Multidisciplinary Design Comes to Pittsburgh Fashion Week

By Isabela Johnston

Staying positive through the Covid-19 pandemic has been a struggle for thousands of individuals around the world. Businesses have struggled, and global supply chains have been disrupted, but one individual found a way to stay creative and rise above the crisis.

“Patricia Yu is a multidisciplinary designer, crafting user-centric products and experiences to delight, solve problems, and empower people” as explained on her website. Yu is also a designer in the Pittsburgh Fashion Week this fall.

Patricia Yu, a 22-year-old from Michigan, moved to Shanghai for over 10 years, and then followed her dreams to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She attended Carnegie Mellon University studying Product Design as she always had a love for expressing her own ideas through fashion. Taking her experience from school, she started creating and implementing her own designs as she started her career in the fashion industry.

She has created many designs that incorporate fashion into outfits and user-centric products. In 2020, she created her collection, Salvos, which means “strength and resilience." The vision for her Salvos collection was created to empower people and to focus on the greater good of the world despite everything going on. “ I am trying to show that as these catastrophes are happening, we are taking steps towards becoming more unified as a society, and finding strength in humans, “ said Yu. “I wanted to show that we don’t have to lose hope in these times. We can take actions to survive, and that's where I try to give my audience hope through my outfits.”

Some of her popular designs include a Mental Health Companion pillow, a Disaster Artifact Exhibition, and an Alzheimer's Care System, as well as many of her outfit designs. “I use different objects and materials that you wouldn’t usually think to put in a fashion piece, that’s what makes my designs unique,” said Yu. We are designers, you might think designing is just about fashion, but really the larger picture is that we are designing for people. The ultimate goal is to make this world a better place.”

Although there have been late nights and challenges she faced throughout her journey, she received help and guidance along the way from many important figures in her life. Yu explained that no matter how minor the challenge was her coworkers, mentors, and friends and family got her to where she is today. However, Youtube was also her friend many times, “working late at night, it’s hard to get a hold of a lot of people, so I had to find another way” said Yu.

A memorable challenge she had to overcome was using a sewing machine at CMU, “this was the biggest learning curve for me for fashion design.”

Her success is not only benefiting people around the world but widening her career opportunities as well. Yu has been participating in the Pittsburgh Fashion Week event and has shared some exciting news for her future, “I have a job lined up as a design consultant in New York City, but aside from that in the future, I would also love to go back to participating in fashion shows and to help out wherever my opportunities take me.”

Considering her young age, she is proving that creating her own fashion designs and making her dream a reality is possible with hard work and dedication. Her success has evolved from her deep passion for design and empowering society. Look for her work this fall in the Pittsburgh Fashion Week!