Beverley Tu, fashion and textile designer moved to New York City after school at UC Santa Barbara. Following that, she graduated in 2017 as an AAS in fashion design from Parsons. It was a giant leap and she finally felt things were going her way. She kept busy with multiple creative projects involving fashion design, textile design, and mixed media.
Isn’t Manhattan Dead Expensive?
Beverly’s portfolio is not what you would normally expect from a young Asian risking everything to stay in Manhattan. The key to success in New York is being different and humble. Her portfolio of textile design and fashion design have been viewed online by numerous curious people looking for things which are stylish and trendsetting. Her train of thought revolved around making some sales to develop a customer base. This would be helpful because she was targeting people for repeat business thereby saving on flashy marketing and big discounts. Customer advocacy was going her way and finally she could be confident and proud of her work. Clients often mention that they will come back for more.
She started searching for a place to create her studio and after hunting high and low, found something in Manhattan with the ideal location and rent. By the time her studio apartment was ready, she was brimming with ideas that needed to be actioned. Her first few forays were mixing different fabrics together for an individualistic end result.
Final thoughts
New York’s Manhattan can be the perfect place for creative people with the most affluent residents of the city living here. Everybody from people who collect art to antique furniture find it perfect. The Big Apple is known to be the boiling pot of myriad cultures and provides inspiration to many for visiting this city. Many decades ago, some of the buildings here were factories/ workshops for fabrication of garments with hundreds of people sitting in neat rows with sewing machines. The war changed everything. Now in parts of Manhattan, like Hell’s Kitchen, these factories have been converted into apartment buildings.
As a textile designer, Fashion Designer and Artist in New York, Beverly enjoyed observing the mix of East and West on the streets. She was inspired to be more experimental regardless of her responsibilities. The results were several top designers requesting collaborations and several successful art shows. Impressive portfolio and some eclectic essay writing. Beverly Tu had dreamt of studying at Parsons after reading about the faculty and studios. It is a wonderful place with a superb location and plenty of places to capture in your drawing pad or camera. Plus, she was presented the opportunity to live in NYC.