Today we’d like to introduce you to Jiarui (Ruby) Cai. They and their team shared their story with us below:
Before attending FIDM, Ruby had no experience in fashion. She didn’t know how to sew or draw or had a clue what patterns were. The extent of her knowledge of fashion came from her passion for hip-hop dancing. Ruby had just finished her bachelor’s degree in accounting at Cal State Fullerton. Pressured by her parents, who live in Jiaxing, China, where she was born, to pursue a higher degree, Ruby begrudgingly applied to multiple grad schools. When she visited FIDM’s Orange County campus to apply for their MBA program, she saw its lobby’s pink television covered with the previous DEBUT Collection designers and instantly knew she wanted to design hip hop streetwear. Ruby strong work ethic and enthusiasm made up for and got her accepted into FIDM’s Fashion Design Advanced Study program despite her lack of technical knowledge. She would showcase her designs at FIDM’s DEBUT show two years later. She was also selected from the school to be the competitor to do the Supima competition in NYFW on 2021 with another six top fashion schools.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The language was the biggest problem when I first started, mainly because there are many proper nouns. For my first pattern class, my instructor told us to draw a grain line and trace the pattern blocks. I was trying to find a green color pen in my bag to draw the green line. I am not a person with much patience; I always pursue freshness. So that is hard to learn fashion design. For my previous primary account. If I do not understand a knowledge point, I need to spend half an hour practicing similar questions to be the master. However, for fashion design, even a basic skirt needs half day to practice one time. And I need to practice over and over to get used to it.
After graduating and entering the real fashion industry, that is a totally different story from the fashion school. I was doubted a few times that I could be a fashion designer.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I have been freelancing for a few months and working on my new collection. Every designer keeps asking questions from people; What is your goal for a fashion design career? My first decision for my college major was a psychologist to help people reduce their negative motion. Somehow, I did not make it. But I found a way to use my design to make people happy. For every runway show, my collection is not always the prettiest, but it always brings joy to every audience.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
Virtual fashion will be a big opportunity for the whole fashion industry. Even the technique already lets designers do the pattern and sewing on the computer to see the fitting. But I do like to do all in real life. Use my hand to touch and feel it. Some people love to read from the screen and others love to read books. But I do like to do all in real life.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.rubyornotruby.com
- Instagram: rubyornotruby626
