Kara Laricks – Designer Interview
This lecture is part of the University of Fashion’s new Designer Fashionspeak series. Listen as New York designer Kara Laricks, the first winner of NBC’s hit show Fashion Star, speaks about her unique entry into the fashion industry, after spending 10 years teaching 4th grade.
Kara will describe what it was like to get a second masters degree, this time in fashion design, and how she learned the necessary skills to become a fashion designer. You even get a sneak peak at her latest collection!
Interviewer:Today, we’re interviewing Kara Laricks, the first Fashion Star winner of season one. Kara, at what age did you know you had a flair for fashion?
Kara:I have had a flair for fashion for as long as I can remember. However, I grew up in suburban Kansas and my parents were very adamant that both my sister and I should get very, very safe, secured jobs and careers and so from a very young age, we were taught to do well, excel, make sure we were on the honor roll, all in a grand plan to get to college and get that safe, secure career. And it’s exactly what I did. I grew up being a people-pleaser and kind of hiding this passion that I had for fashion. I would go to school, get good grades, participate in the obligatory extra-curricular activities and then at night, once dinner was over and once homework was complete, I would tear our my favorite pages from Seventeen magazine and put all of my pictures together up on a bulletin board and kind of dream of the day that I could actually design and create the things that were forming in my head. But I always kept that kind of quiet. I was never one of the kids who, you know, went through sketchbook after sketchbook and I didn’t even know how to sew. My mom would sew on occasion, but she never taught me how to sew growing up, so it really was just something I did as kind of a hobby. I did end up going to the University of Kansas and the safe, secured job that I ended up getting was being an educator. I got a minor, or I’m sorry, I got a degree in Elementary Education and then a master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction and I was a fourth-grade teacher for 10 years before I ever followed this passion that I had for design and for fashion.