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Originally posted by TriggerDiscipline
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It's true in many cases, unless you are talking about learning purely technical skills.Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde
StyleZeitgeist Magazine -
BOF actually did a great article on the subject...
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Honestly the best way to enter the industry isn't even by spending a shit load of money on school and getting in debt, which I regretfully did. It is one of the few industries that fully incorporates many trade skills that you can easily and quickly learn through an internship or apprenticeship which should be exploited to it's fullest. You really can learn these independently from a school curriculum and build a pretty good portfolio by yourself. And no, it doesn't require some sort of incredibly excessive will or boot-strap mentality either.
Unless you are working with high-end and/or European designers you can wing it debt-free as long as you possess a modicum of taste.
Want to be a designer? Learn some adobe software and how to formulate a crude tech-pack and you can go straight to interning (and direct to a job with demonstrated competency). Unless you are doing high-end your day will consist of making a variation of tech-packs, mill/trim cards and illustrator flats anyways. You will be well on the way to working at any of the multitude of companies based in mid-town and have the added perk of having your Korean coworkers showing you some rad lunch spots.
Want to be a pattern maker? If you can sew basic garments already and are at least-halfway decent with basic math and have an eye for what fits right you can go straight to an internship or apprenticeship. A lot of pattern making studios are hungry for new recruits all the time and more than eager to employ with time and applied effort.
And honestly most of all you just have to network. So many people hold positions that basically fell into their lap just because they know the right person or had someone refer them. Being talented only goes so far.Last edited by CommieRabbit; 05-31-2016, 09:31 PM.Comment
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purely technical skills gets you hired imho.Originally posted by Faust View PostOriginally posted by unwashedOriginally posted by AhimsaComment
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I respect what you're saying here but I wasn't even referring to schools in america, more like CSM Antwerp etc, where the curriculum of said schools are rigorous and you leave with proper training that you can use to gain employment or achieve your goals mostly coming out of school.Originally posted by Ahimsa View PostOriginally posted by unwashedOriginally posted by AhimsaComment
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Wouldn't say I'm a big fan of any of the designer's coming straight out of CSM at the moment…Originally posted by TriggerDiscipline View Post
Both schools provide a certain kind of look and viewpoint (the reason one of our former posters, Heirloom, left Antwerp - clashed with the professors a lot because he wasn't their style - so he said)
One of the huge issues here is that fashion schools are still teaching people to be designers, ignoring the entire idea of production and product development, which is where most NYC design majors I know land straight out of college. Which are highly technical positions.
From a CSM alumni via BoF:
"It's one of the most prestigious schools in the world when it comes to fashion, just that in itself opened a lot of doors for me. There is a lot of controversy around the training at Saint Martins though, like the fact that we didn't have one single technical class or business course throughout our BA. If you want to have that, you are told you can go somewhere else."Comment
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