I am Shamani Patton, I live in Brooklyn, NY, and I am the “girly girl” that is into everything. I performed danced recitals, did poetry and was in cooking classes all at the age of 5 years old. I wanted to do those things, and ever since then I knew I wanted to do what made me happy in life. I also swam at the YMCA, went on camping trips, joined my HS, Health Professions and Human Services cheerleading team and played in the DeRados steel pan orchestra, which is a band that was born in Trinidad and Tobago where my family is from. In addition to those interest Fashion is an important part of my life, which helped shaped me as a person. As I was growing up, I was inspired by different people’s style and as I was maturing I developed my own sense of style, I was all about fashion. What was really motivating to me was how many compliments I would get and that made me want to keep going. I knew my talent and wanted to turn it into a career.  I am motivated to become a Fashion Merchandiser and a stylist. I currently take a English, Pre-Calc, Principles of selling, Marketing and Business class at City tech. My goals are to get my Bachelor/Masters Degree in Fashion Merchandising, establish my own business and earn the title “the queen of fashion”. Also I plan to have my work featured in many magazines, and show my fashion touch on different celebrities, by them modeling and expressing an attire I put together for them. Some milestones of Fashion includes, different genres of music, the story that art tells, and the glam of makeup.

My passion for fashion flourished when I started middle school and other people’s outfits first mesmerized me. At age 12, I began to care about my appearance and personal fashion to such a degree that, I feel as if I was born to love the fashion world. I began dressing myself in unique ways, which earned me compliments on my outfits. After awhile, friends began to ask me to shop with them if they had an event to attend. In middle school a lot of thing started to change, I mostly looked up to my older cousin, it wasn’t about fashion with her though I just loved the confidence she had in everything she did. I didn’t really care what other thought about how I dressed, because I was comfortable with it and multiple people loved that about me. I had friends that was into art and photography, they would shoot me in front of a graffiti background. I also started wearing makeup here and there and saw how much it glam’d an outfit which was an addition to my creative mind. Unfortunately, I stop dancing in ballet and jazz classes during middle school but that didn’t stop me from pretending to be apart of my favorite artist music video in my mirror.

While my friends told me what they thought were the best careers, I was afraid that those careers delivered success but not happiness. I knew doctors made a lot of money and it was time for me to pick a major for High school, I was so under pressured and I picked a medical school. Now that I’ve matured, I realized that I liked doing business and styling so this is what I wanted my purpose to be. Once I learned how to sew at the Fashion Institute of Technology during an 11 week pre-college program, I was determined to open my eyes to more roles in the fashion world and challenge myself to doing these things. I’ve grown up to like many different genres of music, because its another form of art, I also like to attend art galleries in Brooklyn, and I was always into makeup. I would watch makeup videos on Youtube and hope to one day make one of my own. In addition to those interests, I feel like fashion is the most important to me and plays a big role in my life, because I view it as a big form of art on a daily basis. You can inspire someone just by walking down the street with a “artsy” outfit on, and it shows your personality before you even have the chance to say something to them.

Attending an art gallery for the first time was an influential experience to me. since then, I have learned about and followed the work of up-and-coming artist. At the galleries I’ve attended there were many designers, painters, bands, and poets all in stylish attire, it was my cup of tea. Along with all of this they were playing different types of music and I was influenced by everyone’s creativity. The fact that everyone was different goes to show there’s art in almost anything, you just have to have an eye and an ear for it which is what I have, and I feel comfortable to say I am creative. I was easily influenced by the paintings and raw talent and the galleries, I interpreted into an outfit I would wear. Whether it be a dark and scary painting or a colorful painting, I can construct it into a well put together outfit or maybe I have compared it to an attire I saw in Marc Jacobs or Givenchy’s fashion show. I know many others can look at a painting and interpret it into different things but I can’t help how captivated I am by fashion. Many people loved how I was dressed at the galleries, as if they knew it was my style and I was comfortable with what I had on, I feel like everyone there had no problem being themselves and dressing for them, instead of caring about what other people thought and this is why fashion and art is most important to me. There was even art put up on the walls at Fashion Institute of Technology which was then construed into an outfit and was presented on the walls inside the building.

