Hi, My name is Nikole Wieneke. I was born in the Philippines, but for the majority of my life I grew up in America. I grew up in New Jersey but recently moved to Connecticut during the last two years of my high school career.
As a child, art has been my day one. Everything in my life has been consumed by art. Whether it be painting till 3:00 am or going to an art museum in my free time, art has always been a big part of my life.
Fashion has not been prominent in my life till I started high school. Once I gained more freedom to go to the mall with my friends and receive my first debit card, I hit up trendy stores, such as Forever 21 and H&M, and played around with my style. Experimenting with bohemian looks or clean cut modern, fashion is always something I had a big interest in.
Upon junior year, fashion started to become something I thought about as a significant part of my future. During the summer before my senior year, I enrolled in the Rhode Island School of Design Pre-college program as a Fashion major. Note, fashion design was not my first choice, nor my second or my third. I initially came in wanting to major in illustration, graphic or animation. However, the slots were full and fashion was open.
During the six weeks I studied in Providence, I learned about the designing aspects of the fashion industry. The struggles of creating mood boards and new, unique concepts became an artistic style I craved for. I fell in love with the major and knew from the start that this is what I believe I want to study in college.
On May 1st, 2015 I committed myself to Parsons New School for Design. Parsons is notorious for their fashion program, being ranked first in the U.S. and second in the world. Although I am undecided, contrary to how much I love fashion design, I feel I do not want to commit myself to fashion so early on in my college years. I do not need to declare my major till sophomore year, so I plan to broaden my horizons first in the art world before heading into the Fashion Design major.
My style now is ’90s grunge mixed with slick minimalist. I wear a lot of black, but I play around with the shapes and sophistication with black. Black can be a strong “color” to wear, but can also emanate a classy, cool and hard-core vibe that I express myself with. I play around with the black tones by using ’90s grunge as a means to display this idea of hard-core look, but also mix this style with modern minimalist for a more clean cut look.
In general, I’m thrilled to be apart of the CollegeFashionista crew this fall semester and am excited to contribute more of my findings in New York City! Stay tuned for my future articles!
