(She takes most of my pictures for my fashion shows).
I took classes at LIM college or the Labratory Institute of Merchandising. I signed up for Fashion Show Production, Fashion Magazines, and Fashion Behind the Scences. It was really a great experience and I met people from all over the country, and from other countries such as Spain, Brazil, and Belgium. For my fashion show production class I was on the style team. We had to create a fashion show in 4 days- we had to create a theme, invites, promote the show, find models, and clothes. Our theme was "Behind the Plastic", and we had "Barbie" looks and "normal" looks that corresponded to the "Barbie" looks. It was really a successful show, and our teacher Mister Lee said it was the best one he had seen!
Speaking of him, he was probably one of the best teachers I have ever had. He really made me realize how you really have to know a lot of history to be involved in fashion. If you don't know who influenced who, then you aren't giving credit for the people that invented or started certain things. We even had a quiz on some basic fashion history terms and important people, and it was probably the best quiz I have ever taken.
In my fashion magazines class I had to create my own 30 page magazine. It was really quite tedious and I had to stay after class until the IT man at LIM kicked me out and told me the school was closing. We had to have a photo shoot for the center of the book editorial, write an editorial about ourselves, make an ad using a photo from the photo shoot, and a cover picture using another picture from the photo shoot. We had to make a table of contents as well and headlines and dummy copy to go along with each headline within the magazine. I had to create a calender for three months of my choice and create different headlines and have a different person for the cover. I only had to chose one of those to actually make. I learned a lot about what it takes to make a magazine, and it is not easy!
Finally, my fashion behind the scenes class was a class where I didn't have to do as much work, however I did have to make a final presentation. We went to M & S Schmalberg, which is a family owned company that makes fabric flowers. They are one of the few surviving businesses in the garment district. It was really sad hearing Warren Brand, the current owner of the company, speak about how it is a struggling business. A hundred years ago, the garment industry thrived off of locally owned businesses that made clothes. Nowadays, things are sent to Asia to be made because it is cheaper. Despite the fact that Warren said they were struggling, the fabric flowers were beautiful creations that were very decorative. It was my favorite field trip because I learned the perspective of local designers in the fashion industry. M & S Schmalberg makes the flowers for many famous designers' clothes including Chanel and Jcrew. They also make flowers for celebrities as accessories, such as Anne Hathaway and Sarah Jessica Parker for Sex and the City 2. You might think that they only make things for big time companies and people, but everyday people can go in and ask for orders. No order is too big or small for them. The great thing about these flowers is that I saw how they were made by hand and it was really a phenomenon to see!
I also went to the Tommy Hilfiger corporation and I got to see their archives. The interesting thing about their archives is that 90% of the clothes in it aren't actually Tommy Hilfiger. It is a room that was made for inspiration for the designers- to cut off swatches and see different styles of clothing.
Aside from going to school everyday, I also went to see the exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: "American Woman Fashioning a National Identity", which was by far the best exhibit I have ever seen. It started off with designs from the great Charles Fredrick Worth and continued through the eras, showing different Paul Poiret and Jeanne Lanvin designs. Of course there was an original Gabrielle Chanel. I also went to the FIT Museum and they had an exhibit on eco-fashion. As an environmentalist and a designer who uses recycled materials, I really was enthralled by the different methods of ec0-friendly design. Aside from the museums, I also managed to go see the "Catwalk Sidewalk" which is temporary exhibit on the streets of New York where over 100 designers designed a mannequin with any material that could withstand the elements. They were later going to be auctioned to benefit the "Save the Garment District" campaign.
Batli and I loved walking around Greenwich Village and Soho. New York City is definitely the best place to people watch and I had a great time seeing some eccentric fashion combinations. Did I mention that I took a tour of MOOD? Unfortunately Swatch wasn't there! But my tour guide was a student at FIT, and he was quite a character!
And of course I saved the best for last! I got to go where the Marc Jacobs sample dresses are made for the runway shows. I spoke to the people who actually make the dresses and they explained to me all the technical work. Looking at the dresses in their process of being made was quite amazing and I noticed all the hand work that goes into making the dresses. I also went where Rag and Bone dresses were being made for mass production. I thought all clothes were assembled in Indonesia or China, but actually there are quite a few companies that still employ Americans to assemble their clothes!
-RoJo
