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Briana Will Show You Up
By Ada Onuegbe
As a Fashion Merchandising and Management major at FIT, Briana Codella was constantly told that there was a solid line between those who designed and those who managed — one could not be the other. Eager to explore fashion design, the stereotypes in college disappointed a girl who was raised to take on the world without limitations.
Growing up, creative freedom was encouraged by her school teacher mother. “She left me to do whatever my heart desired,” said Briana. “She let me be as random as I wanted to be.” Briana appropriately never felt a need or desire to conform. Self-described as “well-rounded”, she developed many interests as a child and explored all of them as little or as in-depth as she saw fit.
As a teenager, however, Briana found herself working in fashion retail out of the usual teenage necessity. The enclosed environment challenged her naturally adventurous and outdoor-loving personality. “I was never into it until I was about 15,” Briana said of fashion. “I was always out catching frogs, doing whatever.” She rose to the challenge and her job quickly developed from a standard summer gig into the beginnings of a career in retail management. By age 16, she was overseeing three stores as a boutique manager. Her clear knack for the business of Fashion compelled her to attend the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) after high school.
Despite being told to the contrary, Briana felt a desire to expand her love for fashion beyond business and into designing. Her natural curiosity led her to sign up for a design course in the Fashion Education Seminar Program at United Colors of Fashion (UCOF). “I signed up just by seeing the tables…just to try it, see what it was. I had no clue what it was to begin with. And then I landed into the best thing that ever happened to me.”
Through UCOF, Briana was able to explore fashion design with every bit of Briana-branded passion. In her proudest moment as a fashion student, she produced and exhibited her own fashion line overseas in October of 2014. She credits the Fashion Education Seminar with empowering her to realize her true calling in the fashion industry. “You don’t know your talent until you actually try. I didn’t know I could be a designer. I always dreamed about it, but I was like, ‘There’s no way.’”
Briana is now bridging her passion for design with her current major at FIT through a specialization in Product Development. Her experience in the Fashion Education Seminar will remain a highlight of her time in college. Briana’s ultimate goal is to promote more environmentally-conscious production in the industry, “to bring what I love, animals and nature and that whole earthy vibe, to an industry that’s been so materialistic and harsh.” Busy Briana is well on her way, continuing her studies at FIT, running a retail store and looking forward to the next step in her career as a corporate sales trainer.
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