A denim jacket hand-painted in dark green landscape, flowing rich velvet wide leg denim pants, high platform Doc Martens with tucked in ruffled socks, topped with a silk pink and yellow scarf to fluff around the neck. Senior Payton Cole picks out her outfit for school.
From a young age, Cole has loved to show her creativity through art and fashion. She paints, draws, sews, knits, and crochets. For Cole, art and fashion are a big part of her identity.
“Art is my outlet,” Cole said. “When I’m feeling sad, angry, or overwhelmed my art is what relaxes me and helps me recenter.”
While she experiments with fashion through thrifting and buying clothes, she has always had a talent for sewing and creating her own clothing.
“I’ve always been [interested] in sewing since I was young, I would always just create new clothes,” Cole said. “Not sketching out a design or trying to copy clothes I already had, I [ have] always just created my own designs.”
Cole’s passion for fashion has been noticed by students on campus. Senior Sophena Tuli is friends with Cole and said she is inspired by her every day. Tuli said she admires Cole’s confidence and the eye she has for fashion in her everyday life.
“She is also one of the most stylish people I know,” Tuli said. “[She] always has a new outfit of new pieces [I’ve] never seen before because she constantly creates new ones.”
Cole is not only well revered by people close to her but also by other students on campus. Senior Mary Schickedanz said she has admired Cole’s fashion since she got to high school.
“Payton has some of the best fashion sense I’ve seen,” Schickedanz said. “ Even though I don’t know her very well, whenever I see her walking in the halls I am always stunned by her clothes.”
Cole has taken multiple art classes since coming to high school and is now in AP Art. AP Art teacher Gillian Bailey said she has really enjoyed Cole being in her class and watching her artistic process.
“I just love how Payton is distinctly Payton, and the confidence and the originality and aesthetic in her outfits, it’s a reflection of self, how Payton is so many things and it all comes together through her fashion,” said Bailey.
Cole said her self-expression through art doesn’t stop at fashion.
“Honestly I just let Payton flow because, right now sewing, drawing, painting with each different medium Payton is able to pull them all together into one vision and is totally trusted with that [vision],” Bailey said.
Bailey said Cole experiments with all different styles of art; painting, watercolor, and specifically drawing.
“Payton also draws really well, where there is soul in the lines, very honest and vulnerable in the imagery is created,” Bailey said.
Cole said she likes to give a voice to her artwork. In sophomore year Cole submitted one of her artworks to a comic competition through the Bay Area Creative Youth Foundation.
“I read the prompts and was inspired to draw my own comic, and give it a try,” Cole said. “I wasn’t expecting anything but I ended up being awarded a ‘special awardee’ and got $100.”
Cole said she hopes to pursue art in the future. She said she doesn’t know exactly what she wants to do, but is positive art will have a role in her life.
“I love art, it’s basically a part of me so of course I want to pursue this major part of who I am,” Cole said.
