By Susan Reese, Techniques
Contributing Editor
At the Center for Career and Technology Education in El Paso, Texas, students have the opportunity to explore the possibility of an exciting and glamorous career in fashion design. The center serves the El Paso Independent School District, but students have traveled from outside the district for the chance to participate in the program.
Fashion design at the Center for Career and Technology Education (CCTE) is a two-year program open to high school juniors and seniors. Instructor Ann Porter teaches two classes?one for three hours in the morning and one for three hours in the afternoon. The program emphasizes design, manufacturing, merchandising and promotion.
Since most of the students have not sewn before coming to the program, they begin in the fall by learning how to use patterns and acquiring basic skills on the sewing machine. The students learn about textiles and fabrics as well as the psychology and history of fashion. Art principles such as line, proportion and color are incorporated into the program. Porter notes that she still has more girls than boys in her classes, but she does have some talented boys, and "they keep it interesting."
The research done by the class on the history of fashion leads to a design project in the spring for the Gene Marshall doll, a 15 1/2-inch doll produced by Ashton Drake Galleries. The students use their pattern-making and sewing skills to create a garment for the doll as part of a competition. The garment must be a costume that dates back prior to the 1950s, and the student must include a story about it. The students then do fashion illustrations to promote their dolls. The dolls are kept on display for a year at the school.
Some of the costumes created by Porter?s students have actually been produced on dolls by the Ashton Drake Galleries, earning the students both recognition and royalties.
"We have done it for five years," says Porter, "and every year I think they can?t come up with something better. But they do, because they build off the years before."
The project is done in conjunction with the El Paso Community College, and Porter says it is a great experience for the students because it gives them an idea of what a designer actually does?from the initial concept to the final production.
"The competition has become part of the El Paso Heritage Festival," Porter adds, "so we have become part of the community effort to promote El Paso."
In addition to increasing their knowledge of history through the fashion design program, the students at CCTE also learn science through their experiments with textiles, do research and writing, and use their math skills in measuring, merchandising and sizing to proportion. Porter notes that the computer has made a difference in the requirements for the field of fashion design, so now the students have to learn computer skills for apparel design systems.
Because of the testing and academic credit requirements, Porter says that it is getting harder to keep these kinds of programs at the high school level, but she adds, "We have worked hard to keep this program viable and to provide students with enough time and hands-on learning to produce products."
Some of her students are only able to stay for one year because they need other credits for graduation, but she usually has a core group that is with her for the full two years. Others may decide that it is fun, but not what they want to do for a career. Career exploration is one of the benefits of a secondary career and technical education program and can result in big savings for students who might otherwise end up starting their postsecondary education all over in another field.
Porter encourages her students to go on to postsecondary education, and a number of them go to El Paso Community College, which has an articulation agreement with CCTE. This can lead to future career success, since other students who have graduated from the program are now working in the fashion industry.
One of Porter?s former students is working as a designer in Mexico City, and another owns her own business in El Paso. Two of the CCTE students have gone on to New Mexico State and are working as buyers for major department store chains.
Even if you haven?t heard of the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising (FIDM), you have probably seen the work of some of the school?s graduates. FIDM alumni are designing for companies such as GUESS?, Nautica and Z. Cavaricci. Some, like Estevan Ramos and Karen Kane, are designers with their own firms. Others are working as costume designers for movies such as The Mask, Nutty Professor, Almost Famous, Clueless and Hollow Man or for television shows such as Friends.
When Hilary Swank won her Academy Award for best actress in 2000, she was wearing a gown designed by FIDM graduate Randolph Duke?who has also dressed the likes of Angelina Jolie, Kim Basinger and Lisa Kudrow.
Big success, however, sometimes comes in small packages. Just ask FIDM graduate Patricia Chan, who designs clothes, accessories, makeup and hair for Barbie.
The namedropping could go on and on?and it does in the packets of material that the school distributed from its booth at the ACTE convention last December in Las Vegas. But who would not want to brag about the achievements of their students, especially when you can drop a name like Madonna in the process (yes, an FIDM grad?s designs can be seen in her videos).
