Student
U.S. Marine Corp Veteran and Fashion Design Student Joel Hindman is Selected for Chairing Styles 2020
Fashion Design Student and U.S. Marine Corps veteran Joel Hindman has had a lifelong passion for creating. We recently caught up with him to chat about his path to FIDM, participating in the American Heart Association’s Red Dress event, and his role as a selected designer for Chairing Styles 2020.
Where were you born and raised? I was born in Marseille, France, and grew up in central France, in the Loire Valley.
Did you always have an interest in design? Not in design specifically, but I got into photography in my early teens, and have continued to pursue that ever since. Visual arts have always been something I love, and I’ve always loved to create things. My interest in fashion design evolved out of that.
You're part of Chairing Styles 2020. What is it like being part of an interdisciplinary student team? It was so much fun to work with students in other majors. Each fashion designer is paired with an interior designer, and my partner and I shared sketches and ideas as we worked on our designs, allowing us to draw inspiration and design ideas from each other. It’s really valuable to get to work with someone who is looking at design from a different angle. They’re going to have ideas I wouldn’t have, and vice versa.
Looking at our final designs, I can see how we both pulled elements from each other's designs, and wound up with stronger designs that we would have otherwise. We’re not allowed to say much until DEBUT 2020, but I will say that everyone did an incredible job. This is going to be Chairing Styles like no one has seen it before! I can’t wait.
What made you want to study Fashion Design at FIDM? I started getting really into fashion a few years ago and began making costumes and festival wear for myself and friends. I was completely self-taught from YouTube, but people were really liking what I was making, and I felt a natural affinity for design. I decided I should go to school and see where that might lead me, and a couple of people recommended FIDM. I liked what I saw of the Fashion Design program, and I was already living in LA, so that made it a really easy choice.
What was it like to participate in the American Heart Association’s Red Dress event in honor of Go Red for Women earlier this year? Red Dress was incredibly challenging and also really fun and fulfilling. It was the first time I got to see something I had created on a professional model, and that’s a moment I won’t forget. Clothes come to life on the body, and seeing the dress I worked on for 10 weeks come to life was amazing. We were all given a different red fabric to work with; I was given a double knit that is basically a breathable, fashion version of neoprene.
I had never worked with anything like it, so I spent the first couple weeks draping and learning what I could do with the fabric. I ultimately designed a sleek bodycon evening gown with a keyhole bodice held up by a collar. One cool feature of the fabric was that the raw, cut edges were stable and didn’t need to be finished. That allowed me to create these almost abstract flowers with the fabric to use around the keyhole. They all had to be sewn by hand, and I spent many many hours on them.
Tell us about your military service. I served four years with the United States Marine Corps. I was in the infantry and worked as a scout for a tank battalion. I was stationed in Twentynine Palms, California, in the Mojave Desert. I loved SoCal, so I decided to stick around after I got out.
You’re part of Student Veterans of America (SVA) at FIDM. What do you enjoy about being part of the chapter? Having a community of other vets is really valuable. It’s great to have other people to talk to who have shared similar experiences. We all support each other, whether it’s with school projects, dealing with the VA (Veterans Administration) bureaucracy, or general life stuff. Also, I’d like to give a big shoutout to Patty Martinez. She does so much to help us with the VA and financial side of things and keeps our time at FIDM running smoothly.
What are your ultimate career goals? The cliché answer here is that I want to ultimately start my own fashion line. Really though, the true goal is to get to design beautiful and amazing clothes that people love to wear. I’d like to ultimately work as head designer somewhere. Maybe one day that will be my own line, or maybe it will be for an existing brand—we’ll see!
Categories: Fashion Design Military Veteran Student
