Student Spotlight: Ryan Blanchar

Ryan Blanchard is a first year art major here at UCLA who, along with his many other artistic pursuits, sketches fashion designs that he hopes to one day bring to life off the page.
 

FAST: What was the inspiration behind the gown sketch?

RB: It came from loving lace, feminine things, and avant garde design and then hating floral prints, appliques, or anything that has to do with floral on dresses. So I wanted to design my own dress where I actually liked the use of flowers. 

FAST: What is your favorite part about sketching?

RB: I always drew, that’s just kind of what I do—I’m an illustrator. I always drew people--especially  women--and I tried to make the people in my drawings look as alive as possible. Fashion is like living art. It's like putting art on somebody who is already alive, bringing the art to life. That why I like it. I don’t know when I started designing, maybe a few years ago. I remember when Lady Gaga came out in 2009, and I thought who the hell is designing these things that she is wearing? They’re crazy! That’s when I found Alexander McQueen, and started to come up with my own designs. 

FAST: What kind of girl do you design for?  
RB: Any woman that has attitude but at the same time just still very feminine. She can hold her own. The kind of girl that has sass for days.

FAST:  If you could pick any person (real or fictional) to wear one of your designs, who would it be?
RB: The first person that comes to mind is someone like Audrey Hepburn or Marilyn Monroe--just classy, pretty, but still with so much presence and attitude.

FAST: Who are the designers you look up to the most?

RB: Alexander McQueen heavily inspires everything I design. I idolize him—he is phenomenal, he is a visionary and is incredibly creative. He did things that no one else even dared to try and had such great ideas that hadn’t been touched on yet, which is hard considering every one’s done everything. But he managed to find things that people hadn’t done.

My ideal design would be a cross between McQueen and Valentino. McQueen because the craziness and Valentino because of the elegance--Valentino literally defined the word elegant for 50 years--the combination of these two aesthetics is something that I love. You think it’s pretty but you’re still like what the hell?

  

FAST:  What is your dream job?

RB: To be the head designer of my own fashion house.

FAST: What would you call it?

RB:  Ryan Alexander, Alexander is my middle name. My mom purposefully gave me that middle name so that if I ever wanted to change my name for any reason, first or last, I would have a neutral sounding name that would work.

FAST: Is there anyone that you would like to work for on your way to running your own fashion house?

RB: Oh gosh--McQueen apprenticed for Givenchy—he started at Givenchy--they would be so much fun to apprentice for. Dior would be fun, because Galliano works for Dior, his crazy ideas, he’s wild, he has some cool stuff. Also, I would love to start at Betsy, she’s so much fun. What she did was she just made everything stupidly fun, its like no one tried to make everything stupid and fun, but that was still moderately high fashion. 

FAST: Do you have any comments on her hair?

RB: I think it’s fabulous, and if you are fifty and doing cartwheels down a runway you are the baddest bitch in town. The end.

We wish you the best Ryan!

xoxo, 

The Blog Team