The jean genius

Animals tend to create havoc around the house. A dog that knocks over a bucket of paint, leading to stained clothing, is often reprimanded.

But for Briyannah Pearson, a 15-year-old sophomore at Oceanside High School, she wasn’t upset the day her dog spilled paint over a pair of jeans she owned. Instead she was inspired.

“That’s how I got the idea,” said Pearson, who last year won the Denim Project, a Facebook contest sponsored by JCPenney and offered to youngsters under the age of 18 to design custom-made jeans for the retailer.

Pearson entered the contest last July, after her dog spilled paint on pair of jeans in her house. The incident was an epiphany for the youngster, who used splattered paint to create her own “Briyannah” jeans for the competition.

The jean style she made, resembling a Jackson Pollock painting, is experimental in nature. In August, her submission was named the winner of the online clothing contest. “I was so ecstatic,” she recalled. “All my friends back home were so proud of me.”

For Briyannah, back home is Georgia. The teenager moved to Oceanside with her family three months ago. She previously attended Lithia Springs High school, where she spent a good part of her childhood growing up.

Before that, she lived in Queens until the third grade when her family moved south.

While living in Georgia, Briyannah designed her jeans. The pair she made was bought from retail clothing stores like Old Navy, and the youngster said she invested “a lot of hard work” into the project.

As part of her winnings for the competition, Briyannah’s pants were sold to JCPenney outlets in Georgia and New York. She also received a school scholarship prize for $1,000 along with a free shopping spree.

With the Denim Project being the first fashion contest she has won thus far, Briyannah said she plans to enter similar competitions in the future.  

She also hopes to be a professional designer herself someday. Right now, the sophomore is taking a class in Fashion and Clothing, taught under the direction of her teacher and mentor Janice Imbrogno at the high school.

Briyannah is also taking weekend classes at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. “The classes are kind of challenging,” she said. “But I’m definitely motivated.”