Guided Magazine Issue 4 Guided Magazine Issue 4 | Page 25

An interview with April Douglass-Greene by Morgan Hearn Morgan - “What’s your name and how old are you?” April - “Hi, my name is April Douglass-Greene, I’m eighteen years old.” Morgan - “What inspired you or led you to start fashion design?” April - “I was heavily inspired by my grandmothers, Bertha and Jean. They have always had such a timeless and effortless sense of style. Although they grew up in a much different time than I have, it’s interesting to witness the same trends and styles come back around and be enjoyed by my generation. I grew up shopping almost exclusively in thrift stores, in high school I would buy gently used clothing and upcycle it by taking some inches off the hem, completely deconstructing a dress and putting it back together in a different way, or adding some decorative trim to a neckline and completely making it my own.” Morgan - “How old were you when you started pursuing fashion design?” April - “Believe it or not, I was seven years old when I started pursuing fashion design. I didn’t know there was a technical name for it. But I always enjoyed rummaging through my older sisters closets and putting together different outfits and sketching my “looks”. I was also very inspired by my childhood toys from the early 2000s. I loved Polly Pockets, Bratz dolls, My Scene dolls, and Groovy Girls dolls. Oh and Betty Spaghetty dolls, I almost forgot about them too. My favorite thing to do was line them all up and have little fashion shows. I started sewing at ten years old, the first thing I made on my own was an elastic waist skirt and I was soooooo elated with the results. By middle school I was designing and making my own clothing along with studying numerous design and fashion textbooks, making my own spec flats, cost sheets, and sewing patterns. 22