Archive for October 2011
Fashion style is one of the many things that changes in just a short period of time. One moment people are going crazy over colored skinny jeans, tomorrow they will be craving for designer rolling briefcases and apparel. The thing there is, people may change their preferences on certain pieces of fashion, but definitely, all of them will always go back to the basic.
Fashion is a never-ending cycle. What is in now may come from long time ago, just making their appearance visible once again. If you can remember it right, super-skinny jeans are people’s favorites like twenty years ago. But before that, bell-bottoms dominated the market. Compare everything to the present situation. The craze for skinny jeans is back, but actually, four years ago, every single kid on the block has a pair of bell-bottom jeans. And If truth be told, the same cycle will be repeated for the next years to come.
Let us go to the cycle of bags. During the 90′s, girls are going gaga over shoulder bags to use when shopping. They come in different colors, accompanied with very long bag straps that can go all the way to your legs. These changed when teenagers as well as young professionals are starting to sport the new star-hand bags and purses. It stayed for quite sometime making the handbag designers filthy rich because some of these can be quite expensive to put it mildly. Years after the fad, shoulder bags are slowly dominating the scene once again.
Even men, who are generally not fond of these apparels, are going the trend as well. From the hand-held briefcases and file organizers, rolling briefcases can also be seen around. Briefcases for men are designed especially for the male population so they can have a trend of their own without having to go with the women’s choices. It will only take a not so long time before the original fad would have to go back.
Shoes are undergoing some rapid changes as well. Some may be patterned to the old school shoes, yet some are evolving into different pieces. With heels that can go as high as 4 inches and even beyond (with the help of platforms), even women who lacks height can solve that issue.
Apparels are also taking a few flashbacks. The past years may be filled with mostly blacks and whites and other non-loud colors, but the past few years, apparels are all about colors going from green, to purple, to hot pink or fuchsia, sunshine yellows, reds among others-the trademark of the year 1990′s.
Fashion styles are never stagnant. In just a couple of years or less, the trend that you thought would last for a very long time will just disappear right before your eyes and will be overthrown by the new kid on the block. It is only a matter of how long will it survive the dynamic surroundings of the fashion world, and will it even leave a mark in the scene, or will it be just another fashion faux pas.
For an artist, the world of fashion can seem more like a business than a world of creative fashion design. Aspiring fashion designers need to understand that this is all necessary. Business is the life blood of fashion and the fashion itself is only the soul. Fashion simply wouldn’t be able to see mass production if it were any other way. So you may be a ‘creative’ but as a fashion designer you must develop a passion for not only design but manufacturing challenges, the excitement of marketing and overcoming competition.
In the professional world of fashion, you’ll spend less than 10 percent of your time designing your collections and the rest of the time working out money management issues, and executing marketing strategies. These are the only things that will give life to your creative work and allow you to survive as a fashion designer so your garment designs will hit the store shelves and not just remain the beautiful figments of your creative imagination.
You want to become well acquainted with the business aspect of fashion. Don’t even think of starting out on you own. Work for any designer, design house or clothing manufacturer first so you can become well versed in how the fashion industry works on a daily basis and carefully climb up the ladder from there. Study how other fashion designers made their way to the top. Most of the biggest name designers worked under other designers for years before they started their own labels. They often worked for more than one fashion designer or fashion house. Having different positions and seeing different ways of how business was handled, they gained hands on knowledge, experience, confidence and acquired indispensable assets of credibility and reputation at the same time.
So if you’re getting into fashion design you’ve got to plan on being a lifer if you’re going to one day own your own line. Here is a list of characteristics you need to either have already or acquire as you go along in order to become a successful fashion designer:
- A hard edge against negative feedback and rejection.
- You need a very competitive spirit.
- You need the ability to be organized and be able to function under extreme stress of dealing with difficult people, multiple deadlines and responsibilities.
- You need to love or learn to love the marketing, negotiating and networking game in the world of fashion.
- And you need the willingness to keep your mind open to learning new things as a fashion designer.
Schools are constantly in need of funds. There are many fun activities available to help raise money such as worm charming or a car wash but a great favourite that involves everyone is the fashion show.
Whilst a fashion show will take a lot of planning (several months), the event can really pay off.
The school raises money by ticket sales, a raffle on the night and commission from clothes sales so it is potentially a good money spinner.
Seeing clothes close up can sway a persons decision on whether or not to buy so it is also good for the audience, plus its always nice to see friends and family modelling.
Getting outside help with the show is useful and there are companies specialising in this sort of thing. They will often supply a PA system, music, till, carrier bags and a full length mirror.
Make sure the company you go has experience of putting on fashion shows and that their stock is appealing to your audience. It will also be useful if they have the means to accept credit and debit card payment as this will increase your sales on the night.
You will need to decide whether you want to include refreshments in the ticket price and how much profit you are hoping to make on the night. Be realistic as you don’t want to put people off with the ticket price.
The venue you choose will need to be big enough to seat everyone expected and it needs to have a flat floor. A raised stage area will be an added bonus as it will make the catwalk more of a feature. Plenty of electrical points will be needed, as will a room for the models to change. Changing rooms for the audience to use after the show will also be required. The school hall may be suitable, but if not, consider the village hall or other venues nearby. Seating will also need to be sourced.
A good turn out is needed for the show so you will need to market it to your target audience which will probably largely consist of parents. Send a press release to the local paper, notify the parish magazine and make up posters to put up near the school. The school art department should be quite handy with the posters.
Pupils, staff and parents can all be used as models. Several rehearsals will be required so that everyone knows what to do on the night.
With careful planning, your fundraising fashion show should be a great night out and a financial success too.