Written by Miranda Bess

Photos Jorden Durkee.

“Happy accidents” is the best way to describe Bree Swanson’s journey to fashion design. Swanson, a double merchandising and design major, is originally from Northwest Arkansas and was fully planning on attending college in Arkansas starting in fall of 2017. However, when her freshman orientation began, something didn't feel right.

“I had applied to Missouri State and I had liked the campus when I toured, but I just thought I'd go to a school in Arkansas just because it was close,” Swanson said. “But within the first week there, I hated it. It was such a gut feeling, and I’m not a spontaneous person so making the decision to switch was crazy for me. I just knew I didn't want to go there anymore.”

Swanson was in the retail marketing program at the other university, so when she switched, she was placed in the merchandising program at MSU and loved it. She decided to add a major in design her sophomore year. 

When it was time to brainstorm for her senior collection, she knew instantly that she wanted her collection to be LGBTQ-focused. She had a few ideas for her collection, but it wasn't until she talked to friend and local designer Joseph Pyatt that inspiration struck. She said that Piatt, who ended up being one of her models, wears more feminine clothing, and since he's also a designer he just makes his own clothes. But it got Swanson thinking about making an androgynous clothing line that was more feminine leaning. 

“I did a lot of research and there wasn't a clear market for androgynous clothing that's more feminine-leaning because I feel like everything we see right now is more masculine,” Swanson said. “I contacted a few other people to get their perspective on it and asked what they looked for in clothing, where they shopped and got inspiration from that as well.”

Swanson’s collection, called “Identity,” is a non-binary clothing line that aims to give LGBTQ youth clothes that they can feel like themselves in and that allows them to express their uniqueness.

“I called this collection ‘Identity’ because I feel like thats something thats so important to queer people and who they are, which is what a lot of people said in their interviews,” Swanson said. “I just wanted to do something that was modern and could be implemented into their wardrobe at different degrees of femininity.”

It wasn’t all rainbows and sunshine for Swanson in her creative process. She says she struggled with a lot of self doubt and felt insecure about her collection being unique and special enough. She spent a lot of time changing her original plans for garments because she didn't like it or it didn't fit in with her vision as well as planned. However, getting to work with her merchandising team, Nandin Bat, Kilee Kearns, and Lauren McGarry to make the collection come to life in the end made it all worth it for her.

“It's so easy to doubt yourself,” Swanson said. “I think thinking outside the box was something I was self conscious about and just doubted if it was enough. With the hundreds and thousands of collections that have been made, trying to make mine unique and stand out was difficult, but you just have to work through it. I know a lot of other designers at the end of this just wanted to be done so badly and never wanted to look at their collection ever again. But now that we’re done and looking at my collection I just think to myself, ‘Wow, I love this so much.’ And then getting the photoshoot done and seeing the photos made everything worth it.” 

Swanson has big plans for the summer of 2021. She has an internship with a brand called Garo Sparo in New York. Garo Sparo, a finalist on season 17 of Project Runway, designs beautiful and extravagant garments for a plethora of well known clients, and Swanson will be working with the brand this summer to help with production and fittings. Swanson remembered Sparo from Project Runway when she was applying for an internship and reached out to one of his assistants on Linkedin. 

“I am beyond nervous and excited about starting my internship. I will be helping make things like embellishments, and I get to sit in on at least 1 fitting and get to see their repertoire. He has a lot of fun clients and he works with a variety of sizes which I love.”

Bree Swanson has put her time and energy into making a collection that reflects such a powerful message about expressing one’s identity through fashion. She pushed through the tough times last year and continued to channel her creative spirit to make beautiful clothing. Her collection conveys a very important theme of expressing your uniqueness that isn’t tied down by gender. Bree Swanson is ready to take the fashion industry by storm and I can’t wait to see what she does next.