Fashion - The Social Phenomena

Fashions are social phenomena common to many fields of human activity and thinking. Fashion houses and their associated fashion designers, as well as high-status consumers (including celebrities), appear to have some role in determining the rates and directions of fashion change. Fashion is in the sky, in the street; fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening. Fashion is a field dominated by women and primarily meant to serve women.

Fashion

Men's fashions largely derived from military models, and changes in a European male silhouette are galvanized in theatres of European war, where gentleman officers had opportunities to make notes of foreign styles: an example is the "Steinkirk" cravat or necktie. The pace of change picked up in the 1780s with the increased publication of French engravings that showed the latest Paris styles; though there had been distribution of dressed dolls from France as patterns since the sixteenth century, and Abraham Bosse had produced engravings of fashion from the 1620s.

Although tailors and dressmakers were no doubt responsible for many innovations before, and the textile industry certainly led many trends, the History of fashion design is normally taken to date from 1858, when the English-born Charles Frederick Worth opened the first true haute couture house in Paris. Since then the professional designer has become a progressively more dominant figure, despite the origins of many fashions in street fashion.

A stylist is either a person who co-ordinates the clothes, jewelry, and accessories used in fashion photographs and catwalk shows or a kind of designer whose designs are based on existing things, trends, and designers collections. A buyer is responsible for ordering stocks of clothes for shops, particularly the larger chain stores. An illustrator draws and paints clothes for commercial use. Talented illustrators--among them Paul Iribe, George Lepape and George Barbier--drew exquisite fashion plates for these publications, which covered the most recent developments in fashion and beauty. A model models clothes at fashion shows or for photographs. A photographer photographs the clothes on fashion models for use in magazines, newspapers, or adverts.

Season

Fashion design differs from costume design due to its core product having a built in obsolescence usually of one to two seasons. A season is defined as either autumn/winter or spring/summer. Ready-to-wear collections are usually presented by fashion houses each season during a period known as Fashion Week. They often wait around a season to make sure a style is going to catch on before producing their own versions of the original look. To do this, they look at what the fashion directions have been in previous seasons, keep an eye on what others in the fashion business are doing, and read fashion forecasting magazines. They also rely on knowledge of their own customers to see which styles succeeded and which were less popular in past seasons.

Fashions may vary significantly within a society according to age, social class, generation, occupation and geography as well as over time.

Fashion Design Skills 101 - Skills That Fashion Schools Don't Cover Nearly Enough

In fashion school, most of your time was spent learning to create fashion illustrations, draping, sewing, and flat patternmaking. While these are good skills to have, they aren't very practical when you're trying to land your first job in the fashion industry. In the real world you'll be expected to know how to create computerized flat sketches, develop garment specs, CADs, and presentation boards. And I know some of you are thinking "But I learned those things in school too!" To which I reply: You think you know, but you have no idea! Take it from experience: fashion schools don't focus on those skills nearly enough to fully prepare you for your first design position. In this article I will discuss each skill and its importance in the fashion industry.

Draping and Patternmaking - Low Importance
While patternmaking and draping are valuable skills, they usually only come in handy when you deal with a lot of fits. However, fittings are usually conducted by technical design teams so if you got into fashion for creative reasons, you'll most likely be miserable in this type of position. On the creative side of design, all you need is a basic understanding of what creates a good fit, and how to fix a bad one. In the majority of design positions, hands-on patternmaking skills are not necessary, unless you plan to enter Project Runway!

Sewing - Low Importance
On the creative side of design, sewing isn't that relevant. Yes, it's good to understand the general concepts of garment construction, but you don't need to be a great seamstress. On the job, if you need to know how a certain garment is constructed, there are tons of references available: from clothes at the stores, to "how to" books and online articles. The point I'm trying to make is: if you're sewing skills leave something to be desired, don't stress over it.

Illustration - Almost Unnecessary
Sadly, fashion illustrations are a dying art in the industry - they are scarcely used by designers in the real world. The fashion illustration has been replaced with computer drawn stylized technical sketches (floats) or more accurate technical flats, which are faster to sketch and much more practical. Not only do they present a clear representation of design concept, but they are a must have for production. Flats can be turned into CADs and can be used in mood/presentation boards. Fashion schools have not followed this shift and still focus more heavily on illustrations, and not enough on flat sketching.

