Julia Shapiro is a fashion designer, art director, creative director & stylist who graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Fiber Science and Apparel Design from Cornell University in 2014. Before joining the work force Julia interned for Jeremy Scott, Hood by Air, Mara Hoffman, Only NY, Married to the Mob and Basta Surf. Julia has studied at London College of Fashion, Parsons the New School for Design, MassArt, and The Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Julia has worked with Insomniac Events, Macy Daisy, Nikki Lipstick, Acid Betty, Caroline Burt, Sarah Stieber, Susanne Bartsch Events, RAW artists, YRU, and The Deep End Parties. 

Julia was the product designer, art director, & stylist for Little Black Diamond from 2015-2018.

THINKING

Julia is captivated by the transformative aspects of radical dress and character play as a means of identity exploration. With the rise of the digital era, people are now exploring their identities online through avatars. This could range anywhere from creating entirely different personas that only exist in cyber space to simply managing your social media pages and tailoring an idealized version of yourself. The internet is enabling more people than ever to explore their identity by promising safety through anonymity. Before the digital era, radical self expression through fashion was the way people explored their identities. With a club scene that required over-the-top, perverse, and outlandish looks to get in, people were encouraged to create and escape into different personas each night. The rise of the digital age has made it so that the ease of digitally exploring your identity has minimized the physical art of fashion and dress and reduced dress to simple necessity. J Shap aims to bring back the importance of fashion and dress as art, as escapism, and as exploration. Physically exercising radical self expression through dress evokes different way of acting, different attitudes, and ultimately gives you the confidence to be the ideal version of you.

Follow me on IG @Jshapworld !