Student Spotlight: Morgan Jefferson and how one of her designs made the stores

Senior Undergraduate Textile Design student, Morgan Jefferson, shared her experiences while interning with Urban Outfitters and how one of her designs ended up being in the stores.

Morgan during her internship at Galbraith & Paul

Why did you choose Textile design?
Honestly, while choosing textile design I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but once I enrolled and started classes I found it very interesting. Ever since I don’t think I have ever second guessed it, I instantly knew that this is actually what I wanted to do.

Did you know that you wanted to go into a design field?
No, I didn’t. When I was little, I was all over the place. I had different phases where each week I wanted to have a different career. But I always like to create things, and I liked art. I was always doing something with my hands. So I knew that was what I liked to do, but I didn’t know It was something that I wanted to do.

What about PhilaU drew you in?
I found out about PhilaU through my guidance counselor at my high school. I took a tour and I fell in love with the campus. I remember I visited the school three times just because I found it to be so beautiful. 

How did you get your internship with Urban Outfitters?
A friend of mine worked at Urban, and she told me that the head of the knit room was looking for an intern. I found it to be a really great opportunity, I applied and they told me to put my portfolio together and go for an interview. It was during my sophomore year, I didn’t really have a lot of stuff, I had just taught myself how to crochet. So I took pictures of everything that I made, took some samples of my knit class projects and very nervously went in for the interview. But they really liked my work and I got the position.

What were your responsibilities during the internship?
Aside from making sure that the knit room was alway tidy and clean, either my boss or designers would ask me to knit swatches for them, and if they liked the swatches they would ask for yardage of the same swatch. So basically I was knitting all day long. 

Where there any challenges that you faced during your internship?
Some of the challenges were communicating with the clients, when different designers came in, they knew what they wanted but they couldn’t relate it to me. Because the designers where based on fashion, a lot of them didn’t know enough about knitting and how the machines worked. It was difficult at the time but it taught me how to communicate better with people coming from different backgrounds.

What did you learn during your internship?
I learned so much in that year, sometimes I’m surprised how I still remember it all. And it was nice because it was different from what I had learned here in my knitting classes. I learned a lot more of the technical things, such as: how to fix my mistakes rather than starting over again. I also learned, when it comes to designing the textile, aside from how it looks to think about end-use and how the textile is going to look on a person.

Morgan continued on by telling us a project that she became in charge of while working at Urban Outfitters.

It was a project that had been sitting around for a while, one day I found the inspiration pictures and I thought I was really cool. Then my boss and I had a competition of who can do the better swatch. And he said if I can do a better swatch then I can have the project. So when I crocheted the small swatch he was really impressed and he gave me the project.

The designer didn’t really know that I was working on the project. When I finished the swatch and gave it to her she was surprised and she liked it. A couple of months after that the designer said that they wanted to make a shirt out of the my swatch but they did not want yardage, they wanted me to make the shirt. I instantly said that I will do it, but in the back of my head I was thinking I have never done that in my life and I found it very scary. But I made the shirt and the designer really liked it.

After a couple of months, the designer contacted me and said that they bought my shirt it is going into production and it is going to be sold. And finally the shirt hit the stores during March 2015.

After that have you done any other internships?
After that I went back to my previous internship at Galbraith and Paul. And I recently got a new internship at Bella Bridesmaid. It is something completely different from what I’m used to doing but I’m very excited for it.

What are your future goals?
I like to think that I have a life plan, after school I actually want to go into the military. Because my mom was in the airforce for almost 30 years, I always looked up to her and admired her. Now that I’m getting older, I think about how I can use what I have learned here at PhilaU with something that I have always wanted to do. I haven’t figured that out yet, but I am determined to do so. And then after that I want to go back to school and get my masters degree in Textile Design.

I like to dream big, I have a dream of owning my own business and getting all my textiles out there. But I want to something different where people can learn what textile designing really is.

What would you wish to share with potential students coming into the program?
Try new things, don’t be afraid to think outside of the box. Take advantage of everything that is here at PhilaU, especially all the resources for the textile design program.

If you had one word to describe the Textile Design program here at PhilaU what would that word be?
Supportive, one of my favorite thing about the Textile Design program here at PhilaU is how supportive we all are of one another. It was also something that really helped me when I got here in the beginning because I made instant friends.

Textile Design of Morgan Jefferson

Textile Design of Morgan Jefferson

Textile Print Design of Morgan Jefferson

The shirt that Morgan Jefferson designed at Urban Outfitters