Every summer vacation when I come back to Taiwan, I take Winner Fashion School in Taipei’s (林美代勝家服裝設計學苑)classes. I have been taking classes since I was 14, starting with basic pattern construction and moving on to creative pattern cutting and draping. As a teacher, she paid careful attention to my progress and tailored her curriculum to suit my wants, needs, and goals, adapting her lessons to fit the skillset I wanted to achieve. Though progress felt slow at the beginning, it was eventually worth all the hours of hard work. Her attention to detail and perfectionism honed my skills to create garments that not only look perfect but fit perfect as well. I have attended summer programs at Parsons New York City, Parsons Paris, and at the Rhode Island School of Design, and at every program, the professors noted my sewing, draping, and pattern cutting skills and were very impressed. My technical skills really set me apart from my peers, because it takes knowing what the rules are to break them. My designs rooted in craftsmanship looked like they “made sense”: one could tell how they would be constructed, how the garment would be worn, how it would move and fit. Knowing what it takes to create clothes really compliments designing, and it gave me an advantage over many of my peers because it showed professors and my classmates that I was serious about fashion design. I wasn’t just here to doodle clothes and sketch fashion figures. I believe Lin Mei Dai (林美代) tutelage is what enabled me to get into one of the most prestigious and elite art schools in the world (RISD), the top art schools of the United States, and the top fashion schools of France and Italy. Thanks to her lessons, I was accepted to the Rhode Island School of Design, Parsons School of Design of The New School, School of Art Institute of Chicago, Otis College of Art and Design, Polimoda and the École supérieure des arts et techniques de la mode (ESMOD), and received scholarships to many of these schools as well. My art can be found at www.abrahamhsustudio.com