1 | Designing Flores

   (only printed, not online)

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     Daniel Flores, a senior Design major at Cal State Long Beach, is going to be attending the third and final Campus Couture Fashion Show of his college career. Flores will be showing his first whole collection of nine pieces, with women-focused designs.

    “I want my line to represent myself, the extension of how I hold myself to be; very humble, very out there, very spontaneous. I like to consider myself creative, a dreamer. So, I want my line to just represent how crazy I am, how fun I am, how these designs can tell a story, and how much work I’ve put into them and how I aspire to be the best I can be: a perfectionist,” Flores said.

    Flores’ collection will be named, Flores, choosing his last name to get his brand out into the fashion world. His last name has also given him the inspiration to use floral themes in his designs.

    “The theme of my line in accordance to my last name, so Flores, which is flowers in Spanish, so all my pieces in some way are going to have floral aspects, whether that be through trims, fabric prints or through actual fabrics like making flowers out of tulle,” Flores said.  

    A designer always needs to think ahead when creating a line, they must ask many questions to make sure their vision comes to life. There’s the choice in fabric, the fit, and the customer target.

    “The first step is to get the sketch done, how is this going to look, what is going to be? [Next,] you want to do the flap pattern sketch: which is where you look at it more structurally, how am I going to sew this together, how are the pieces going to fit together? After, then decide fabric, is this a type of material I want to use? Is this going to be fanatical for what I want to do? Do I want it to be this loose or more structure? Then after that, you would have to create the actual flat pattern pieces, those are the actual pieces you cut out of the fabric and then sew the whole garment together. Somewhere in between there you definitely want to think of your target market and if this is an actual item you can put out and mass produce,” Flores said.

    When it comes to focusing on women’s fashion, Flores knows how he wants women to feel while wearing his brand.

    “I want women to feel more empowered, fierce, as if they’re warriors and feel beautiful. With my clothing I just want it to enhance their natural beauty,” says Flores.

    This may be Flores’ final fashion show, but this is not his first or second, but his third time being in this show. Flores was first chosen his sophomore year to join only four other classmates in the fashion show, then joined his junior class and now showing off his full collection his senior year.

    “I’m very excited, it’s very emotional, just because I’ve been with my class for four years. And just being able to go on the main stage with them, to see everyone’s work, to see how this whole process got us to where we are. As a senior I want to give it my all, I want to represent my name, show everyone I’m capable of doing this. This is my major, this is my calling, this is what I want to do and I was made for this,” Flores said.

    The Campus Couture Fashion Show will be held at the CSULB Carpenter Performing Arts Center on Friday, May 11th at 7 P.M. Tickets will be available mid to late April at the CPAC Box Office, the USU ticket center or the CPAC website http://carpenterarts.org/ go to "ticket center”.

    Make sure to check in next month for more of Flores’s designs coming up in the show.