The party was quickly approaching and Lincoln Powell could not find anything to wear.  There was no time to go shopping.

He went outside, hung up a pair of old Dickies shorts on the clothesline and splattered house paint all over them. Powell repeated the same process with his shirt.

Powell is a senior mass communication major and is the owner and designer of Preppy Poindexter, a new fashion line that has recently been caught trending at ULM.

“It’s a feeling you can’t describe,” Powell said of seeing students wear his clothing.

The brand officially began this January and has been sold to anywhere from 50 to 100 ULM students, according to Powell.

The first ULM student to ever buy a Preppy Poindexter shirt was Kahya Mayweather, who recently transferred back to Shreveport.

“I remember before the clothing line came out, he was asking if he made a few shirts would I support him…I wanted to be the first to know about it. Hence, I was the first to purchase a Preppy Poindexter tee,” Mayweather said.

According to Powell, a poindexter is anyone who is being truly who they are, which played a role into him naming his brand “Preppy Poindexter.”

It can be described as a brand where anyone can pick it up and make it his or her own said Powell.

Powell is not the only fashion designer on campus. According to him, there are at least four or five fashion designers at ULM that are also students.

It’s more like a support system than a competition said Powell.

He has been interested in fashion since he was a child.

Powell said he would anxiously await “Rip the Runway” on BET every year and  couldn’t wait for it to come on.

Then one day he thought.

“Maybe I’m into fashion more than I would really like to admit.”

Powell’s parents are his biggest fans and his mom, he said, is his unofficial secretary.

Being raised in Lake Providence, where the nearest WalMart is in the next parish, Powell always felt like an outcast.

Powell said people  would say things like ‘Ew plaid shorts, why do you have on plaid shorts?’

Two weeks later they would all have on plaid shorts.

Powell’s inspiration behind his clothing is the everyday college student.

Powell has not always been so confident in his dreams of being a designer.

“I went back and forth so many times,” Powell said, “You know in the back of your mind that you can, but there’s still that fear of failure.”

Powell said he would call his mom and worry about if people would buy his stuff or not.

“You just have to get started,” was her advice, according to Powell.

Powell’s two favorite styles are urban and preppy. He hopes that the future will allow him the means to create another line that leans more towards an urban feel.

“You don’t see people really wearing colors. We are conservative here. People wear polos and pretty much nothing else, “ Powell said.

He hopes to make crazy colors his signature mark on the fashion world- especially when it comes to cardigans and blazers.

Designing for men is what he truly loves, because there are already so many clothing stores devoted to women.

Powell’s advice to anyone with a big dream in fashion is to make sure you do research, make sure it’s something people will like and make sure it’s something people can relate to.

Powell’s website launched on March 29 and his line consists of clothing from socks to muscle shirts.

Expanding the brand is in Powell’s plans for the rest of 2013, and he has been invited to be in his second fashion show of the year this May.

“Preppy Poindexter is going to go further than he could have ever imagined,” Mayweather said.