‘I want to do everything’: SU fashion design senior juggles creative talents

Jada Williams spends her weekends DJing gigs with Cage Collective and Sonescape, mixing everything from rap to house to alternative music while sporting bright eyeshadow and black lipstick. During the week, she’s working on her fashion design projects while running SU’s Fashion and Design Society. 

“If I want to put all my passion into something, I just have to go full throttle with it,” Williams said. 

Williams is a senior in Syracuse University’s fashion design program, and while she studies design, she’s the president of FADS and does makeup and styling on campus. She won the Endowed Award for Outstanding Collection while presenting her senior collection, “Salt, Bone and Indigo” last month at the College of Visual and Performing Arts senior showcase. Williams will present her work again in May at SU’s Lubin House in New York City. 

Williams was at the Nancy Cantor Warehouse day in and day out while working on her senior collection, but she said she wouldn’t have it any other way. No matter how much time she gets away from her work, Williams said she always finds herself wanting to return to the Warehouse. 

Comprising six looks, Williams incorporated manipulations in her senior collection, which are ways she changes the fabric, like through pleating, burning, ruching or tearing. Manipulations are very time-consuming. One of Williams’ bigger looks — a puffy-sleeved dress with pleats and a lace-up back — took her a week to complete. 

Instead of using tulle, satin or lace as the fabric to create the final pieces for her senior collection, Williams stuck with the prototype fabric: calico. 

This came as no surprise to VPA professor Todd Conover. It’s a testament to the rarity of a student having both the creative vision for the garments and the technique to create them — and Williams has both, he said. 

“That really speaks toward her creative nature,” Conover said. “To use that fabric and to create something so sophisticated and put together is pretty amazing.”

A majority of Williams’ family is from the Louisiana-Mississippi border. She said she wanted to emulate Black dandyism and the clothing that surrounded her while growing up in the South: what they wore to church, to an outing or to the river. 

“This is the perfect opportunity for me to showcase where I come from and a bit of Black culture, and showing that within manipulation and construction,” Williams said. 

Williams said a lot of her creative influence comes from her family While growing up in Dallas, her older sister – who currently works in the fashion industry – inspired Williams to pursue her fashion craft. 

“She really encouraged me to go for it,” Williams said. “I like to have her as my main focal inspiration, along with other designers, because she’s very talented.”

The duo held photo shoots and created runway shows for practice. After Williams started making facial coverings in 2020, she felt fashion design was the right path for her to pursue.

SU piqued Williams’ interest with its alumni network, professors and opportunity for fashion design students to study abroad in London. She said she fell in love with the Warehouse as soon as she saw all the student projects displayed on mannequins. 

Conover said Williams’ work immediately stood out from the rest of his fashion design cohort because she always had a “solid roadmap” before cutting the garments.

“When I have a student like Jada, I tend to push even a little harder, because I expect more, because she’s already very accomplished,” Conover said. 

Williams’ personal mantra, #nosleep, helps her power through her many passions. She’s served as the president of FADS for almost two years now. Balancing her school work and responsibilities with FADS is no easy task, but Williams said having a little experience doing everything has better prepared her for the fashion industry. 

FADS is like a family to Williams. Grace Kentrotas, a senior public relations major and the vice president of FADS, said while Williams might not be the loudest in the room, she still commands people’s attention with her quiet sense of confidence. People in the organization gravitate toward Williams and relate to her because of this, Kentrotas said. 

“She has a really good sense of who she is,” Kentrotas said. “I think when you’re a creative like that, that’s so important, and she knows it and establishes it really well.”

Williams doesn’t like to stray away from any of her interests. If she’s doing something she loves, then lacking sleep is no problem for her. There’s a certain signature to everything Williams does, and while Kentrotas can’t explain it, you can tell that the work was done by Williams — she’s consistent and knows her brand.

When Williams feels bogged down, she said it helps to have friends who remind her why she puts in the work. SU senior Kadiatou Bah bonded with Williams freshman year over her Southern gothic style and love for makeup and fashion. 

Now, as close friends and roommates, whenever Williams comes home from a long day of working on her designs, Bah reminds her that everyone sees the effort she puts in. Instead of being someone who likes the spotlight and attention, Bah said Williams wants people to focus on her fashion pieces. 

Williams, also known by her stage name DJ Roxi, picked up DJing to destress. She gathered a lot of influence from her dad, growing up listening to him DJ old school rap. While she’s had bookings around campus, the side hustle is another creative outlet for her.  

Williams ties in her passion for makeup by experimenting with intricate eye makeup looks for her sets — she wants to be recognizable as DJ Roxi. Williams also enjoys doing hair and makeup for her friends, and has done makeup and styling for FADS and Moody Magazine. Bah said Williams is good at knowing how to spread herself between different interests. 

In the last year, Conover said he’s watched Williams blossom into a more confident, creative version of herself. She doesn’t question her decisions, and is now more sure of how she approaches her designs. 

For her senior collection, Williams sketched 100 pieces, but her final looks look completely different from the drawings. Conover said this is because Williams was very receptive to listening to the process and going in a different direction.

Bah has watched Williams grow into her creativity and sense of self, and she appreciates the multiple ways she now expresses herself. 

“These past two years, all the designs that she has made is literally a reflection of herself,” Bah said. 

Williams is planning on building her portfolio and designs through graduation, and until then, she’ll be DJing around campus while balancing FADS and her fashion design work. While Bah isn’t quite sure how she does it all, Williams can’t not do everything. 

“I don’t think I’m the type of person that likes to just sit down and do nothing,” Williams said. “I have to do something all the time.”