Written By: Mehreen Umer
Senior Textiles and Apparel Designer, Seth Brogdon, is now at the final stages before unveiling his incredible Capstone Collection at UFG’s upcoming fashion show. In this interview, Seth takes us through his identity as a new designer, his fascinating inspirations and personal creative processes, as well as his myriad of emotions toward the exciting occasion.
MU: Tell me about yourself as a designer and as an individual.
SB: I think as a designer, I’m scatterbrained and disorganized for sure. But I think I’m this mix of super, almost hands off, very unfocused, but also super repetitive and meditative almost, as a person and as a designer. I feel like I somehow managed to be a perfectionist and also like not really care at the same time.
MU: Tell me about your creative process.
SB: I think I have a very intuitive creative process. There’s definitely a lot of internal conflict happening because on one hand, I can be a little bit academic where I’m like, okay, this is my concept and I’m going to approach it like this, and I’m going to explore these things and this is what I want to communicate.
But as I progress through whatever it is that I’m doing, it usually tends to never go the way that I plan it to. I think maybe I would say I’m very adaptive and intuitive as a designer. I’m very focused or inspired by music– that’s the main facet of what I do. It’s just kind of using music to like potentiate or as something to design to. [It is a] very musical and spiritual process. I do a lot of praying too–and meditation, which is very important to me as a designer.
MU: What is the inspiration for your collection? Is there a specific designer, person in your life, time period, or culture?
SB: In terms of things that inspire me, if you asked me for names of designers, they would almost all be Japanese. I’ve had experience working with Japanese designers. I wouldn’t say that that is like something that I took and decided to be like, you know, this is what I’m going to pursue, and this is what I’m going to emulate, but I think that in terms of my experience and the things that I value, that’s there.
But I would say this collection is a difficult question to answer because it is inspired by the feeling of like birth almost, of the difficult entry into adulthood. I sat down and I was thinking of this as a project that will be my way to say hello to the world, in a creative way.
People will see this and be like, this is who this person is as a designer. I was thinking about what I wanted that to be, and I realized that I had no idea what I wanted that to be at all. I just think that everyone involved in this is very young and, and for me it was inspired by that feeling of trying to figure out who you are as an adult and trying to shed those things that keep you in your youth almost.
So, because of that, it was more of a process for me. I don’t think you could look at anything that I made and say there’s no focus there. I’m not making this and saying this is a metaphor or this is a representation. It’s not a metaphor. It’s more so, you’re watching someone trying to figure that out.
MU: How do you feel about your completed products and them being presented at the upcoming show?
SB: I think it’s really, really terrifying. I’m not gonna lie. We are in the lab so much. Like, we’re always here– we almost live here. We put a lot into this, you know? It can be a very neurotic and very tiring thing to put so much work into something.
And it still is just kind of beginner almost. You’re spending a lot of time on something to be showcased to people, but at the same time, you haven’t found your identity. You haven’t found what defines you as a designer.
I think it’s very vulnerable for a lot of people because there’s no bedrock, almost— there’s nothing to stand upon. Like, that’s what we’re, like, making. So, it can be a bit scary, for sure.
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