“I've always been into the arts, ever since a very young age”, claims Wilber Tellez, a Fashion Design student here at LaSalle College International Vancouver. At the age of 14, Wilber was accepted into a performing arts high-school in Colorado, where he majored in stage craft and costume design, and did a minor in prop design.

From there, Wilber applied for a costume design job with Club Med and became one of the youngest designers on staff. He worked in five different resorts, in four different countries - he started at a resort in the Dominican Republic, and then was transferred to the Bahamas, worked at a couple of resorts in Mexico, and finally at one in Turks and Caicos. Wilber created 25 shows for them but yearned to do even more. He wanted to pursue fashion design as an art form and get into higher education.

Wilber visited and interviewed with multiple prestigious schools in Los Angeles, Savannah and New York, but chose LaSalle College International Vancouver over the other schools he looked at. Wilber specifically chose Lasalle because of the technicality taught at the school, such as the pattern drafting courses, where students learn how to make their own patterns from scratch, and the fashion illustration courses.

In his first semester of school, Wilber participated in a competition for young designers during Vancouver Fashion Week (VFW) and won the Critic's Choice Award for his mini-three-piece collection (featured below).

From there, he was asked to do a full show for VFW in the upcoming spring. Wilber created and presented his first 12-piece fashion show last spring with VFW (featured below).

Two of Wilber's biggest inspirations for fashion:

1. Christian Dior – “I loved the fact he revolutionized the fashion industry, bringing back glamour and fashion", says Wilber.

2. Cirque Du Soleil – the costumes are a really big inspiration for Wilber. “It’s an art form, the pieces are really well crafted”, he says.

So what does Wilber have planned for the future? “I want to continue learning the craft of sewing. I want to do an internship or work for Cirque Du Soleil”, he says. “From there, I will hopefully work at a fashion house as an atelier. I don’t want to own my own company, I want to work for a big fashion house in Paris… but that’s still far away. Right now I just want to get as much experience as possible”.

“I love Lasalle because it's very small, so you get a lot of one-on-one time with your instructors. They give you a lot of room to grow within yourself. The instructors are all great and have great qualifications”, Wilber says.

Wilber Tellez is 22 years old.

- Written by Gretchen Cruz