lily wolens

My work ranges from garments to graphics, and my internships and jobs have given me experience in fashion, advertising, branding, licensing and digital marketing. I've been sewing since I was in 4th grade, and I studied costume design in high school at Booker T. Washington for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas. I went to Cornell University to major in fashion design, then transferred to NYU, graduating from the Gallatin School in 2015.

My fashion work is focused on haute couture (or “high fashion”) techniques. I went to London to take a course at Central Saint Martins on couture tailoring. I later interned at the fashion house of Jean Paul Gaultier in Paris and had the incredible opportunity of working on the 2012 Fall/Winter collection.

In my first job after college, I went to work for Westfield World Trade Center to help launch the new shopping mall at Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan, which replaced the original Mall at the World Trade Center, destroyed in 9/11. Once the mall successfully opened, I left and went to work for Swyft Media— a company specializing in the creation and distribution of mobile messaging content. There I oversaw the licensing division; my clients included licensors such as DreamWorks, MGM, Hearst-King Features, Sony, Live Nation Merchandise and Sanrio, Inc.

I designed and sewed all of my garments myself— including all of the pattern making, fabric treatment, draping and beading. 

In 2012, two of my garments were featured in Thread Magazine. I was also a double finalist in 2012 for the International Textile & Apparel Association's Annual Design Exhibition in Hawaii. In 2013, I designed three wine labels for Rasa Vineyards in Walla Walla Washington.

I’m currently a first year MBA student at Carnegie Mellon University – Tepper School of Business studying the intersection of business, design and technology.