Ellen Van Dusen

I did a design-your-own-major program at Tufts where I studied the visual system from a bunch of different disciplines. It was mostly neuroscience and art history, but I also studied visual anthropology, psychology, and a couple other social sciences. Now I am a clothing and home textiles designer, running my own small business.

I didn’t go to a college that looked at fashion as something serious or academic, and while I was in school I had a hard time admitting to my peers that that was where I wanted to end up once I made that decision. Generally, my friends and family were supportive, but when I told them that I was going to quit my job and try to start my own business, everyone was like…“Do you know what you’re doing?” I had always made clothes for myself, but I had never learned the “right way” to make a repeat pattern on the computer, or how to fit a garment to a body. My parents both run their own small businesses, so they understood when I said I wanted to do this thing on my own, but at the same time they also thought I was insane to jump into something without training or much experience.

Once my friends and family saw how dedicated I was to making this thing work, they were fully behind it. I still feel like kind of an outsider sometimes when I speak to other clothing designers, but I just know that I am doing my thing my way, and there is something special about that, too.

I’ve actually grown to think that I’m at an advantage because I didn’t go to fashion school. My perspective is totally my own, and my sense of design was informed by exploring a diverse set of interests that most designers don’t get the opportunity to pursue in school. I had to make my own conclusions from what I learned and apply them to a design context, instead of having someone else teach me about their own perspective. Mostly, I just think it’s cool that I didn’t have someone telling me what to think about all this. I had to figure it out on my own.