We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Gabby Hinz. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Gabby below.

Gabby, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with a fun one – what’s something you believe that most people in your industry (or in general) disagree with?

Serving the customer. This is something I’ve battled with since the beginning of my fashion career – being asked who my work is for or why I am creating something. I don’t think anything is more detrimental to someone’s blossoming creativity.

People say constraints can lead to greater creativity, but I wholeheartedly disagree. When there are no boundaries, an artist has to look at a blank sheet of paper. A blank sheet of paper forces you to dig through your brain and find what truly inspires you. It is most difficult to create something from nothing.

My favorite way of building a collection is to begin with way too much. To explore a crazy amount of color palettes and inspiration images that don’t necessarily relate to each other. Something inevitably always pops out, and whittling a world of inspiration down to a concept is something very personal for every artist.

I am very scatterbrained. It takes me way longer to feel confident in a concept than my peers, but I hate everything I’ve made where I had to come up with a full concept in a day or two. I find that there’s usually no point.

It was incredibly discouraging to feel like I was always behind everyone else in art school. The glamour of fashion school starts to dim as you realize how business-focused it really is. Everything you’re asked to create is for someone else, or a specific brand, until your senior collection.

I finally felt free when I began my senior year. The long and slow process of finding something I am truly and completely passionate about was so fulfilling. It was everything I wanted in art school. I learned so much more over that time. Sometimes I wish school was just four years of four senior collections.

Overall, I mostly feel this way about emerging designers and artists finding themselves. That ‘click’ is beautiful. You can’t design for someone else before you can design for yourself. Once you have built your own design philosophy, you can apply it to anything. The customer comes to you for YOUR philosophy. YOUR experience. The line between design and art is much more blurred than people think.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Hi! My name is Gabby. I am a fashion designer with a focus on knitwear and childrenswear.

For most of my life, I wanted to be an engineer and design rollercoasters. I did well in school, especially math, but I am pretty childish and always knew I wanted my career to be fun.
I had a really rough high school career and turned to fashion. I began exploring how I expressed myself by painting on my clothes, reworking thrifted items, and showing up every day like it was a fashion show (according to my disapproving English teacher). I would spend lunches in the art room, and I am still connected to my art teacher, Mrs. Wilson.
My parents sent me to a college summer program to see if I could succeed in fashion design. It was the hardest I had ever worked and the happiest I had ever been. There was nothing else I wanted more. So I engulfed myself in the idea and practiced every day after school well into the night. I still see that summer program as the best thing that ever happened to me.

I approach my work in a complete way – I tend to think about everything all at once. The beginning can seem messy and unorganized from the outside, but it pulls in something unique for the final product every time.
My favorite part of designing collections is color and textiles. I typically use fully saturated color, which stems from my painting straight out of the tubes. Learning machine knitting changed my whole approach. I could push my passion for textiles in a way that completely elevates any silhouette. My collections are also often for or inspired by children. This trifecta of knitwear, saturated color palettes, and childrenswear inspiration is what sets my work apart.

I am most proud of my senior collection. I wasn’t getting anywhere before staying completely true to myself. Then, I was recognized, and an industry panel selected my work to walk in the year’s fashion show. That collection is featured in Vogue! Now, I am a recent SCAD fashion grad on the hunt to join a knitwear design team.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

Artists aren’t asking for understanding. We need support. I am so grateful that my parents supported me on my journey through art- I was really crazy and hard to understand. There were many steps backward, as is common for artists across all disciplines. There can be long periods of time when an artist doesn’t make any sense even to those closest to them. But accepting their process and welcoming ideas you don’t understand means everything to that creative.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Personal evolution and discovery. There is nothing like being an artist. Finding your style, then your path, then how to prove yourself. And a lot of back and forth in there. There is nothing more fulfilling than producing something that is ultimately an extension of yourself. Having something only you can defend can really help define your identity.

I often reference the song “On I Go” by Fiona Apple. It presents a freeing approach to being a creative. There are no goals, just life inside of art. Try letting go of constraints like progress and expectations. I believe those moments are most valuable.

I know it isn’t completely realistic to expect a creative life undeterred by outside elements. I want to be able to support myself while living a life I love, but grabbing those personal moments is a huge step. The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is exploring my identity.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.gabbyhinz.com
• Instagram: @gabbyhinzart
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabbyhinz/

Image Credits
Photographer: Dylan Cole