This blog is the first of a series of blogs that feature young and upcoming creative entrepreneurs.
Catherine (“Cat”) Pfingst is an undergraduate student, studying fashion design and merchandising at Drexel University’s Westphal College School of Art and Design.
Cat grew up in the western suburbs of Philadelphia, in Bluebell, in an historic farmhouse full of character – creaky floors, horsehair plaster walls, antique furniture, and an accumulation of knick-knacks collected over the years by a family that, according to Cat, “loves their stuff.”
She also spent a lot of time at her family’s second home in Talbot County, the heart of the eastern shore of Maryland. Cat’s childhood summers are filled with memories of the Chesapeake Bay, being out on the water, crabbing for Blue Claws and learning how to sail. These summer memories are an integral part of who Cat is and what she is attracted to visually: think of the Susquehanna River spilling into the Chesapeake Bay – its dark blue-black waters under a cirrus-streaked cerulean sky, punctuated by snow white geese and steel gray herons; salt tidal marshes dominated by blue-green sedge grass turning a soft yellow in the fall.
Her fashion aesthetic reflects the impact of these early, formative summers spent in nature. The color palette of her clothing designs leans toward neutral and agrestal colors. The fabrics she gravitates towards are tactile and textural, not sleek and man-made, but natural.
As a child, Cat was always finding ways to express herself. She would draw on place mats at restaurants, write stories and songs, and sculpt characters out of Model Magic clay. She would bring home natural objects that she had collected while exploring outdoors that she would later incorporate into artwork or store away in one collection or another. One of her earliest artworks is a collage of a a leaf transformed into the dress of a girl wearing long earrings. It hangs in her parent’s kitchen to this day.
Looking at this, Cat’s first significant piece of art, it is easy to see its correlation to her fashion design work. Her designs are inspired by unconventional found objects or textures she sees while walking down the streets of Philadelphia, such as the concrete surface of a city sidewalk. She enjoys the challenge of figuring out how to turn these “not-traditionally-fashion” things into “fashion”.
Cat began to realize her love of fashion design when she was in middle school. It was at that time that she began to push herself out of her comfort zone by choosing clothes that expressed her individuality. She also began shopping at thrift stores, buying used clothes and reclaiming them as her own.
Cat felt exhilarated by the idea that she could communicate information about herself and her perceptions of the world through the language of clothing. In the fifth grade, a fortune teller predicted that Cat would be a fashion designer one day.
The person in Cat’s life who has influenced her most is her mom. Cat’s mother went to Tyler School of Art for graphic design in the late 1970’s, and later studied textile design at the Philadelphia College of Textiles (now Jefferson University). Cat has always been surrounded by her mother’s creativity and passion – she grew up having unfettered access to her mother’s drawers of art supplies. She credits her mom with teaching her the value of observing the natural world and with training her to be observant.
Today, Cat’s fashion design continues to focus on up-cycling. She looks through her own closet for clothes that she can re-purpose and she still shops at second-hand stores. She enjoys the process of transformation; she likes the idea of breathing life into something old and its role in sustainability.
Cat says, “I think we have enough clothes out there. We all own so much fabric in the form of clothes, so why not use that? All it takes is some imagination.” To that end, she and a friend are collaborating to make a coat entirely out of re-purposed home textiles, such as potholders and tea towels. Humor is very important to Cat. Fashion is meant to be fun, and she hopes that people can see the whimsy in her work.
One day, Cat would like to have her own line of made-to-order clothing. She wants her line to be versatile and comfortable and her silhouettes to be “gender-less”. She sees this unisex realm as another way to increase an item’s sustainability – its universality extends its lifespan.
Of the process of fashion design, Cat writes: “… it’s like you create this world and decide what lives inside of it— what shapes, what colors, what textures— it’s like the manifestation of something living inside of you … and your job is to pull out what’s going on to visually represent it.”
You can explore Cat’s world at “The Proving Ground Pop Up, Women’s Edition” on March 9th, 3 – 6pm. Behrakis Grand Hall, Creese Student Center, Drexel University, 3310 Chestnut Street as part of the Maguire Empowerment Summit for Women Leaders. Cat will be showing and displaying her designs as one of the female entrepreneurs and makers featured at this event. For more information about the Summit or to RSVP for this free event, visit http://bit.ly/WomensSummit20.
Or visit https://catpfingst.myportfolio.com/.
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