My name is Alice Sech, but my family and close friends usually call me Alicja, which is pronounced Ali-c (like in cinnamon)-ia (this sound cannot be found in the English speaking language, but that’s as close as I can relate it to!). I come from a Polish background and I’m first generation in my family to live in Canada. I was born and raised in Edmonton and have always had a close connection to the ever growing Polish community such through being involved with church groups, dance groups, and festivals. I have always had close ties with my family’s heritage and have traveled to Poland during my summers whenever I could. As I spent my recent years in Poland, I fell in love with the European life and knew that there is more out there, in a sense that there are more beautiful places to visit in the world. My optimism led me to finally pursue my dream and travel most of Europe this summer for 2 months. I began in London, then off to Amsterdam, Paris, Germany (Delizsh, Berlin & Munich), Poland (Ilawa), Prague, Vienna, Croatia (Split & Hvar), Italy (Roma & Ostia), Spain (Malaga, Madrid, Ibiza, Barcelona, & Valencia) and ended my journey back in London. It was a trip of a lifetime! I never experienced so many heritages, fashion, multiculturalism, history, and all sorts of situations all at once. This trip allowed me to unfold my artistic inspirations and explore one of my biggest passions in life, fashion.
I’ve been interested in fashion ever since I can remember. I have always loved to manipulate clothing and accessories to express a certain story, theme, movement, or emotion on the body. In other words, I wear clothing to express a form of art. Yes, I am the weird one (by appearance) walking through the U of A campus stuck in the past wearing vintage clothing or wacky pants imported from Asia or exotic accessories from India. I truly believe in expressing your inner artist. One thing about myself is that I do not like to follow societal norms and I express it by dressing unique!
To pursue my dream in fashion, I am currently taking the Human Ecology program at the University of Alberta. My major is in fashion design and minor in marketing. I also like to be involved in extracurricular activities outside of campus to get a hands on experience in the fashion industry. In the past I have been involved with agencies such as mode models http://www.modemodels.com/edmonton/ as a fashion stylist for photo shoots and fashion shows, Western Canada Fashion Week as a volunteer for backstage and marketing coordinator (which happens twice a year for a whole week) http://www.westerncanadafashionweek.com/, and as a fashion show coordinator/ event planner at an Edmonton’s locally owned fashion magazine, Parlour! http://parlourlife.com/. One of my biggest projects was to throw a charitable fashion show, featured by Parlour magazine, to save the Strathcona swimming pool from being shut down by the city. You can get more information about it at this link blogged by a local Calgary fashion designer and where you can also see a shout out to me after the show! http://melncolydesigns.com/20101112/off-the-deep-end-fashion-showart-exhibition/.
If you’d like to see more of my work in detail, I have a personal blog of my fashion experiences you can check out at http://alicjasech.wordpress.com/.
For my current project I am starting a fashion sustainability group at the U of A to help promote and educate the campus on a better sense of how to reusing clothes and accessories and still make it look stylish and modern. A blog is in process to give more information about the club and I will post it up in the nearest future.
All for the love of fashion!
Alice xx
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