Just like fashion, makeup changes rapidly. Its all about what’s trending and how you can interpret it as your own. I started off using one or two makeup products but over time I became by own makeup artist. It’s always fun to make-up your face, from the different color eyeshadows, to the red lips, I’ve loved makeup since I started to wear it. It was never a self-esteem thing, because at the time I started wearing it, I was already comfortable with my whole being. Once I started wearing makeup, I noticed other’s wearing it to and I would try to recreate the look to fit me. Youtube is growing tremendously, and a lot of people are starting to make videos on different makeup looks, this surprised me because I’ve notice a lot of people with the same passion as me. Many people that are into make-up also has a thing for the fashion world. As the seasons change their would be a change in the outfit and makeup and people on youtube do their own take of it. Of course everyone inspires someone, which is what I would love to do, whether it be an outfit, the makeup or both. A makeup look can easily inspire an outfit and vice versa. On runways and videos or even shows, the actors/models have makeup on which compliments their outfit.

Fashion has a huge influence in my life, it’s something I think about daily. The thing a lot of people confuse is fashion and style, fashion is popular trends, style is how and what you do with those trends. I feel like everyone has their own preference and style their clothing to what makes them comfortable. That is the only way I love to wear my clothes, I follow my own style and I’m comfortable with what I put on. What greatly influences my fashions statements are magazines like Elle, Vogue, Glamour and InStyle, I have subscriptions to these magazines and the different seasons brings on different designs. Whether its’s a poncho with skinny jeans and booties for the fall or a body con dress with a kimono over it for the spring, I can always do a look similar to it and make it even better, because it’s what I think looks best. My favorite designers are Givenchy, Marc Jacob, Betsy Johnson and Vince Camuto, they are all different but their products are made with quality, its exceptional. My favorite stores to shop at are Zara, H&M, Nordstrom, DSW and Asos, I will admit I can literary shop all day long. When designers are creating clothes, they’re creating art, the different techniques of sewing and what you sew together shows this. This is why I view peoples outfits as moving art, everybody is different and they wear their wardrobe differently.

In addition to having an eye for art. I have an ear for art, too. I understand the relationship between the body and music, or the harmony between the body moving to a rhythm. Any music that can make me dance is my type of music, whether I need an escape or to just listen to my favorite tunes and dance. It’s the different beats, rhythms, sounds, and words that creates a stimulating form of art. I know I will never get tired of music, because its rapidly changing just like fashion and thats what I like, change. I will always love trying different things. Music influences me to dance, which is also another form of art and it gets creative once you freestyle and do whatever you want to do. I use to dance ballet, jazz, tap and modern when I was about 5, up until I started junior high school. My favorite music artist are J Cole, Kendrick Lamar, Rihanna, Beyonce, and Drake, but I listen to earlier rappers, too. I just love how some artist can take older music and make it modern. Music videos always had the latest fashion attire, it would be trending for about a month,especially if it’s a hit song which encouraged people to go out and buy the outfits maybe even turn it into their own style. Sometimes I can just picture a certain outfit being in a certain music video, and different celebrities dress according to their music. I’ve been to multiple photoshoots and fashion shows and most of the time music is playing in the background, this is for the model to connect to by outfit by listening to it, its catches more attention. You hear music all around you and the more music you know the more you open yourself up to a whole different type of art.

My ability to style myself as well as others, has benefitted me in a way that I can make a career out of something I love to do. The fact that many people say that they can see me in the business of fashion is motivating. I love to see how fashion evolved over time, and how quickly it happened, I did projects at FIT which showed the evolution of fashion overtime. I would love to go to fashion shows around the world in the near future. I also will love to work with upcoming designers and bigger designers and style their clothing to be in magazines, on billboards, music videos, and movies. I would love to own my own company as a Fashion Merchandiser and travel to different places to expand my company. Fashion will always be changing, and it will always be apart of my life.