Let Them Eat Cake: A student-curated fashion collection focused on femininity and the playfulness of girlhood

When Chloe Chow was younger, she was obsessed with American Girl Dolls. Their expansive collection of outfits, shoes, and accessories inspired her love of fashion at an early age. More recently, however, she turned this passion into a full-fledged endeavor. In March 2020, right when the pandemic hit, Chloe’s mom had a special request: making handmade masks. Never having sewed before, Chloe found her mom’s old sewing machine.With the help of just the instructions manual and YouTube videos, she taught herself to sew, starting with the simple task of making masks for her whole family. At the start of it all – Chloe began sewing and designing, using TikToks and more videos as her resources and sources of inspiration for her techniques. However, she drafts all the patterns herself, custom to her measurements – she is her own model. Chloe claims her “superpower” is that she can “see something on Pinterest and have it in her hands the next day.”

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Chloe allows her personal style to shine through in all of her pieces. Her designs are more theatrical versions of what she wears daily – with poofy skirts, more bows, and more dramatic elements. Chloe does not add these specific elements just because they are trendy or mainstream but because it is an intriguing style choice aesthetically pleasing to her. Chloe enjoys trend predicting – the stylistic elements she incorporates into her clothes are what she foresees to become very popular. As mentioned, Chloe is her own model; she doesn’t use mannequins to create her clothes to fit her perfectly. The one exception is her sister, a frequent model for Chloe. When Chloe left for college, she started rummaging through her closet and stealing her clothes! Amassing so many compliments from her friends, Chloe began to sew her sibling more clothes, gathering inspiration from Pinterest, runway fashion, and her own style. 

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When asked about her favorite designers, Chloe responded that random designs on her TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram feed inspire her the most. However, her three favorite top designers are Simone Rocha, Shushu Tong, and Dauphinette. All three share elements reflected in Chloe’s designs: poofier skirt silhouettes, ruffles, and pastel color palettes. Her favorite collaboration was Simone Rocha x H&M, a sustainable collection emphasizing similar elements such as bows, florals, and pale colors. 

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As a Design Team member of Fashion @ Brown (F@B), Chloe claims that F@B is anything you make of it. As a team, they hold weekly meetings where all the designers gather to work on a new skill, such as corsetry or pocket workshops.F@B is such a welcoming place to talk to new people about fashion who share similar passions. Everyone in the club is creative; everyone has different ideas and styles. F@B has also granted Chloe opportunities as a fashion designer that she has never had before – this is the first time she has ever crafted her own collection! Additionally, another beauty of F@B is that they give financial backing to their designers for their work, a first for Chloe. Back home in California, Chloe would shop for thrifted fabric for her designs, but now she has the opportunity to explore fabric and textile stores to pick any pattern or texture of cloth she pleases. 

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A huge part of the F@B experience is growing as a designer by learning more about the process.  From the group critiques to admiring the older or more experienced designers developing their collections, Chloe has been loving having the opportunity to “level up” as a designer. As an engineering student, Chloe has a rigorous course load; F@B allows her to expand her fashion skills while also focusing on academics. Art is essential to who she is; she never wants to lose that part of herself. 

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Unlike some of the other designers in F@B, who conceptualized their ideas and central theme into their designs, Chloe allowed her pieces to inspire the name of her collection naturally. With a focus a feminine, playful feel – her collection consists of pastel hues and puffy, flowy silhouettes. These stylistic elements inspired her collection “Let Them Eat Cake,” focusing on the sweetness and playfulness of feminine friendships and girlhood. Perhaps Chloe will flip this process for an upcoming collection: start with an idea, and allow it to drive each piece she makes. 

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An element of the collection I wanted to ask Chloe about her intentions behind was her choice to pair Converse sneakers with pastel dresses and lacy socks. Including “playful” touches of femininity illustrates how “a lot of girlhood is in the playfulness!” The underlying theme of the collection is that femininity is not always pink and ruffles and bows, but about friendship, female solidarity, feminine power, and just being fun. Wearing high heels or anything uncomfortable was completely against what she wanted for the collection and her models. Converse with dresses is cute! Sometimes, the best ideas come from the most candid inspirations. 

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