Harvard Couture

Mr. Livingston was conceived in March in Lowell Dining Hall. The parents were three men—Justin R. Gerrard ’10, Justin W. White ’10, and Ben P. Arabia ’10—all fashionistas who combined their interests in design and pooled their capital to birth a new collection of luxury streetwear ideal for the collegiate crowd.

Six months later, the trio has its hands full getting their idea off the ground. After a successful spring trial run, the students parted ways at the end of last year. As they sit down for the interview—the first time they’ve met in person since May—the designers are ready to build on the groundwork they laid over the summer and expand beyond the Ivory Tower with the launch of their Web site and upcoming collection.

“This business would be nowhere if it were not for Skype,” Gerrard says of the frequent late night conference calls that the group had over the summer. Because all three had internships, daytime communication was covert.

“I was always sneaking in e-mails on the job,” Arabia says. “All of them ended with, ‘I gotta go. My boss is coming.’”

While many Harvard students are interested in business, there’s a small contingent that is bringing their entrepreneurial skills to the runway. Mr. Livingston is only one of a group of student designers who are looking for success in the fashion industry while juggling the normal commitments of Harvard student life.

Baruch Y. Shemtov ’09 is perhaps the most notable of current student designers. His line of ties has sold for four years in boutiques in New York, Houston, and Tokyo and has been featured of the pages of The New York Times Magazine, Nylon, and GQ Spain. Also of note are Noor Iqbal ’10 and Vicky D. Sung ’10 who, like Mr. Livingston, are newcomers to the Harvard fashion scene. Their t-shirt line, Port & Kit, launched in the spring of last year.

With little support from the administration and a full course load to manage, the current crop of Harvard designers face a problem that most students either abandoned in high school or are not lucky enough to have—how to balance the academic with the creative and eschew the expectation that those attending a premier educational institution should simply join a premier professional one.