Four years learning
to build systems.
Now learning to build clothes.

Who I am

My name is Chaitanya Valluru. I grew up in Hyderabad, India, and spent four years studying Computer Science. I wrote my first line of code at 16. I became genuinely interested in fashion at 21—not as a consumer, but as a student of its systems: how collections are conceived, how silhouettes communicate, how a brand like Maison Margiela can make the absence of branding into its loudest statement.

I am applying to fashion schools in Italy because I believe the next generation of fashion practice will be built by people who can move between code and cloth without friction. I want to be one of those people—and I am willing to start from the very beginning to get there.

My CS Background

My undergraduate work focused on web development, data structures, and backend systems. I built projects in Node.js, Java, and Python. I learned to think about problems architecturally—breaking them into components, understanding dependencies, managing complexity. This kind of thinking, I am discovering, translates surprisingly well to fashion design.

A garment is a system. A collection is an architecture. A brand is a language with grammar rules. I did not know this when I started studying fashion, but it is what keeps me studying.

How I got here
2020
Started B.Tech in Computer Science
Hyderabad. Learned programming fundamentals, data structures, web development.
2023
First encounter with fashion theory
Read about Margiela by accident. Watched "The First Monday in May". Realised fashion is a serious intellectual discipline.
2024
Started self-studying fashion
History of 20th century fashion. Colour theory. Textile basics. Watched every Margiela documentary I could find.
2024–25
Built first fashion-tech projects
Mood board tool, colour palette app, size guide converter, VOID lookbook concept. All in this portfolio.
2025
Applying to Istituto Marangoni + IED Milano
Building this portfolio. Learning Italian. Preparing the statement of purpose.
Skills — Honest Assessment
HTML / CSS / JavaScript
Advanced
Python / Java
Proficient
Figma / Adobe Illustrator
Intermediate
CLO 3D
Learning
Fashion History
Self-taught
Garment Construction
Beginner
"I am not applying because I am already a fashion designer. I am applying because I am determined to become one—and I have a technical foundation that I believe, with the right education, can become an asset to the field."
— Personal Statement, 2025