Meet Filipina Johana Zara who just won the Seventh Annual Cool vs.

Meet Filipina Johana Zara who just won the Seventh Annual Cool vs. Cruel Fashion Design Competition sponsored by The Humane Society of the United States and The Arts Institutes.

Johana Zara is a student at The Art Institute of Vancouver pursuing her Diploma in Fashion Design. From a young age, drawing had always been a die-hard passion for Johana. At seven years old, she made her very first sketchbook – just a binder of blank white paper and scraps — and found herself sketching her favorite cartoon characters. As much as she enjoyed drawing, she said she could not draw a Pokémon, or a Sailor Moon character without a photo reference. She had to copy it and said she was good at copying detail for detail. But she desired to create her own work despite lacking in ability. Johana struggled with putting what she imagined and envisioned in her mind onto paper. It was not until years later that she realized that what she was trying to draw was the world’s perception of those people, places, and objects, and not her own. So she thought to herself: what was she good at creating without the help of a photo reference? The answer came so clear to her when she began designing clothing. She stated, “The feeling that I get when my own idea falls on paper and transforms into a unique Johana Zara garment is unreal – euphoric even. There have sometimes been struggles in this work but that occasional euphoria makes it all worth it.”

The Cool vs. Cruel Competition challenges fashion students from The Art Institutes throughout the United States and Canada to reinterpret and replace animal fur on runway looks by famous designers.

Way to go! Congrats!

You can see more at www.CoolvsCruel.org