How Kent State sophomore began breaking into the fashion industry
Ashley Strupp, 19, went from working part-time at T. J. Maxx to scheduling a summer internship with two celebrity stylists in a matter of months.
Strupp, who is from the small town of Normal, Illinois, is a sophomore studying fashion merchandising at Kent State University, one of the most renowned institutions for fashion in the United States.
And she is now working in two large fashion markets: Los Angeles and Florence, Italy.
“I would say I’ve been passionate about fashion my whole life,” Strupp said. “When I was a toddler, a lot of other kids wanted to play with toys or play house — all I ever did was play dress-up.”
Strupp formerly drew inspiration from tweenage-era Jojo Siwa’s outrageous dance costumes on the Lifetime series Dance Moms and lifestyle YouTuber Bethany Mota’s trendy looks.
Strupp’s style has now morphed into feminine styles influenced by pop culture icons of the 1990s and 2000s.
So, how did she make the leap from wanna-be to professional fashion work?
Kent State gave Strupp many opportunities to get involved with the fashion industry early on in her college career.
She got involved with A Magazine, a student-run fashion, beauty and culture magazine publication, just months into her freshman year.
Her success grew as she was promoted to assistant style director for her sophomore year, added a minor in fashion media to her degree and in January, moved to Kent State’s campus in Florence, Italy, to study fashion from a global perspective.
“Just last week, I did a photoshoot for A Mag and got to collaborate with two stylists,” Strupp said, even though she now studies 4,000 miles from Kent’s main campus in northeast Ohio.
Strupp has learned textile fabrics’ uses and differences in a course on fashion fabrics and now frequently uses Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator thanks to a fashion technology class.
Ashley Strupp poses in some of her outfits. The fashion student will head to Los Angeles and Florence, Italy for a summer internship with two celebrity stylists. Photos courtesy of Ashley Strupp
One of Strupp’s close friends, Ashley Nolan, said that Strupp obsesses over her class projects, down to the last detail.
“She once told me she took six hours to draw a head for her Fashion Tech lab class,” Nolan said. “She is a perfectionist, so there is much work put in to make herself successful.”
Strupp knew she wanted an intercultural perspective on fashion and an opportunity to study abroad, so she made sure to apply early for Kent State’s fashion study-abroad program.
She recently attended her first fashion industry event, Pitti Filati, where she identified differences between the Italian and American fashion markets and even started to become inspired by Italian street fashion.
“[In Italy], the market is not as extreme as the U.S. or China,” Strupp said. “They do produce things, just on a smaller, higher quality scale.”
There is no denying that Italy is a global fashion hub and that the fashion industry is inherently about connections — Strupp is absolutely no stranger to that.
This winter, Strupp started networking by reaching out to celebrity styling duo Chloe and Chenelle to ask about summer internship opportunities, just to see if they would respond.
She was elated to be put into direct contact with the stylists, then to be directed to their assistant who got her an interview to learn about the position.
Chloe and Chenelle are known for styling young women, such as social media influencer Addison Rae and pop sensation Olivia Rodrigo.
One day, Strupp was liking Rodrigo’s Instagram outfit posts, and the next, she was searching for summer subleases in Los Angeles to work alongside the minds behind her outfits.
“I’m hoping to see how the styling process works, what the environment is like, and how everyone collaborates and works,” Strupp said.
She has made sure that she showcases herself in her public profiles exactly the way she wants potential employers or collaborators to perceive her.
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Strupp uses simple photography techniques she learned from school courses and online inspirations.
She enhances photos of herself and her outfits online by using different colorings, compositions and framing to make her public Instagram page appear cohesive, yet dynamic.
Strupp said she hopes that her style, experience at A Magazine and expertise gathered from her time in Florence will attract a famous mentor.
“I really push myself to try to put myself and my personality out there because fashion is my dream, and I have the determination to do that,” she said.
Header Illustration by Madeline Smith
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