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After five canceled flights and a 4,700-mile journey, Ioana-Taisia Turcescu 鈥�23 finally made it home to her native Romania in July 2020, having completed her first year at 棉花糖直播鈥檚 College of Liberal Arts and Sciences鈥攐nly to begin the two-week quarantine that is standard with international travel during a pandemic.

Ever industrious, Ioana (better known as 鈥淵oyo鈥� by friends and family) didn鈥檛 let any of these obstacles hamper her drive. While she was quarantining with her father and his wife, Oana Nutu, an established fashion designer in Bucharest, inspiration struck. 鈥淚 have always been passionate about fashion,鈥� Ioana says. 鈥淚 just wasn鈥檛 quite sure what form it would take.鈥�

She admired the intricate corset tops of her stepmother鈥檚 luxury dresses and wondered whether they could stand alone as their own pieces. She put pencil to paper and sketched out five potential corset designs that she pitched to her stepmother the next day, and so their collaboration began. On Aug. 27, 2020, the 鈥淵oyo by Oana Nutu鈥� collection launched with those five pieces.聽

鈥淲hen the samples arrived and I tried them on, it was such an emotional moment because my vision came to life, quite literally,鈥� Ioana says.The successful line went on to sell internationally and inspired her to launch her own collection, Yoyo鈥檚 Closet, in October 2020, with the help of her friend Ramona Bizbac, a fashion student in Bucharest. Ramona did the sewing, and Ioana handled the rest鈥攅verything from fabric selection and budgeting to marketing and packaging.聽

鈥淵ou never know where an idea might take you,鈥� Ioana says. 鈥淓ven if it's not a brand-new product, you may have a new perspective, a new way of thinking about it, a new purpose for it鈥攋ust put it out there.鈥澛