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New Trier seniors: Comics inspire teen’s clothing designs
New Trier High School senior Grace Bono photographed fellow students modeling her comic-inspired clothing designs for a fashion magazine as part of her senior project. Tamara Bell~Sun Times Media
Updated: June 19, 2012 9:01AM
New Trier High School senior Grace Bono took up sewing as a hobby freshman year because she couldn’t find ready-made clothes that expressed her affinity for Marvel comic books.
“I love comic books and there is nothing that a teenage girl can wear to say she loves comic books,” said Bono, who originally asked for a sewing machine for Christmas so she could make her own costumes for Halloween and comic-book conventions.
“All the clothing is for boys and it’s mostly shirts with characters printed on them,” said Bono.
In her effort to fill that void, Bono tapped into a passion for fashion and a gift for designing clothes inspired by the superheroes and villains in classic comic books. The Kenilworth teen is heading off to Indiana University in Bloomington to study fashion in the department of apparel merchandising and interior design.
For her Senior Project at New Trier, dubbed KA-POW Couture, Bono sketched designs based on the main heroes and villains, then selected two designs to fashion into full-sized, wearable clothing, complete with accessories.
She chose her two favorite characters, Thor and Loki, who are particularly popular now because of the just-released feature-length film, The Avengers.
“I wanted to design something that (comic book fans) in the know would get, but to other people, it was just nice clothing,” said Bono. “I have been told by people in the fashion industry that my stuff is very marketable and that I can definitely, like, sell it.”
She also published a slick fashion magazine featuring her designs, using two New Trier sophomores as models and taking the photographs herself.
