Natalie Smith
Fashion Department Chair and Instructor
Downtown Campus
Email: natsmith@ccsf.edu
Natalie Smith is the Chair for the Fashion Department of City College of San Francisco. She has worked in the fashion retail industry for over 38 years. She spent most of her career working for Macy's and one of her proudest achievements was co-producing the Macy's Passport fashion show for 21 years.
Natalie is also one of the founders of Fashion Incubator San Francisco (FiSF) and serves on its advisory committee. In addition to teaching, Natalie is a freelance fashion show and event producer and loves to provide her students with hands-on experience on her events whenever she can. Natalie has an AA degree in Interior Design from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising and began her teaching career at CCSF in 2002.
Kelly Armstrong
Fashion Department Instructor
Downtown Campus
Email: kelly.armstrong@mail.ccsf.edu
Kelly Armstrong has more than 25 years of experience in public relations and image consulting. As the founder of Artist Development/Imagemaking, Armstrong enjoys helping people “be their best, by looking and feeling their best” in body and spirit by giving advice about skin care, makeup, grooming, overall personal appearance, presentation skills, and job readiness training.
Partnering with the Plant Recording Studio and stores like Wilkes Bashford, Kelly has dressed artists for album covers and videos, freelanced as a makeup artist with clients that included CBS 5 (KPIX), San Francisco’s Mayor Willie Brown, and taught makeup classes through CCSF Extended Education Program. Faz Restaurants, Marriott Marquis Hotel, Chevron, Renaissance Entrepreneurial Center, Independent Living, Brookside Hospital and San Francisco Unified School District, and others have also benefited from Armstrong’s public relations and image consulting expertise.
Additionally, for more than a decade she has been an Independent Consultant with BeautiControl Skincare & Cosmetics now with Color Me Beautiful.
Armstrong is the Founder of Primed & Prepped: A Hospitality Management/Culinary Arts Mentoring and Job Training Program at the Bayview Hunters Point YMCA. The program introduces young men and women of color ages 14-24 to a multitude of career opportunities, trainings, and professional resources that leads to meaningful employment in the Hospitality Management/Culinary Arts industry.
Armstrong holds a BA in Public Relations and Music Business Management from San Francisco State University, Apparel Construction and Advance Apparel Construction certificates and an AS from City College of San Francisco. She has been teaching Personal Styling/Image Consulting at CCSF since 2001.
Elizabeth Barsali
Fashion Department Instructor
Email: ebarsali@ccsf.edu
Tony Bravo
Fashion Department Instructor
Email: mrtonybravo@gmail.com
Tony is a regular contributor to the San Francisco Chronicle's Style, Datebook, and 96 Hours sections, as well as authoring SFGate's relationship blog, "Love & Sex in SF." Tony is also the Chronicle and Hearst Newspapers' New York Fashion Week correspondent. In addition to teaching in CCSF's fashion department, he has taught at the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts (of which he is also an alumnus) and is an advisory board member at the Fashion Incubator San Francisco.
Priscilla Fong
Fashion Department Instructor
Downtown Campus
Email: pfong@ccsf.edu
Priscilla Fong, a native of San Francisco received a BA in Clothing and Textiles with an emphasis in Fashion Merchandising. She attended San Francisco State University. She has extensive experience in the retail industry with focus on merchandising, visual presentations and store operations. She possesses a true "PASSION" for the retail business. Early in her career, she cofounded the Personal Styling firm- Image N' Me. She assisted personal clients on outfitting, color schemes and personal shopping. The majority of her experience was spent at the Mervyn's Corporate headquarters. She was a Senior Buyer in Women's Apparel and Senior Visual Merchandising/Marketing Manager. She is well versed in product development and has created various private labels in apparel. Priscilla taught Brand Imaging at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising at the San Francisco campus.
Priscilla opened the Forever 21 store at the Stonestown Galleria Mall in 2009. She recruited, hired, trained, and developed the employees. She was the store manager from 2009-2017. Priscilla thrives on sharing her insight on her merchandising experiences and its impact on the current retail climate.
Paul Gallo
Fashion Department Instructor
Chinatown/North Beach Campus
Email: pgallo@ccsf.edu
Paul began his career at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. He was so into this industry, he was interning on 7th Avenue before he graduated with his degree. He had his first line of clothing by the age of 21 and his designs have appeared in magazines, TV, movies and the web ever since.
Paul has become a master patternmaker, draper and can construct any type of garment. His current company, Gallofornia, is 10 years old and has costumed productions for many Bay Area theatres, designed menswear lines and produced hundreds of custom made outfits for dancers, singers and riff-raff. Paul has had fabulous fashion and gallery shows of his work.
