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Get to know more about Siba with informational sessions, opportunites to meet college leadership, as well as your peers, and a fun scavenger hunt at City Museum! Sign up by September 3rd to get in on the fun. Questions? Message an admissions representative today or call (314) 421-0949!

Get a head start on your educational goals and join us for our Summer quarter! Our exciting orientation event is set for new students on June 18th!

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We’ve seen it happen more than once here at Siba—a student enrolls in a program with a very specific career goal in mind, and while in school, decides to change paths because a particular project or class introduces them to a previously unknown passion.  And thus they are launched on a whole new trajectory. That was the case for Kinley Brady, the subject of this Siba Spotlight.

In 2018, while working toward her Associate’s degree in Retail Management/Fashion Merchandising, Brady was enrolled in Siba’s Fashion Promotion class. Her instructor, Brainchild Events CEO Dwight Carter, introduced the class project, which happened to be the entire production behind his Pins & Needles event, a well-known and longstanding design competition in the St. Louis region.

Brady’s assignment was to create the flyers for the show: “I had no prior experience with this sort of thing, but I really enjoyed making things come together on a page.”

Her work impressed her instructor so much that he invited Brady to intern for his company, Brainchild Events, so that she could help him with other projects he was producing. Among the items on her to-do list were social media, creating graphics, event planning, and managing events, and Carter said she accepted every task with enthusiasm. Coincidentally, Brady was also finishing up her Retail/Fashion degree when she discovered an equally strong passion for the graphic design tasks she’d been assigned. “I figured if I was enjoying doing a lot of graphics [for Brainchild Events], I might as well hone my craft. So far, graphic design and fashion kind of come together beautifully for me.”

That is when Brady decided to create her own unique educational resume by combining her newly earned AAS in Retail/Fashion with with an Associate’s degree in Graphic Design. She continues to intern for Brainchild Events, bringing new artistic skills and techniques to the table each time she completes another academic term.

Her boss, Dwight Carter, sees a lot of potential in Brady, “She can take an idea and communicate it very well through her artwork. I have never had anyone on my team that could design a flyer, poster and social media posts from scratch.”

Fitting in her homework with such a multi-faceted job takes effort, “Balancing school & work can be a struggle sometimes. I had a really hard time with it at first, but over the course of the last few months I've started to find a system that works for me when it comes to doing both. I make sure I do a little bit of work each day, and most weeks I wait until the weekend to do my homework.”

So what’s on the horizon for Brady and the rest of the team at Brainchild Events? That would be the second installment of Fashion Anarchy, a new event that challenges local designers to create a look inspired by St. Louis’ Garment District in just 48 hours. On July 18^th, Siba will host the VIP reception for the competition, with the main show immediately following at St. Louis Fashion Fund, just a few doors down from the college. According to Brady, it’s an event you don’t want to miss, “The designers only have two days to create something, so it's a HUGE time crunch and can be a really great challenge as well as a learning experience for them. It's amazing to see the end results.”

When asked about her future goals, it’s no surprise Brady is looking forward to something with a little variety. “I really can’t see myself settling into one thing. In ten years, I hope to be self-employed, working on projects that incorporate the worlds of both fashion & graphics” We at Siba are so excited to see where Kinley’s path takes her!

Come shop some amazing vendors offering vintage apparel, jewelry, handcrafted gifts, sweet treats and more!

If you are interested in becoming a vendor, the registration fee is $40 which supports the Siba Scholarship Fund, a 501(c)(3). Vendor details here: http://bit.ly/2W1X0bA.

In case you haven’t heard, it’s a very exciting time for the Garment District of downtown St. Louis—and we LOVE that our campus is right in the center of all the action! From the addition of a high-tech knitting facility to the upcoming grand opening of a boutique hotel whose name pays tribute to our neighborhood’s roots in garment production, we’re constantly reminded why it was such a good idea to relocate our campus to Washington Avenue nine years ago.

When we chose this location for our permanent home, it was significant that the building and others around it are steeped in history. Fun fact: 1521 Washington Avenue was constructed in 1917 for the George E Keith shoe factory, and one of our closest neighbors is the world-famous International Shoe Company (which has since been partially re-purposed as the world-famous City Museum). In recent years, interest has grown in revitalizing the area with an eye towards its roots in the garment manufacturing industry. We welcomed St. Louis Fashion Fund to our block in 2017, and they have worked tirelessly toward making our neighborhood a hub for fashion innovation, inspiration, and entrepreneurship.

Even more recently it was announced that Evolution, a high-tech knitwear manufacturing facility, will be opening in on Washington Ave in Grand Center which further advances St. Louis as a great city in which to produce clothing again. Evolution is scheduled to open in August 2019 with 35 state-of-the-art knitting machines. In the first three years, the apparel manufacturing firm aims to grow to 300 machines and employ up to 60 employees.

The Last Hotel, located just to the east of us at 1501 Washington Avenue, is nearly done with a major 18-month renovation of another building in the former International Shoe Company complex. It is scheduled to open in just a few weeks and is already taking reservations for July. We are especially excited about their rooftop pool and restaurant that will be open to the public!

Other new businesses the neighborhood include local grocer, Field’s Foods, as well as the unique, photo-op-friendly art exhibit space, The Selfie Room. These great additions to other established businesses and organizations like City Museum, Sliced Pint, and Star Clipper round out our fabulous corner of St. Louis.   

It is so gratifying to see the diverse expansion and growth of Downtown West in the near-decade since we’ve called Washington Avenue home, and we can’t wait to see how the Garment District and St. Louis’ fashion footprint continues to develop!