technical training since they were young, and I never had that. I’ve taught myself, so I’ve had to catch up to where everyone else is. Luckily, I catch on really fast so I’ve managed, but it is still difficult because the industry is so fast paced and competitive.”Q: Where do you hope to go with fashion in your future? A: “I see myself hopefully going to New York, starting my own label, and having a runway show at fashion week. I have considered going abroad to Europe because my design style fits better in Europe, but I don’t know if I’m ready to be that far away. My biggest goal is to have a celebrity wear my dress at an awards show or big gala and people talk and say, ‘Oh, she’s wearing Sheyanne.’ It’ll be a long time until I get there, but I’ll figure it out.”Q: How do you plan to achieve that? A: “From here, I will go on my mission and when I return, I will transfer to Parsons [an art and design college in New York]. While studying, I will intern with different designers and publications during my summers. The better people you intern for, the higher opportunity you have. After I get my bachelor’s in fashion design, I will move on to get my master’s degree and work under someone’s label. After that, I will start my own label and get down to the specifics; creating evening wear couture and whatever else I decide to get into.”Root is a contributing fashion blogger for Lucky Magazine and her blog has been posted on their homepage multiple times. View Sheyanne’s blog at theretrorenegade.blogspot.com.
Writer: Leslie Owusu ~ Multimedia Journalist