He has been teaching 1 or 2 classes a week for 19 years at various colleges and art schools across America. It is his attempt to unleash creativity in his fellow humans and give them technical skills to back up their artistic vision. Having your intrinsic talents become your work for the benefit of all is part of the goal. Paul continues to take on various projects that involve art and fashion and to share that knowledge with people looking to express themselves in the language of clothing.
Jill Giordano
Fashion Department Instructor
Evans Center
Email: jgiordano@ccsf.edu
Jill Giordano has worked in the fashion industry for almost 20 years, with 15 years teaching at various design schools including Academy of Art University (her Alma Mater) and City College San Francisco.
Jill is the owner and designer behind gr.dano, a women’s clothing line known for its modern, unique, and architecturally-inspired designs. gr.dano has sold to over 100 boutiques nationwide as well as several major department stores, with a flagship store in Sausalito, CA. Crafted entirely in Sausalito and manufactured in San Francisco, gr.dano has garnered awards and attention from fashion industry groups, press, editors, and retailers throughout the U.S. for the impeccable structure and easy drape of its designs. Awards include: Gen Art Fresh Faces in Fashion Winner 2008, 7x7 Magazine Style Council 2010, California Design Biennial Pasadena Museum of Art 2010, Editor’s Choice 2014-Marin Magazine, Best New Retail Business 2014-Pacific Sun, Craftsmanship Magazine Feature - The Antidote to Fast Fashion.
Diego Gómez
Fashion Department Instructor
Downtown Campus
Email: dgomez@ccsf.edu
Diego is a San Francisco native and a graduate of the Art Institute with a Bachelors in Graphic Design. They were an Art Director for YO! Youth Outlook Magazine; Production Artist/Designer for home textile companies T.H.Inc!, Keeco & Pottery Barn Kids; and Visual Merchandiser for PaperSource, United Colors of Benetton, Sisley & William Sonoma. They’ve designed costumes, props, and accessories for theater companies, individuals, and various boutiques, as well as taught crafting and makeup classes.
In 2011, Diego made SFBG‘s "Hot Pink List" and co-curated "Queering Mythologies" for the National Queer Arts Festival. In 2012, they fashion illustrated live at the De Young museum for the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibit / Paris is Burning night and went on to be Artist-in-Resident at Providence, Rhode Island’s "AS220" where they created the fashion illustration book "The Hard-Femme Ex-Men" - reimagining the X-Men superheroes in gender flexible fashions. In 2013, Diego created the panel discussion "Homo Superior: Queering Comics, Costumes as Drag & Gender Equality" for Stan Lee's Comic book Expo in Venice, California; was the Theatre Bay Area cover model; made SF Weekly’s "Best of San Francisco;" and was featured in SFBG‘s "Hot Pink List" for the second time. In 2015, Diego wrote, illustrated, and published the civil rights comic book "1963 Is Not an End, But A Beginning: A Graphic History" during their second Art Residency at Providence’s "AS220."
In 2016, they were featured on BuzzFeed, ComicBook.com, and other sites globally for the creation of 'Disney Princess X-Men' as well as being a featured panelist on 'Geeks & Glamazons: Gender Bending in Comics' at RuPaul’s Drag Con LA. They have also performed and exhibited art across the San Francisco Bay Area, Hollywood, Ohio, New York, Rhode Island, and at Palais de Tokyo in Paris, France.
Diego has been a Professor of Fashion at City College San Francisco since 2018 and were featured in KQED Arts twice in 2019 - once for their drag and once for their comic book work. In 2019, Diego hosted 'QT CON' - a POC LGBTQAI comic book creators discussion group at Strut-sponsored by Color Bloq, created the drag/fashion comic book 'Hell Babes,' and taught a fashion illustration class at the Apple store in Union Square for 'Today at Apple.' You can find Diego all over cyber space - @DesignNurd.
Judy Jackson
Fashion Department Instructor
Chinatown/North Beach Campus
Email: jjackson@ccsf.edu
Judy has over 25 years of teaching experience in the field of Fashion Design and has taught at many schools including SF State, FIDM, Santa Rosa Junior College and Canada College. Her interest in costuming has also led to “second career” as a theater costumer and designer. Judy has done freelance work for such Bay Area companies as San Francisco Ballet, Oakland Ballet and Beach Blanket Babylon and has designed costumes for many local theater companies.
