Hobbs lands fashion job in New York

HARTLAND GIRL AT HOME IN NYC — 2010 NRHEG High School graduate Kayna Hobbs feels at home in New York City, well on her way to a glamorous fashion career.

By KATHY PAULSEN

Staff Writer

How do you spell “impressive?” One way to spell it is “Kayna Hobbs.”

Hobbs, daughter of Gwyn Regehr of Hartland and a 2010 graduate of NRHEG High School, is well on her way to a glamorous fashion career in New York City.

Hobbs’s parents can attest to her love of clothing and fashion, starting back when she was just a young child. By the time she got to middle school, she was watching the runway shows on television and reading all the fashion magazines she could get her hands on. She has always loved the big city over country life, but she says now she is grateful to have experienced both environments.

Following her high school graduation, Hobbs picked the University of Minnesota for its large size and superior academics, as well as its proximity to home. 

She had originally considered majoring in journalism, with the intention of working for a fashion magazine such as Vogue. But just before she was scheduled to start classes, she talked with an advisor in the Apparel Design program. Hobbs learned she did not need experience in sewing or design to join the program. 

Hobbs quickly found out that the major she had selected was much more than she expected. 

Apparel Design is known to be one of the most labor-intensive majors at the University. Apparel design has many applications in the professional field: design, patternmaking, technical design or 

construction planning, size grading, etc. Hobbs discovered quickly that she enjoyed patternmaking most.

Patternmakers translate a sketch of a garment into a reality of shapes of fabric to be stitched together. A unique understanding of how to translate a sketch from 2D to 3D is required. Patterns can be draped on a dress form, or manipulated on paper. Fit is the hardest, yet most important part of patternmaking. Knowledge of the body, how different fabrics will act, and garment construction is necessary. 

Hobbs’s family gave her a hard time about choosing fashion for her future, because she was very good at math and science, and they thought they would be better professions. But she believed that patternmaking was a happy marriage between artistic and technical skills, and wanted to pursue it.

While in school, she completed many projects to build her portfolio. She completed internships in Minnesota with the Vee Corporation and Tara LaTour. 

Following the completion of her junior year of college she decided to spend the summer in New York City. She felt that time spent in there would help her get a better feeling of the high fashion industry, as well as allow her to also live out her life-long aspirations to live in a big city. 

She was able to do her internship at J. Mendel, a prestige fashion company who have dressed the likes of Taylor Swift and Zooey Deschanel, among others.

Hobbs worked 12 hours a day in the company’s sample room, with the head patternmakers. Her daily tasks included organizing patterns, helping develop new patterns, and communicating with designers and directors. She said she really enjoyed her time there, and her employers thought she had excellent knowledge and a good work ethic.

About a month ago, J. Mendel contacted Hobbs, requesting a hands-on test for a patternmaking position. 

"This was a great honor,” said Hobbs, “as the fashion industry typically does not hire people my age for such high-ranking positions. I went to New York again to complete my on-sight patterning test. I was given a sketch, and was asked to create a pattern to be sewn and fit on the model." 

Her garments were well received by the designers and directors. Shortly after her trip to New York she was offered a job as Assistant Ready-to-Wear Patternmaker starting on Jan. 2, 2014. 

"I felt like I had won the lottery,” Hobbs said. “I'm still in awe! I have worked very hard since graduating from high school in 2010 to get where I am today."

Hobbs hadn’t expected to go this far in less than four years, and doesn't think that her family or friends did either. She is grateful for all her parents’ help during these years. She is also happy not to have to go through a phase of unemployment and job searching.

"My professors at school are allowing me to take my final classes online,” she reports, “so I can get my degree in May while I will be working in New York City. I am currently working hard on my senior thesis collection, which I hope will be completed by the end of December and shown in February at the University of Minnesota with the rest of my classmates' collections. 

“I'm very excited to move to New York at the end of December, but will miss my friends here.”