Before coming to the Drexel Graduate Fashion Design program, Kate Murphy tried interior and graphic design. “I found a reason to love every design program I explored. Ultimately, I chose the fashion design program, not because I loved clothes more than chairs or Helvetica typeface, but because the professors in the program were people I knew I could learn from and relate to.”

“Fashion taught me the purpose of fit and functionality — such as why clothes designed for working out need to be looser or stretch more than clothes intended to be worn to the opera.” After working as a designer for fashion companies Urban Outfitters, Express, Lucky Brand, and Forever 21, she accepted an opportunity to work on costumes for a film in Hollywood. Kate utilized the creative problem solving she learned to develop and create the processes needed to be part of the design team to build hero suits for movies like Deadpool 2 and Black Panther, which won an Oscar for Best Costume Design.

The team experience of costume design taught Kate the value of iteration and how the user requirements inform the design process. She currently applies these values at &Partners, helping build ethical technology products for the fashion industry.