People of Central: Brandon Miller

Story by: Beth Nocerini

“It’s like an art form that everyone has to subscribe to. Not everyone has to have a painting in their house, but everybody has to have clothes on,” said Brandon Miller on what has motivated him to pursue a degree in fashion design.  

Miller is currently a sophomore at CMU who found his love for designing when scheduling classes for his freshman year of high school and decided to take a fashion design class. “During COVID I taught myself how to sew, knit, crochet, embroider, everything,” he said.  

“Back then they didn’t make clothes small enough for my grandma, so she had to make a lot of her own clothes or shop in the kids’ aisle,” said Miller. His grandmother served as inspiration to create while growing up. Miller described her as a skinny legend.  

Miller chose CMU off intuition, “I just had a feeling that this was the vibe, and it was,” he said.  

“Being able to pursue my dream and career dreams,” and “making new accomplishments every day,” is Millers favorite parts about being a student at CMU.  

Miller runs and owns his own small business making bags out of denim and different clothing scraps. In July 2024 Miller made his first bag, he explained the all day process of making his first bag.

First seeing a picture of a patchwork bag online that inspired him, Miller then spent the entire day working on placing the patches to create a style he liked and sewing the bag together. “It was a noon to 2am type of day,” he said.  

Miller sold his first bag in September 2024. His biggest event was this past July at the Ann Arbor Art Fair where he made $1,000 in sales. “My brother owns a restaurant there and he let me have a little corner of his patio during the fair,” he said.  

A big challenge Miller faces is having enough time to get everything done. “I have google calendar which is my best idea ever, I don’t know how I went without it,” said Miller.  

When struggling with creativity, Miller likes to listen to music. When he feels burnt out, “I take a step back and make something different,” he said.  

Certain majors have stereotypes or misconceptions. One thing that Miller found to not be true about fashion design was that it’s all just arts and crafts. One he did find to be true was, “we work hard, party hard,” he said.  

After college Miller hopes to continue designing. “I would like to design clothes for either my own brand or another brand,” Miller said.