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Small-towner going urban

Sonja Coates wasn’t thinking about a career in fashion design the first time she walked into John Casablancas Institute; she was headed for the building upstairs.
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Sonja Coates works her sewing machine. Following a broken leg

Sonja Coates wasn’t thinking about a career in fashion design the first time she walked into John Casablancas Institute; she was headed for the building upstairs.

“I was down in Vancouver and decided to check out the massage therapy school I was going to go to,” Coates said. “But it was on the second floor of the building.”

The building just happened to house John Casablancas Institute, a school for hairstyling, makeup artistry and fashion design.

“I absolutely loved the building. It’s right in Gastown and it’s absolutely gorgeous,” Coates said.

So when the receptionist asked her if she would like to have a look around she jumped at the chance.

“I told them about my interest in fashion and I ended up going to talk to the director for an hour. She gave me all of the forms and then when I got home I applied.”

Later that November Coates was one of 20 people accepted into the fashion design program for January 2011.

19-year-old Coates has been sewing and drawing since she was about five-years-old. “I’ve always liked fashion and when I lived in Montreal I got really into it. I think just going through high school you get so bored of the mould, especially coming from a small town. A lot of people think that when you’re from a small town you don’t get interested in fashion but I think it’s the opposite because you’re surrounded by a lack of fashion,” she said.

She admitted that, coming from a small town, she’s a little nervous about going to school because she doesn’t know a lot about today’s popular designers and models. “But I think that’s only one part of fashion, the other part is what designs you come up with on your own and just having a sense of style, so I don’t think you need to know who all the major [designers] are to know fashion,” she said.

In her last year of high school Coates broke her leg.

“I had nothing else to do, so I started to do a lot of sewing again.”

With a huge green cast from her foot to her knee (which she wore with her prom dress later that year), Coates found that she couldn’t wear pants, so she started to sew herself some skirts.

“That’s when I made my first structured skirt and I thought, ‘Hey, I really like this’, so I kept going.”

And when she said she kept going she really meant it. Before Coates even started school this month she’d already started to develop her first fashion line.

“I’m trying to branch out from skirts and dresses,” she said. “That’s why I’m making a jacket right now and I’m going to make a pair of shorts, but [skirts] are my favorite thing to make. I’m also thinking about branching out and making some menswear.”

Coates has big plans for after graduation. She eventually wants to start her own boutique gallery that promotes everything from local artists to local designers and jewelry makers.

“Ideally, it will be everything from the art on the walls for sale, to the clothing and furniture, and then next door I’d like to have a little café that plays local artists,” she said.