Colorado to Bournemouth to California: Zach Fornelius' fashion journey

Here we find out about Zach’s experience of studying in the UK, his journey from Colorado to graduating in Bournemouth, and now working in California.

I always knew I wanted to travel outside the States to go to college – or university as it’s called here! I think I was 12 years-old when I told my mom that I wasn’t going to college in the States. At that age, I just wanted to have an adventure.

I wanted to go to Europe so I could travel around the continent more easily when I wasn’t studying. Once I was at AUB, I remember one year I went to Sweden for Christmas and the round trip was like, £25. That's crazy. I mean, that would be like at least two or three grand if I was flying from Colorado. So that was a huge bonus!

Two more massive draws for studying in the UK for me was the reduced study time – it’s just three years instead of four as you don’t have to do the first year of other subjects, you can just get straight on with what you actually want to study. And then the cost, it was less than a third of the cost compared to a subpar college in the US!

I had actually never studied anything creative before, I went to a STEM school. I love math, I love science – I nerd out about that sort of thing and the technical aspects. I started doing back-end programming, the very nitty-gritty stuff, and I thought it was boring because I couldn't do the more visual stuff. And then I got into front-end. Around the same time, I was doing all the cool visuals with programming, and I was also starting to care more about how I dressed.

I was thinking to myself, how can I tie my love for the technical visual design and also my love for styling and clothing? How do I merge those two while keeping my love for computers and technology there. Then I came to AUB for a summer course and it was there that I found out more about the BA (Hons) Fashion degree. They were using all these technologies and really focusing on CLO, a 3D fashion design software program – that was exactly what I was looking for!

I also liked that AUB was pushing what it means to be a designer as an individual. So, if you wanted to go into the digital, you could. You have that option. You have a body scanner and all this cool technology. But if you wanted to get into knitwear, then you could do that. Or if you wanted to do print, you have this entire print and dye workshop, which was super interesting to me. I knew that if I didn't know what I want to do, I’d have all the different options there in one place to explore.

I’d Googled Bournemouth before coming, and that first summer – 2018 – when I came to the summer school, I remember that it was really warm, and thinking that this doesn't feel like England at all. You're going to the beach every day. It's hot. I've told people here that summer in Bournemouth is kind of like late spring, early summer here in California, but they don’t believe me!

It took me a little bit of time to merge the technology side of fashion with the traditional practices. In the very beginning, they teach you things like how to pattern correctly. So, that first year was a bit of a learning curve because I’d never done anything like that – I’d made one jacket before coming; I was brand-new!

At my STEM high school, we didn't even have art classes, but I’d always drawn and painted growing up. My mom’s a super good artist and, looking back, it makes sense how everything came together.

Graduate Fashion Week was fantastic – I loved it! I have a lot of very fond memories, and seeing my collection being modelled on the runway in front of all those industry people, it's like everything you've dreamed of.

And then you go backstage and meet the models, it was amazing. There was a group of male models around my stuff and they were all complimenting it. I wasn’t even there, then I walked up and they asked if it was mine and I said yes, and that felt so good!

My collection was inspired by three of my friends who put their lives on the line to disarm two school shooters here in the US. It was a way to honour them. I made the collection inspired by what made them tick, who they were, what they loved, what they dreamed of, and wrapped those all into one. One was interested in Star Wars, one went on to the Marines, one was a huge car guy.

I had this idea for my final collection about two weeks into the first year; I knew this was the collection I wanted to do but I had no idea how to do it. So, I waited two years to bring that to fruition.

The whole process was huge; I talked to my friend's parents – the one who lost his life – and I got them really involved in the process, getting their feedback along the way. It was a very daunting process, and a very emotional one too.

Oh, absolutely. The industry connections we made with Burberry during our live industry brief were really useful and actually resulted with me interviewing for them.

There are a lot of opportunities to connect with people that work in the industry, which put all my worries to rest about finding a job. I didn't even think for a second that I wasn't going to find a job afterwards.

Through that Burberry connection, I interviewed for another company that ended up being a better fit for me – and more money – so I went with that one in the end, and that’s how I got my first job in fashion after graduating, for a company called the Modern Mirror.

I loved that job. I somehow started out in a senior-level position. They just loved my portfolio, so I went straight from graduating to being a Senior Virtual Sample Maker. I did a lot of working in CLO and ended up doing a lot of projects, not just with garments, but also in 3D environments and with 3D materials, because I wanted to expand and explore more into the 3D space.

We were doing a lot of work with pretty interesting clients like the NFL and the MLB, as well as some work with Burberry and Alexander McQueen. I got to work with all these big fashion houses and big brands, which was such a fantastic experience.

When I moved back home to Colorado, it took me about a year-and-a-half to find work, because my network was all Europe-based. That’s also when the tariffs started, so big fashion brands were doing this huge hiring freeze.

I was doing the occasional contract work and little projects here and there, just building out my portfolio whilst I was applying for jobs. I sent out 931 applications over a year-and-a-half. 15 of them resulted in interviews. Three of them resulted in final-round interviews – Hugo Boss, Nike, and Vans. And then, I very happily secured the Vans one.

If you're a US student moving to the UK, I would say that it’s worth making sure you build up your network in Europe and the US at the same time if you think you’ll move back home.

I started in August of this year. I'm a 3D Visualisation Designer, so I work with apparel, footwear, accessories; the whole line, basically. Sometimes I do internal catalogue work, or work for upcoming creative kick-offs for new seasons, and recently I did a huge re-haul on women's denim. So, we did a lot of validation work on new fits and new styles. This means a lot of fit development and a lot of design work across all the different categories.

I love it here! The culture is also a huge selling point, because it's that kind of skater, surfer culture. Very chill, very laid-back, but also at the same time, I'm on the AI and innovation team, so we get to access emerging technologies and we be the ones to explore them, and develop those workflows and methodologies to then implement them.

What I've always told people is whatever you do, if you're an American, going to university somewhere outside of America, do not become friends with the other Americans! Do not stay in that little American bubble. Make friends with the locals, make friends with people from other countries. That's how you truly feel at home. Bournemouth is truly my second home. That's honestly how I feel.

My one piece of advice is to just say yes. If you're scared of doing something, whether it's traveling solo or taking the train up to London for a day, just do it anyway! Just do it scared. It's okay to be scared. You don't have to overcome your fear before being able to do something or to experience something.

Just take risks. You're young. If you mess up, so what? Learn, move on. And just experience stuff while you can, visit other places, meet new people, go out of your comfort zone, and have fun!