Computer Programs - Must Know
I can't stress enough the importance of knowing popular computer applications for creating floats, flats and CADs. Most companies expect proficiency in Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, and Microsoft Excel since they are relatively affordable in comparison to more industry specific software. Unfortunately, the coverage of Illustrator and Photoshop provided by fashion schools does not meet the actual demands of the fashion industry. Many companies are also requesting knowledge of WebPDM, so if your college offers a course in this program, it would be to your benefit to take it. If your school does not teach this program, find a school or venue that does offer this program and take it!

Flat Sketching - Must Know
While interviewing candidates for design positions, we've seen applicants' portfolios filled with beautiful illustrations and then say "That's nice, but can you flat sketch?" If flats are included in their portfolios, they are usually basic, lack important details, and are not visually appealing. If the candidates sketches are halfway decent; my next question is "do you know Illustrator and Photoshop? " Almost everyone says yes, but it's usually far from the truth.

A lot of fashion school grads seriously believe that they know these programs well, but what you learned in school isn't enough - fashion schools don't teach these skills well enough for entry level designers to be competent within the fashion industry. Schools just cover basics, which are usually forgotten without practice. Take the extra effort to practice and become comfortable with Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop and other programs beyond what schools teach: read books and take additional courses (offered in either classroom or online settings).

Creating Specs in a Copycat Industry - Must Know
Knowing how to spec (measure and detail) a garment to create garment specifications, or "specs" is a fundamental skill. Many companies create their spec sheets using Excel. Although garment sizes and measurements vary from company to company, depending on different market segments and categories, if you know the principles, you'll be able to quickly adapt to the standards of any company. You don't even need to know how to develop specs from scratch!

As a head designer, to set spec standards for a company, I usually went to different stores, found garments with a good fit and copied the basic measurements. This is quite common - the fashion industry is a copycat industry- most fashions hanging in the stores are knock-offs of another company. Once, during a shopping trip in London, a store salesperson noticed I was a fashion designer collecting style ideas. He mentioned that his store received a constant flow of American design companies such as Calvin Klein, whose designers come to knockoff their merchandise. That's right - even top designer brands use knockoffs for their ready-to-wear collections. There are even official terms: a "knockoff" is when a style is copied and a "rub-off" is when patterns are copied.

Educate Yourself!
Many fashion schools such as FIT in New York (Fashion Institute of Technology) offer important classes like "flats and specs for the fashion industry", but believe it or not, these courses are not required by the curriculum! Another handy course that should be taken is "creative fashion presentation." Salespeople use presentations a lot as visual aids. In addition they create a good impression and convey creativity level. If you can make outstanding presentations you'll be assigned to do them often, and believe me it's more fun to make boards than do fits or send faxes and organize showrooms.

To sum up: in order to get a job before the rest of the entry level fashion design candidates, you need to focus on refining skills that are highly demanded in the industry. Become proficient with flat sketching, include flats in your portfolio, and be extremely comfortable and knowledgeable in Illustrator and Photoshop. Not only will you be ready with the skills you need to succeed in fashion, but discussing how you went the extra mile to keep up with industry standards will definitely impress any prospective employer!

For your reference and use, we have posted lots of industry standard flat sketches and CADs in JPEG and vector (Illustrator) formats on DesignersNexus.com. If you can improve your skills to reach the quality of those shown, you'll be in a very good shape

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Wholesaling Fashion Accessories

The fashion accessories which include all the fashionable items like fashionable shoes, handbags, jewelry and also some dressy outfits are able to create an elegance effect in overall fashion statement for both men and women. Most of the fashionable accessories comprise of all those items that increase the visual effects to an appearance or dressing. The fashion accessories are sometimes found in very costly materials like silver gold, diamond or even platinum.

Fashion Jewelry

Fashion jewelry may be considered as the most costly accessory for all women that improves style and fashion sense. The jewelries are available in the form of necklaces, earrings, bracelets, rings and other kinds of jewelry products. Fashionable wholesale jewelry is designed keeping in mind the current trend of fashion culture. The costume jewelry stuffs are crafted with pristine workmanship which involves many hours of labor time. Though most of jewelry products are available in most expensive elements of silver, gold and platinum, diamond has it own real charm, which has never faded away in the world of fashion. The diamond jewelry items are still the trademark of exclusive jewelry as it was in the past.

