Beyond the Seams is a weekly feature on the MAFS blog that will highlight students’ careers, projects and more outside of the program. 

Vanessa Rosales graduated from MAFS this past May, and has since gone on to reach new heights (even though she accumulated many accolades during her time in the program). Most recently, she spoke at Colombiamoda (Colombia Fashion Week), where she presented the third chapter in her thesis, which examines Instagram and the ways it has shaped contemporary fashion. At the conference, she spoke to a room of 800 people, something she says is quite positive “in a country where intellectual outlooks on fashion are only beginning to breed.”

Nonetheless, Vanessa’s outlooks on fashion have been more than bred, they’ve flourished, gaining her recognition and features in some of fashion’s most infamous publications. She balances her time as the digital director of communication for Seven Seven with being a freelance writer for VOGUE Latin America and The Daily Beast. Her audacious voice and critiques on Colombian fashion have been both celebrated and disregarded. And, her background in journalism and history has allowed her to make her imprint on the media industry at large. In 2012, she launched her fashion website Vanguard, which features her research, style posts and more.

Watch Vanessa’s conference presentation below (for English translation, click the transcript option when the video begins to play.)