Judy has a Master’s degree from San Francisco State, where her research centered on the design and development of nineteenth century women’s costume. She teaches a wide range of courses in the fashion design curriculum including Textiles, History of Costume, and Tailoring. She considers pattern development to be her particular specialty - teaching flat pattern, computer aided pattern development and grading, draping and historic patternmaking at various Bay Area colleges. She has taught at City College since 1990.
Annette Juilly
Fashion Department Instructor
Chinatown Campus
Email: annettejuilly@ccsf.edu
Annette Juilly started her Fashion Career at a young age designing alongside her Fashion Designer Grandmother Rose Booth. She received her BA in Business and minor in Art Photography from Sonoma State University. Annette then went to New York City where she received her AAS in Fashion Design from Fashion Institute of Technology. While completing her degree in NYC, she worked for designer Betsy Johnson. Upon graduation she worked as an Assistant Designer and First Pattern Maker, then Designer and Production Pattern Maker for several NYC companies. Annette started selling her original designs to stores in NYC including Patricia Field’s House of Fields.
Annette returned to California and launched her wholesale women’s dress company under her name, Annette Marie Juilly. She designed her line of clothing, crafted the production patterns oversaw her manufacturing and sales for her company. She shipped her designs to department stores and boutiques throughout the United States including Macys, Nordstroms, Henri Bendel, Parisians, Wilkes Bashford, and thousands of boutiques nationwide. Her designs were also seen in WWD. After 6 years she closed her wholesale business to open her Couture Boutique Le Boudoir in Petaluma, CA.
She specialized in custom fit Bridal, Special Occasion, Vacation and Work Wardrobes, and Costumes. Le Boudoir had her line of ready-made separates and dresses in addition to the couture designs. Annette designed and fit over 1,500 couture outfits over the 6 years she had Le Boudoir. She also had her gowns go to the Academy Awards, and Wedding Dresses go to Paris, London, and Burning Man.
Annette has been teaching Fashion Design and Pattern Making for over 22 years. She has taught at Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising SF, Los Rios Community College, and City College of San Francisco for the last 12 years. She has also been the Production Pattern Maker at many bay area companies including; Cut Loose, Snow Angel, JD Fine – Tart, Atelier Francesca, C P Shades, and Mishi Apparel. She is excited to share her passion and knowledge of fashion design, pattern making, and new business ventures with her students and clients.
Arcadia Maximo
Fashion, Construction, & Engineering Instructor
Evans Center
Email: amaximo@ccsf.edu
Arcadia has spent 20 years in the design/architecture industry working in various positions. She started as a visual display trimmer for Macy’s in addition to being a local freelance fashion stylist. She currently teaches Visual Merchandising in the Fashion Department.
Arcadia has extensive experience in the retail industry with a focus on store design and visual display. She loves putting her ability to design, style, and create to use! She worked her way up through the ranks to her current role as a design/build licensed general contractor for residential and light commercial projects. Arcadia has been featured on HGTV: Treasure Makers, Curb Appeal, and House Detectives. She has also been written about in Sunset Magazine and California Home + Design.
Arcadia also teaches in the Construction Department and runs her own construction company Maximo Construction, which allows her to combine all her passions: fashion, design, and building. Her love for the environment and beautiful surroundings is an added bonus she incorporates into all her projects. She has been teaching at CCSF in 2008.
Lynda Maynard
Fashion Department Instructor
Evans Center
Email: lmaynard@ccsf.edu
Lynda has been in the business for the past 20 years creating haute couture garments for a private clientele. In recent years, she has created soft goods for the home in bedding, table linens, window treatments, pillows, etc. She co‑produced a locally aired cable TV show, "Sew Savvy," for about a year and has gone on to produce her own show for another year, "Passion For Fashion." Lynda Maynard has been teaching in the Bay Area for the past eleven years and has a BA in Home Economics from SJSU.
Kamal Ragbotra
Fashion Department Instructor
Evans Center
Email: kragbotra@ccsf.edu
Sylvia Rubin
Fashion Department Instructor
Downtown Campus
Email: serubin@ccsf.edu
Sylvia is a fashion journalist and the former fashion editor of The San Francisco Chronicle. For 10 years, she wrote about the runway shows at N.Y. Fashion Week for the Chronicle's Style section, in addition to writing articles about local designers and businesses. Sylvia was also an arts and entertainment feature writer writing articles about TV, theater, and movies for the Datebook and Pink sections. She has won several regional and national writing awards. Sylvia has a BA degree in English Literature from the State University of New York and has been a CCSF instructor since 2006.