By Natalia Cuevas-Huaico

Patricia Te is proving to be a force with a fashion narrative for intellectual, cultured, and empowered women. The bold yet refined designer who is injecting the industry with a fervent gusto has been widely lauded as fiercely independent in mind and taste. Te is also strikingly high-brow. Cultured across fine art and pop art, well-read and well-traveled, she values fashion as a form of expression and believes in the power of owning one’s story and identity.

To Me, Te’s graduate collection, showcases how fashion has come to the forefront as a key instrument for expression. The collection celebrates the woman. It is feminine, effortless, romantic, and modest. Initially inspired by Carlota Guerrero’s poetic and romantic capturing of the female form, Te was challenged and determined to find a harmony between the quiet, emerging confidence of overtly feminine wear, with her love of the modest aesthetic. Te’s concept not only prompt’s authenticity becoming a mainstay, but also shines light on that fact that covering up doesn’t have to equate to avoiding trends. Ultimately, To Me is all about empowerment and enhancing the beauty of a woman who wears it.

To Me will be unveiled at the 2019 The Show on April 18 at Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s (KPU) newly opened Wilson School of Design building in Richmond. The beautiful and innovative $36-million building houses a range of design programs including the fashion-design-and-technology program.

Event details and tickets can be found online.

Natalia Cuevas-Huaico: Who or what was the inspiration behind your line?

Patricia Te: My scope of inspiration as a designer is broad. Art, poetry, history, and music are just some places I usually draw inspiration from. While researching for my collection, I found Carlota Guerrero, a Spanish art director and photographer who captured the female essence so honestly and raw. It was this portrayal that really inspired and pushed me in the direction of creating a collection that captured a more overt expression of femininity.

Simultaneous to finding Guerrero’s work, I learned about modest fashion—which in brief, describes degrees of covering up on purpose. The lack of self-expression within this emerging market was what drove me to marry both feminine and modest aesthetics.  

Femininity has evolved, and yet, not that much. After all, since women could talk, we have had interesting things to say. There have always been female voices and I aim to be heard. Through my collection I want to showcase that delicacy can be strong and that staying true to oneself and one’s story can be empowering.

NCH: Who are your style icons?

PT: Grace Kelly. Her poise and confidence always inspired me to cultivate my own version of timeless and effortless style. Conforming simply isn’t in my nature, and Grace Kelly played a role in how I defined my personal fashion narrative.

NCH: What’s the most helpful thing you learned at KPU?

PT: There have been so many insightful life lessons I’ve learned throughout my four years in the fashion design and technology program. One of my biggest takeaways is to have perseverance. This vocation is more than talent, it takes work—hard work—and a diligent attitude. It was everything from the endless hours at the drawing board trying to come up with and create something new that pushed boundaries, to the endless hours drafting and the long nights at the sewing machine.

It was learning to take constructive criticism and negative feedback from peers and instructors well, especially when the ideas I shared had become a such personal extension of who I was. It’s the idea that people who are in the same position as I am, who are going through the same struggles are probably working even harder. It was all these things combined and more that solidified my unwillingness to quit.

I learned that fortune favours the prepared, and that being curious, knowledgeable, and persistent in my passion would only introduce more opportunities for me to explore.

NCH: Describe your education journey.

PT: Growing up, I always thought that I would end up becoming a doctor, like the majority of my family—and for a while I did pursue that option. I started out exploring the sciences at UBC and after a couple of semesters, realized that I wasn’t as excited as I once was.

At the same time, I had started working retail part-time and was surrounded by fashion and style more and more. I was just beginning to discover a new form of expression. At the time, fashion was just a playful part of my life and I had no idea how important of a role it would actually play. My personal realization that part of my own internal confidence stemmed from the clothing I was choosing to wear was pretty eye opening and pushed me to pursue a new chapter.

From there, I started to try my hat at designing. I doodled, enrolled in beginners sewing class, researched designers and their techniques and really started to feed my new passion. I eventually stopped sciences and ended up getting accepted to the Fashion Design and Technology Program at the Wilson School of Design.

Going through this program has not only deepened my passion, but has definitely given me a platform to make my mark on the industry and the world.

NCH: What word best encapsulates you as a designer?

PT: In one word, driven.