TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) – A Terre Haute South graduate turned her passion for sewing into a career overseas, and it all started in the 4-H program.
“It’s so amazing that I was able to like get down and nitty gritty with the animals and work really really hard and learn what it means to work hard but then also come in the house and do scrapbooking and sewing and any type of poster,” Hayley Hayhurst said.
Hayhurst said she was in 4H for as long as she can remember, along with most of her family members.
She learned quickly that she enjoyed working with her hands and tapping into her creativity.
“I took ‘learn to sew’ classes when I was like 8 or 9 and I distinctly remember sitting in that class and learning, it’s still a very vivid memory to me and I did it all 10 years, I sewed and I was always really interested in fashion,” Hayhurst said.
Her interest in passion and sewing took her all the way to Purdue University after graduating from Terre Haute South in 2018.
She spent her junior year studying abroad at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City and spent the summer before that in London.
“I think it was my third or fourth day, or maybe the first full weekend we were there and I just knew immediately that was it. You just get that soul feeling of ‘I’m home’,” Hayhurst said.
She now lives in London full-time and currently considers herself a ‘freelance tailor’.
“I’m really interested in making really beautiful, made-to-measure things at an affordable price point because there’s nothing like having a garment that’s completely made to your body, it’s just like a second skin and I like to make things that yeah you might pay a bit more for but it’s made to last a lifetime,” Hayhurst said.
She said she will likely have career shifts because she has so many different interests in the fashion industry, but one thing remains certain.
“Anybody is capable of doing anything. If I can grow up in mid-America on a farm and end up in London, anybody can do that,” Hayhurst said.
Hayhurst has a B.S. in Apparel Design and Technology from Purdue, an A.A.S. in Fashion Business Management from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, and a B.A. in Bespoke Tailoring from the London College of Fashion.
