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f you had asked 7-year-old quickly, always be on your toes and Emily Giardina what she improvise,” Emily says. “What I’ve wanted to be when she grew learned with teaching is that you up, she would have told you really need those improvisational that fashion was her calling. skills because things don’t always go “I was really little, and I loved the way you planned. In that sense, drawing and I loved making fashion living in New York forced me to illustrations,” Emily says. plan my day with more thought and The Illinois native wasted no time structure, and I bring that into the working toward her goal, attending classroom,” Emily adds. Purdue University and earning her In her four sections of Fashion bachelor’s in apparel design and I, Emily teaches students of all technology in 2005. Her career grades a basic overview of fashion took her to New York City where design including vocabulary and she worked as a senior designer the different moving parts of specializing in outerwear and the design process. “Right now, Steeno Htee, 16, and Emily Giardina cut thread for a project. designing swimwear collections for I’m having them primarily work Tommy Hilfiger and DKNY. in their sketchbooks and create After more than a decade in the moodboards,” Emily says. “Then business, she realized that mentoring and helping others was what we’ll move into sketching and sewing.” gave her the most fulfillment. Amid the pandemic in 2020, she moved It’s the luck of the draw for students who want to join her one south to slow down and feel more connected to a community. In second-level course, where Emily says they can easily jump into the August 2021, she began as the career and technical education fashion design process with a more sophisticated idea of fashion and do design teacher at Carrboro High School. project-based work. “With Ms. G, we always have a project going [on] “Honestly, I think [working in New York] prepared me [for that you’re always super excited about because she tweaks the prompts teaching] because New York and fashion both force you to think really based on your interests,” Carrboro High School junior Lois Stevens
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chapelhillmagazine.com
November 2022