Today we’d like to introduce you to Flora.
Hi Flora, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My journey has definitely been far from linear. I’ve been drawn to creative expression since I was a young kid but grew up with many dreams, from being a pop star to a fashion designer. I ultimately settled on fashion styling and communication around my junior year of high school. After a somewhat turbulent junior and senior year of high school, I committed to a fashion business program at Drexel University in Philly and moved there in the fall of 2019. Of course at the end of my first winter quarter of school there, in March 2020, I was sent back home to Seattle due to Covid. I hated online classes and decided to take a gap year in the fall of that year, waiting until the fall of 2021 to return to school when classes resumed in-person. I had a really fantastic freshman year until it was upended, and despite being excited to return, when I got back I had fallen out of love with the program and school. Fortunately, they are on a co-op system, so I had planned to spend the spring and summer of that year working in my field instead of taking classes. I used that time to intern with a stylist and independent digital magazine in New York while I figured out my next move. While I was there, my roommate was working for a designer who has a long established relationship with SCAD, and she floated the idea to me to transfer there. I had applied in high school to the now nonexistent Hong Kong campus and had never really considered Savannah or the South in general but the more I looked into the school, the more it felt like the right place for me. I ultimately moved down here in September 2022 and to this day consider that the best decision I have ever made.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
In addition to the obvious obstacles of covid and transferring schools, I’ve also dealt with a lot of mental health struggles in my life, which is something I try to be very open about. My junior year of high school I was facing some pretty intense depression and anxiety, and lost a friend to suicide. In the year following, I was dealing with a lot of suicidal ideation myself and was in and out of hospitals and treatment programs to manage that. What really changed the course of my life and made everything possible was starting in a partial hospitalization program rooted in dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) in the middle of my senior year.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Most of what I do comes back to two things: fashion and identity. My practice exists across a variety of mediums but is rooted in expressions of identity and the intersections between fashion, identity, and culture. I would consider myself an art director, editor, writer, and stylist. I enjoy working on fashion films and photo projects spanning editorial and commercial uses. My work would definitely be marked by my love for color and vibrancy, and I enjoy making things that feel joyful, a little playful, and I have a strong affinity for camp. As I’ve grown as a creative and a collaborator I’ve learned a lot of my strengths lie in my ability to bridge the analytical or logistical with the creative. I grew up with a very type A mom and a dad who is a full time creative and I think both have made a strong impact on me, which is why I think I excel as an editor or leader in creative contexts.
How do you think about luck?
For a long time I’ve felt like quite an unlucky person but I think my tune changed on that in the past few years. There’s a lot of ways that I would consider myself quite lucky right now, but the stance I try to take on luck is that good luck is wasted if you have not done the work to prepare yourself for what comes after being in the right place at the right time. While I’m certainly not opposed to a strike of good luck, I try to back up any opportunity I’m given with my dedication and work ethic, and my commitment to what I do.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://floramedina.online
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/planetflo_/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/flora-medina/
