ANN ARBOR — Toward the end of middle school, Romeo Klobucar started being conscious about what he wore.
His newfound interest led him to start a fashion club at Ann Arbor Community High School, and dabble in creating clothes of his own.
The 16-year-old has since earned six credits from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit across two stints at summer programs, most recently winning a scholarship to a Fashion Accessories Design summer camp residency.
Klobucar was one of ten recipients of a “Creating a Sustainable Future” challenge scholarship, which allowed him to attend a three-week residency in Detroit worth roughly $3,500, according to a press release. During the residency, Klobucar designed and made a pair of shoes and a handbag from scrap materials.
“It was a really fun project, something I’ve never really done before,” Klobucar said.
With these credits and duel enrollment at Washtenaw Community College, he plans on graduating high school a year early. As part of the residency, he has the chance to compete for a full-ride scholarship to the Fashion Accessories Design program at CCS — but Klobucar said he likely won’t pursue the field.
“Out of all the people that are running, there’s a great group of kids,” Klobucar said. “Someone deserving is going to get it.”
Klobucar’s true passion is in storytelling and visual art. As it turns out, there’s a lot of overlap between fashion and elements of theming and symbolism.
“Something that I’m very, very passionate about and want to continue with is concept design and character design, which has super huge elements of fashion design and it combines a lot of my interests,” Klobucar said. “The way fashion can tie into a greater piece of media is super duper interesting.”
He said he’s started paying attention to what fictional characters wear and exploring the role fashion plays in storytelling, after seeing creators he follows on social media analyze decisions made in popular media. He’s analyzed the changing uses of clothing and color in “The Shining,” something he said he would love to try his hand at someday.
“There are such decisive things that are done in media with fashion,” Klobucar said. “Shortly after I realized, ‘this is something I can do.’”
Klobucar’s work already drips with symbolism. Inspired often by horror and religious imagery in particular, his residency accessories were intended to be discomforting. His shoes, made with sheep fur, feature an “eye” of leather staring back.
“Horror is probably my second or third biggest inspiration for all of my art,” Klobucar said. “Even if it isn’t horror elements specifically, it’s just kind creepy, eerie, a little bit off-putting. Like me.”
As a junior in high school, he’s not sure exactly what he wants to do for the rest of his life, but he said illustration or cartooning are contenders. Klobucar might not end up designing clothes for a living, but he could be involved in fictional fashion.
“I’m very interested in ways to tell stories with art,” Klobucar said. “Hopefully that involves a lot of character design, and by extension, fashion design.”
He can see himself working in a video game studio as a concept artist.
“Being able to portray stories well is just a really great skill to have, and it’s something that I want to be able to do really well,” Klobucar said. “I think it’s just very human to listen to stories, and I hope to one day be able to make stories that people really want to listen to.”
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