California?s Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising is a specialized professional college with campuses in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and Orange County. It is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges and has majors in fashion design, fashion merchandising, visual communications, graphic design, interior design, apparel manufacturing management, beauty industry merchandising and marketing, Web design, footwear design, film and TV costume design, theater costume, textile design, and international manufacturing and product development.
The fashion design program at FIDM is intended to stimulate the students? creativity while also providing them with the necessary technical skills. The Associate of Arts course of study is a 90-credit program with classes that include fashion sketching, pattern drafting, three-dimensional design and computer-aided fashion design. There are also courses in English fundamentals, principles of mathematics, contemporary American social history and general economics.
The Associate of Arts Professional Designation Degree Program allows students from other regionally accredited degree programs who have completed substantial coursework in any discipline to pursue an intensive course of study in one of the college?s specialized majors. The fashion design Professional Designation Degree Program consists of 66 total units of credits.
The Associate of Arts Advanced Study Degree Programs are focused, one-year programs open to FIDM graduates or to students with degrees from other colleges and universities. FIDM has Associate of Arts Advanced Study Degree Programs in fashion design, footwear design and theater costume.
A runway show known as The Debut Show has been held each year in March, although in 2004 it will be held the end of February. The show features 10 fashion design students who have completed their AA programs and are now in the Professional Designation Degree Program. The fashion design students show their entire collections in the show, which also features the costume designs of five or six of the theater costume majors. Not only does it serve to showcase the work of the FIDM students, it is also a fundraiser for the college?s scholarship foundation.
FIDM has European and New York study tours, and students in all majors can sign up for these faculty-supervised, directed studies for which they may also earn credit. The international recognition achieved by FIDM is pretty impressive when you consider that the school began in just two downtown Los Angeles classrooms in 1969. Since then, there have been more than 25,000 graduates, and there are currently more than 3,500 students from 31 countries attending FIDM.
According to FIDM, they place thousands of their graduates with both national and international companies. While they are attending the school, the students are assisted by the FIDM Career Development and Placement Center in finding part-time jobs related to the field in which they are studying. And as long as they remain in one of the fields served by the college, the FIDM Alumni Placement Department continues to work with graduates at no cost.
High school educators who sign up with FIDM have access to speakers bureau classroom presentations and other information. The college also has a Paris fashion tour for high school educators.
In addition to the quality training provided by FIDM, its industry partnerships also help with networking and job placement. The FIDM Advisory Board is composed of more than 75 industry leaders who, according to FIDM, "help to guide and to shape the curriculum to meet the ever-changing needs of the industry."
All of this, plus that great California weather!
On the east coast, the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) is a hot spot for stylishly cool postsecondary education in fashion design. It is even located on Manhattan?s Seventh Avenue, which is known as "Fashion Avenue." This public institution, part of the State University of New York, benefits from its location in the sophisticated and creative world of New York City, as well as its strong ties to private industry.
FIT boasts its own roster of successful graduates?among them recipients of prestigious awards such as Tonys, Emmys, Cotys and Tommys.
Among the more than 30 fields at FIT that can lead to associate?s, bachelor?s and master?s degrees are fashion design and fashion merchandising management. When the school was founded in 1944, it had 100 students, and the focus was on fashion. Its founder, Mortimer C. Ritter, wanted to create "the MIT for the fashion industries." Today, the college has approximately 11,000 full- and part-time students, and although FIT has expanded its course offerings to include fields such as advertising and marketing communications, international trade and home products development, it is still well known around the world for its fashion design program.
To be accepted into the program, students must submit a portfolio and a home test. The test includes an essay to determine their focus and seriousness about fashion design. As part of the test, applicants are asked to design something and are given three optional subjects to choose from: rock star, first lady or career person.
The portfolio includes swatches and pictures of projects that demonstrate the applicant?s sewing skill. Francesca Sterlacci, the chair of the fashion design department at FIT, notes that the elimination of sewing from the curriculum at so many high schools has made this part of the application more difficult for some students.
Competition is stiff for entry into the FIT fashion design program. There are only 200 spots each fall, and the school receives approximately 2,000 applications. With the design test, the essay and the portfolio, Sterlacci says, "We are able to combine all the pieces and pick the strongest candidates."
The associate degree program at FIT is a two-year program, but students who have fulfilled certain liberal arts requirements can apply to a special one-year program. The first year includes classes in sketching, pattern making, fashion art and history, draping and design, textiles, sewing and design-room techniques. Students learn to create their own designs from initial sketch to finished garment.