One can find great deals in wholesale jewelry at most of the prestigious stores. There are wide varieties of elegant costume jewelry which are available at price which is many times lower than most basic of expensive jewelry. The costume jewelries are also available in various semi precious gems, fashion displays for enhancing the decor of rooms, hair attachments and also in various types of body piercing jewelry items. Wholesale jewelry vendors offer fashion accessories and fashion jewelry at most affordable prices.

Wholesale Fashion Clothing

Wholesale clothing is really an important fragment in fashion industry. These wholesale garments offer the best fashion tips for youngsters as they are always in search of new fashion trends. The denims are considered as best clothing for the teens through all ages. The teens can match their favorite jeans with corduroy or denim jackets which represents a youthful look. This is a must have for all the young adults that want to follow the fashion trend cautiously. Fashion jeans for teens have seen many changes which range from simple straight fitted to boot cuts and wide legs. Corduroy pants, chinos, khakis, and drawstring trousers are the latest hit with young generation. For the girls, if they want to try something that is quite classy and look very feminine, denim skirts should be included in their wardrobes.

Other Fashion Accessories

The fashion shoes are another feature in style that compliments to the overall fashion dressing. Fashion shoes are equally important as fashion accessory products like hair fashion and fashion jewelry. The fashion accessories may also include trendy men and women watches in various types. The various types of watches may be sports and outdoor watches, dress watch or mP4 enabled watches. Key chains, mobile attachments, body jewelry and fashion belts also come under fashion accessories. For most adventurous teens colored contact lenses and photo chromatic sunglasses may also be other way of using fashion accessories.

Is Fashion Your Passion? Make Fashion Your Career

Do you live and breathe fashion? Would a career in the fashion industry suit your style and aspirations?

For fashion enthusiasts, a career in fashion might be the ideal job; an opportunity to influence society and change the way a nation dresses for the day and evening. Read on to see which branch of the fashion industry might be right for you.

Fashion careers are essentially of two types - those in fashion design and those in the sales and marketing side of the industry (fashion merchandising). You can further customize your specialty by choosing to focus on a particular style or kind of garment.

Other fashion niche opportunities include costume design for TV, film and theater productions; personal stylist positions with high-end department stores and private clients, fashion photography; and modeling work for everything from newspapers ads to strutting the catwalk in Milan or Paris.

But to turn your passion for fashion into a lucrative career you need more than just the ideas and enthusiasm; you need technical and industry expertise to turn your creative energies into saleable apparel.

One thing fashion careers share, aside from being a rewarding outlet for your creative talents, is their starting point - fashion school. A fashion design education should prepare you for a career in the fashion industry, even if you find yourself working in a supporting role as you start out in the business.

Entry to a fashion career starts with an innate ability to create unique and functional clothing styles and effectively communicate them on paper.

If you decide to study for a career in fashion, you'll learn to design clothing and accessories or the fabrics and materials they're made of.

It is essential that anyone interested in a career in the fashion sector should attend an accredited fashion schooling program which should address the industry fundamentals including design, drawing, textiles, sewing, and manufacturing. This education will be the core of your training on which you can lay the groundwork for experience.

Experience is ultimately the key.
Following school (or even during), it's imperative that you start with an internship or apprenticeship with an established design house. Building experience such as this can often jump start your fashion career and allow you to begin working on independent projects.

For those who have the ability, drive, and determination, a fashion career can be an amazing journey filled with success, self-satisfaction and great clothes. But don't let it ever be said that a fashion career does not require a significant amount of hard work and a vast amount of skill.

CONCLUSION

A future in fashion could take many different forms, reflecting the various aspects of the industry.
No matter what area or areas you're interested in, there is a fashion career to suit your tastes.

To get your future career off the ground, it helps to decide at the outset which of the many fashion industry jobs you want to attain.

A starting point could be to study some of the articles about training and careers in fashion collected at the author's website. Your fashion career could be just a few mouse clicks away.