Laguna Beach High graduate Anthony Ramirez has his eyes set on the fashion world

Anthony Ramirez said he’s always liked art, but there was something about fashion that spoke to him — clothes, he said, were like watching Vincent van Gogh’s paintings brought to life. Fashion was something that gave expression and showed who a person was through art.

“I’ve always loved the idea of fabrics going down the runway,” Anthony said, “how it fits, how it can change a person.”

So, maybe it’s not much of a surprise that that’s what Anthony decided he wanted to pursue after graduating from Laguna Beach High School on Thursday, along with about 254 other seniors in a drive-through ceremony at Guyer Field.

This fall, Anthony is leaving his hometown of Laguna Beach to attend the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles to study fashion design. He said he was up-cycling pairs of jeans at home and designing in-between his online classes, adding that it’s been relieving to do fashion during the pandemic.

But, fashion wasn’t always what he thought he wanted to do. In fact, Anthony said he had been planning to go into criminology — at least until he got diagnosed with Stage II Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a blood cancer that targets the lymphatic system, just before he started his junior year of high school.

“I couldn’t attend my junior year for my first semester because I had to have treatment, but ... at that time, [I thought] ‘life is short,’” Anthony said. “You only have one. Whatever you want to do, just do it. Do I want to be a criminologist because that’s what people want me to do?”

Anthony said that once he completed treatment, he applied to FIDM. He is now in remission.

“This is full circle. Everything I’ve dreamt of and worked for … I finally got into my dream college,” Anthony said. “After, I ... had this moment of relief and this moment of, ‘I finally did it, but you still haven’t.’ It’s still kind of this moment of still keep going. Don’t stop. Just keep going. I want to be a role model.”

“I don’t want to just be a fashion designer,” he said.

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Anthony said he hopes to enter the denim industry, adding that he felt there was a big industry for it and that he wanted to include culture in what he designed.

“Everyone wears denim,” Anthony said. “I love denim because it’s way a showing androgyny. A man and a woman can wear jeans. Anyone can wear jeans. Anyone can wear the jeans — plus sizes, extra small, super tall, super short, super comfortable and being super proud of who they are.”

Anthony Ramirez said he’s been up-cycling jeans at home.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

As the coronavirus pandemic upended his senior year and very nearly made his graduation ceremony online, Anthony said that he looked for the silver lining.

“Now that [a typical graduation was] taken away from us, we can’t just look back,” Anthony said. “The past is the past. What’s happening is happening. Just keep going. Don’t let this stop you. They think it’s a pause, but for me I think it’s more of a reflection. What can I do to further myself now that I have this extra time?”

“Focusing on the negative just takes away the passion that all seniors have had, which is going to the real world and finally being able to do whatever we want,” he said. “I don’t think COVID-19 should take that away from us.”

“We can always re-do the graduation ceremony a few months later. There’s always time to re-do grad ceremony. There’s no time to redo our passion, life, dreams and goals and we just have to sit on that,” Anthony said.

While in high school, Anthony was part of the school’s dance program since his freshman year and took a handful of Advanced Placement classes but said most of his classes were “very simple.” He said his senior year was different, particularly because he chose to focus his efforts on a regional occupational program for fashion at Capistrano Valley High School in Mission Viejo.

Now with graduation over and his classmates — some, since kindergarten — heading off in their own directions, Anthony said he wanted to encourage them to not take life for granted, which he said he knew was a cliché.

“To make life seem that life is short, that approach — it will change your life forever. It will,” Anthony said. “I know there are some seniors that are scared. I’m still scared of going into the real world. It’s not as dandy. It’s harsh sometimes.”

“But at the end of the day, we gotta put on our helmets, our armor and go in and conquer everything we can do,” he said. “If there’s a door closed, don’t stop. Keep going. If something happens, we don’t stop. We never stop.”

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