Today we’d like to introduce you to Amelie Oñate.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Amelie. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Fashion is an integral part of who I am and what I want to do for the rest of my life. As a little girl, I always loved to pick what I was going to wear. Putting outfits together represented a challenge that I wanted to take. I started combining colors and textures just as I do now.
Fast forward to high school and I started thrift shopping for fun and making high-waisted shorts for my friends and myself. It started as a hobby that later turned into a business. Eventually, people asked me to make shorts for them, so I started my small business, Viva La Denim. I would buy old jeans from the thrift store and up-cycle them into new shorts. There were a variety of methods used to decorate the shorts such as bleaching, dyeing, distressing, studding, and painting. I also put together my own photography shoots, with my friends as models, and sold my designs at local events including my school’s farmers market.
My passion grew with every piece that I finished. I felt a sense of accomplishment, just like an artist that signs his painting when it’s done. I felt that my masterpiece was done when I sew the label on it. As time passed, I realized that the hobby/business was taking me down the path of a fashion career.
In my search for a place to study fashion, I discovered that Miami Dade College opened up a new fashion program called Miami Fashion Institute. That was where I wanted to go. They taught me everything from sewing, patternmaking, and illustrating.
I am a graduate of the Miami Fashion Institute and finished with an associate degree in fashion design the summer of 2019. I debuted my first resort collection “Mosaics of Marrakech” at Miami Fashion Week 2019. It was a very rewarding moment because all my hard work paid off. I named my new clothing line AMO by Amelie. I look forward to integrating my experience with all new techniques to become a sustainable fashion designer because I love the environment and I am educating myself on how polluting the fashion industry can be.
In the quest for the right path, I decided to move to NYC to get my bachelor’s degree in technical design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has not been a smooth road. When I graduated from high school, there were not many options to study fashion design locally. Consequently, I attended FIU to get the basic academic requirements while I continued the search for other options. Luckily, the Miami Fashion Institute opened at the Miami Dade College Wolfson Campus in downtown. It would have been much easier to go straight to fashion school after high school, but there wasn’t a higher education program available that I liked.
Please tell us about Viva La Denim and AMO.
Viva La Denim is known for my one of a kind upcycled denim looks. This includes denim shorts, pants, and jackets. I also love customizing to my customer’s vision. AMO by Amelie is my own designs and a more upscale brand. Both are focused on sustainability and educating consumers on the environmental impacts of fashion.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
I love the tropical climate in Miami and the Hispanic culture. I definitely take pride in being a Hispanic fashion designer. I think there are very limited opportunities in the fashion field, but it is starting to grow. Swimwear and resort wear appeal more to the Miami customer, so I think moving to NYC is giving me the chance to design a broader spectrum of clothing.
Pricing:
- Viva La Denim $25 – $200
Contact Info:
- Email: amelieonate@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amobyamelie/
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/vivaladenim/
Image Credit:
Humberto Morchano, Dirtylen5 (Joaquin Pineda)
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