Sterlacci?who taught at the school for 13 years before becoming the department chair?says that since there is no foundation year at FIT, students are immediately thrown right into technical projects such as draping and pattern making.
"What makes us so special is that we are so technically oriented," she explains. "Our curriculum is not just based on art. Two-thirds of it is based on the technical aspects of design."
Sterlacci describes the students who come to the program as focused and driven.
"When they come in they know that this is what they want to do," she says, "and we don?t waste any time getting them the education they need."
In their second year of the FIT AA program, students study computer design and focus on their chosen field of specialization, which may be sportswear, current scene, intimate apparel, evening wear, children?s wear, or another area of interest.
The bachelor of fine arts degree program allows students to pursue advanced curriculum as they focus more on the nuances and the complexities of fashion design. They learn the design concepts of knitwear and study conceptual thinking/fashion in their fifth semester.
In the seventh semester, the students may do internships, which are available with some very high-profile companies such as Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger.
The likelihood is very high that FIT students who enter the fashion design program will complete it and find jobs in the fashion industry. Sterlacci says proudly, "In 2002, almost all of the students graduating in fashion design found jobs in the industry."
FIT offers study abroad courses in locations that include the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Hong Kong, Canada and Australia. Through the Office of International Education, FIT students have the opportunity to study abroad with programs sponsored by FIT or through one of the school?s exchange or consortium programs.
FIT has an international fashion design program that consists of one year studying at FIT in Manhattan and one year in Florence at the Polimoda, a specialized institution of higher education for fashion and related fields. And since it is a member of the College Consortium for International Studies, FIT?s students can join more than 90 programs that are offered through the consortium?s member institutions.
FIT is currently in the midst of a 10-year, two-phase expansion that will add 300,000 square feet of new space and 400,000 square feet of renovated space. The groundbreaking ceremony was held in October 2002, and the funds are being provided by New York State, New York City and private donors.
Students at FIT have access to one of the world?s best collections of 20th century fashion through the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology. The museum documents fashion and style within social and cultural contexts and features costumes and textiles. Although the emphasis is on 20th century fashion, there are approximately 50,000 garments and accessories, some of which date back to the 18th century. The textile collection includes more than 30,000 textiles, 250,000 swatches and about 1,500 sample books and dates back to the sixth century.
A special exhibition currently at the museum and running through January 3, 2004, pays tribute to great American designers?from Geoffrey Beene to Pauline Trigere. The designers were recently elected by a jury of their peers to the Fashion Walk of Fame. As icons of the fashion world, they have turned their talents into lasting success.
Perhaps the next great American designer is beginning to fashion his or her own success in a classroom somewhere in the country. Career and technical education can provide students with the pattern and the fabric to begin designing a future in fashion. Talent and hard work might take them to New York, Hollywood, Paris or Milan?or someday to their own walk of fame.
View two fashion career videos on the Career Center of the ACTE website: www.getcareerskills.com
Associate Designer, Danna Gal, DKNY/Jeans. Take a peek into one of DKNY?s creative minds. Danna Gal was setting trends back in nursery school and she never stopped!
President, Licensing, Lynn Shanahan, Tommy Hilfiger. You know, you can?t just sign Tommy Hilfiger?s name on that shirt you?re selling. You need a license to do that, which is where Lynn Shanahan enters the picture.
Video career profiles courtesy of Virtual Job Shadow (www.virtualjobshadow.com), a product of Career Corner TV, Corp.
Here are the Web sites of the schools featured in this article along with a couple of other sites to explore.
The Center for Career and Technology Education in El Paso, Texas http://ccte.episd.org
The Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising www.fidm.com
You may also want to check out two other Web sites sponsored by FIDM: www.fashionclub.com and www.promadvice.com.
Fashion Institute of Technology www.fitnyc.edu
The American Apparel and Footwear Association (AAFA) is the national trade association representing apparel, footwear and other sewn products companies and their suppliers. For more information, visit www.americanapparel.org. Their Human Resources Leadership Council also has a Web site on careers in the sewn product industry (www.careerthreads.com), which lists AAFA-endorsed schools.
