Featured Pathway: Arts & Communications
Arts & Communications
Fashion Designer: Allison Izu Song
Many local businesses attribute their success to creating a niche market for their products. Allison Izu Song, 31, found her place in Hawai‘i’s fashion industry by tailoring a denim line to fit petite women like herself.
“I would go shopping and try on 20 different pairs of jeans, and if I was lucky, maybe one pair would fit me right,” says Allison, who always had trouble finding clothes to accent her petite, 5-foot-2-inch frame.
This fashionista’s denim line, Alisonizu, targets women 5 feet 4 inches and under. It was designed to empower women, making them feel beautiful and secure about their bodies (and threads). Allison is even in the process of starting her own nonprofit organization to improve the self-esteem and self-image of Hawai‘i’s women.
To create her unique denim patterns she works with different petite body types—curvy, athletic, boyish, long legs, long body, etc. To flatter them all, Allison raises inseams and creates proportionate waist-knee-hip-ankle ratios.
Allison’s passion for fashion started at age 14, with a beginner sewing class. She learned how to make patterns and select fabrics, but more importantly, it got her thinking about starting her own clothing line. (Read more)
Sales Assistant: Teona Marie Cosare
There’s no escaping the fact that college costs are rising. According to College Board, the majority of families paid an average yearly increase of $95 to $1,404 between 2007 and 2008.(Read more)
Operating Engineer: Keeley Bontog
Most young girls grow up admiring their mothers. But Keeley Bontog was born with her dad’s gear-head genes. And, as daddy’s girl, she had an inherent inquisitiveness for tools, cars...(Read more)