Rey Pador hired at Detroit’s CCS represents new wave of fashion education

Although there is little that’s traditional about Rey Pador’s approach to education, the recent faculty hire at College for Creative Studies charged with overseeing the newly launched apparel design addition to the fashion department, describes their fashion education as classical. Pador attended tailoring school and completed an apprenticeship which led them to view fashion as a marriage of art and construction. They also worked in NYC as a self-described “studio elf” for a knitwear company. After entering the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp at the age of 24 on a whim, completing both a bachelors and masters program, Pador worked at Marc Jacobs, then started their own company offering design solutions to brands such as Dries Van Noten. Before moving to the US, they also taught for a year at a university in India.

Currently, two weeks from the end of their first semester at the Detroit school, Pador speaks to FashionUnited about their decision to accept the role at a time when educators are leaving their jobs in droves, and strikes by part-time faculty are happening on both coasts.

“I feel like fashion education is in a little bit of a weird situation because you can learn everything online now, how to design, how to make,” says Pador. “So I have to ask myself what is the validity of what I’m teaching when young people can approach a problem through their own means, whether it be YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram.”

Pador’s year in India greatly influences their outlook on education as they were confronted with an entirely different system, known as the Gurukula System. “The student devotes themselves to the teacher, and vice versa the teacher must devote themselves to the student, and it becomes a house, almost like an ashram for the student,” describes Pador. “So I was available for my students six days a week, day and night, and in exchange they had to follow whatever I said.” Initially hired to introduce western ideology into fashion Pador soon realized the error in this. “I can’t recolonize people,” they say. “So I had to learn how to embrace cultural identity into new ways of thinking for fashion and about Indian culture and identity which included mythology, caste systems, and current political, social, economic standings.” The experience solidified ideas they hope to implement in CCS.

Detroit, nicknamed Motor City for its reputation in automotive manufacture, the home of original streetwear/workwear label Carhartt, has a deep artisanal and craft history, that has been reemerging with its newer brands such as Shinola watch and leather goods makers. It’s no coincidence that Hermès chose Detroit as the US location to launch its exhibit “In The Making.”

Fashion education that elevates the creativity of Detroit

“In the first year you learn local; in junior year you learn national; and in your third year you present international,” says Pador, who believes that the only holistic and sustainable approach to design comes from understanding your personal cultural value based on the place where you are. It’s a refreshing point of view considering that international education for the past several decades has focused on what a handful of select schools in European cities, particularly London, are producing. For Pador the importance of understanding a local clientele is as important when starting out as knowing the work of Balenciaga, Dior, Givenchy, Martin Margiela: “What people forget is that they all made money based on their own cultural identity and what they strongly believed.”

The circus-like nature of the global industry and its dictates are out of favor, believes Pador, and there is a need for the old guard, those in power who are still operating as if it’s the 90s, to step aside.

“I see my students approaching the world in an entirely different way than I do,” says Pador. “In many cases, I don’t fully understand them but I know if I don’t remove my ego from the situation then I am forcing the student to think the way I think, in a process which has been simmering and cooking for the past 20 years.”

On being an educator during the Great Resignation

Some of the reasons behind the Great Resignation and the well-documented unrest among educators are, believes Pador, linked to the inevitable generational abyss created by technology. Engagement looks different these days. Professors getting frustrated with students for using their phone during class might be forgetting that this is how students take notes, record conversations, research. For Pador students are not in the classroom to present something to their instructor but rather to gain from that instructor a proven methodology that works in industry for the long term.

Pador’s experience in India also colors how he views sustainability: “If I don’t have sustainable thoughts about protecting myself and my creativity in an industry that just grinds me down and which, let’s be honest, will only change millimeters a decade, how can I be sustainable about the planet?”

Pador credits Kismet for bringing them to Detroit. They had been thinking of returning to Europe, perhaps rejoining the industry to work as a pattern maker, when news of the CCS opening reached their ears. Initially unsure about a move to Detroit, Pador gelled with the Chair of Fashion Design, Aki Choklat, during the interview especially after discovering they had mutual friends in Europe. Then techno music came along and sealed the deal.

“I went to a secret concert in Chicago of Kevin Saunderson who is a techno legend and he’s from Detroit,” says Pador. "When he was done with his set he talked about how Detroit and Chicago are sister cities, but Detroit will always be the future of everything.” Pador’s face brightens, acknowledging the value of the serendipitous forces at play in life’s big decisions. “Ok, if Kevin says this then I have to go. Families that rave together stay together.”