Fashion designer returns to Veterans School to share secrets to success – Marblehead Current

It was a Veterans School homecoming for fashion designer Niko Salado last week when he returned to Marblehead to share his success story with students in teacher Molly Hauptman’s art classes. Salado was Hauptman’s student a decade ago.

Today, Salado, 22, has his own fashion line based in Boston. He told students that his interest in fashion started in the Vets lunchroom.

“I saw someone wearing Jordans, the sneakers, and I really liked them,” he said. “I saw people on Instragram wearing nice sneakers, nice clothing. My mom got me an internship at (the sneaker boutique) Laced in Boston.”

For his MHS senior project, Salado worked for a tailor in Boston.

“He taught me how to sew,” Salado said.

Thanks to that senior project, he was way ahead of his peers when he started studying fashion at Framingham State University.

Salado wrote his college essay about being a METCO student in Marblehead in grades two through 12.

“I found that the more stories we shared, the more things we had in common,” Salado wrote. “I learned that just because we come from different backgrounds or look different, it does not mean that we do not face the same struggles or have the same goals of seeking acceptance and yearning to make something great of ourselves.”

He received a full, four-year scholarship to Framingham State and spent six months studying fashion in Florence, Italy.

Salado showed students some of his latest designs, including a parachute skirt and bags. He explained that the goal of design is to address a problem, and he listed seven steps in the design process.

1. Understand the problem you’re trying to solve.
2. Do research.
3. Create a concept based on your research.
4. Create a prototype.
5. Test the prototype.
6. Fix the design to address any issues.
7. Repeat.

There are four elements to a good design, he added: It needs to be functional, visually pleasing, user-friendly and sustainable.

The seventh-grade students in Hauptman’s class are working on their own designs — of backpacks. One boy shared his idea of inventing a compression system that would shoot out a pencil when you pushed a button.

Asked what advice he would give his seventh-grade self, Salado said, “Not to be afraid of failure. You’re never going to get everything right on the first try. It’s all possible; you just have to keep trying.”

That message resonated with student Luke Whipple. 

“He was discouraged, but he didn’t give up,” Whipple said.

To learn more about Salado’s designs, visit nikosalado.com.