In the spring of 2020, Kiana Bonollo was gearing up to study abroad for her senior summer when the COVID-19 pandemic canceled her plans. Suddenly stuck in the U.S., Bonollo, a then fourth-year studying fashion and textiles design, shifted her focus online.
“I decided to just do social media, take it seriously and pretend it was my job,” Bonollo said. “So for that summer of 2020 I worked 40 or 50, sometimes 60 hours every week just on content, even though I had no followers.”
Bonollo started making YouTube videos sharing her own projects as well as fashion tips and sewing tutorials. In September, a video teaching viewers how to make their own DIY corset earned Bonollo hundreds of thousands of views and got her name out to at-home sewers and fashion aficionados. Since then, Bonollo’s following has grown steadily, now reaching over 190,000.
Bonollo has been passionate about fashion since she was young but nearly chose not to pursue it as a career, instead leaning toward NC State’s chemical engineering program.
“[In] my childhood years I really liked fashion … and I would always grab pillowcases and sheets and try to fit them on my body and be a fashion designer,” Bonollo said. “I had a sketchbook that I sketched in all the time, so I was very passionate about fashion design, but going into high school I kind of lost that passion and was trying to be more realistic.”
However, shortly before applying to universities, Bonollo decided to recommit to her passion and assembled a portfolio to apply to NC State’s fashion and textiles design program.
“It was my mom who told me that I would be very unhappy in my life if I didn’t follow my dreams,” Bonollo said.
Now, a year after graduating, Bonollo runs a successful Etsy business where she sells patterns for several of her designs in addition to creating her YouTube and Instagram content and feels that she made the right decision. With her current work, she fills the roles of creative designer, technical designer and pattern maker all at once, which leads to a busy but exciting day-to-day routine.
“I love every aspect [of my work], but what I love most about it is that it’s not boring,” Bonollo said. “One day I’ll be doing a photo shoot, the next day I’ll be draping on my dress form, after that, I turn into a video editor and edit for the whole day. I think my favorite part is the versatility and the change every day.”
Bonollo has also found success at several runway shows where she has shared her collections. As a student she was awarded first place two years in a row at NC State’s African American Textile Society Fashion Expose. Just last year, she was named the winner of the Twin City Fashion Week Emerging Designers competition.
Despite her successes, the quick increase in visibility has not always been completely positive.
“At the beginning, it was hard being on the Internet because people wouldn’t always say nice things,” Bonollo said. “It doesn’t bother me now because it will just make my video get more views so I don’t really care, but, at the beginning I would cry because people would attack my personality. If people were attacking my designs that was okay, but people attacking my personality really got me. Getting over that was really difficult, but I just had to realize nobody who feels good about themselves or is a kind person in general says those kinds of things.”
In the future, Bonollo hopes to continue to make fashion, design and sewing accessible for more people by putting together a sewing course for beginners and eventually starting her own line for those who don’t want to make her patterns themselves.
“I like sharing my education and knowledge with people,” Bonollo said.
