NYC: LIM and Tommy Hilfiger

Friday morning we woke up nice and early to get ready to head over to LIM, a business fashion college in Manhattan. On our “Saunter” over (as so called by Mr. D) we tried to take a good look at the 5th Avenue window displays. Our professors Mr. D and Ms. Ehrhart pointed out to us how the visual merchandisers used elements of design to best draw the attention of customers and move the eye through the entire display.

We arrived at LIM College and were greeted by the Assistant Director of Admissions–Mr. Anthony Urmey. Mr. Urmey gave us an overview of all that LIM has to offer us as a potential transfer college.

Ms. Amanda Hallay is a professor at LIM, and she was nice enough to take some time out of her day to speak with us about the Merchandising program. She was able to help paint a picture of what we would experience in classes if we chose to attend LIM. Ms. Hallay was definitely a shining example of the expertise we could expect from the faculty.

At this point a panel of LIM students–including 3 of GCC’s own alumni–answered any questions we had for them and told us about all of the ups and downs of classes and student life at LIM. At the end of the presentations our students were welcome to a tour of the campus. Who knows, some of us might end up choosing LIM after we graduate GCC!

In the late afternoon we were told to find a building on the west side of Manhattan. Luckily, we all made it to this location; some of us (myself included) had successfully hailed a taxi; others had bravely made the trek on foot! Whatever the mode of transportation, it was surely be worth our lightened wallets and worn-out feet; we were here to meet with representatives from Tommy Hilfiger.

When we arrived, we were directed to the Hilfiger lobby; from the crisp sofas, to the red patchwork carpet, the framed stars and stripes, and the Tommy Hilfiger promo videos playing on a flatscreen–this room itself exuded the Americana-prep that is Tommy Hilfiger.

From here, Ms. Catherine Welsh took us through the office areas, passed the showrooms, and into a meeting room where she filled us in on the history of Tommy Hilfiger (from man to brand-name).

Ms. Christina Caruso spoke with us about applying for summer internships–and offered some valuable advice for making living arrangements during internships in the city.

Ms. Anna Christensen and Ms. Amie Robinson from the Creative Projects Research and Development explained to us the process of taking the latest trends and creating a general concept for the designers to use as inspiration; this way Tommy Hilfiger captures the same aesthetic, even though there are numerous sects of design teams.

Next we got to learn about the system Tommy Hilfiger uses to create a uniform look in their visual merchandising store-wide. Personally, I was impressed to experience the infinite number of possibilities for employment within the fashion industry. As we students saw, fashion has truly become a specialized profession which demands hardworking individuals from an amazing number of backgrounds and areas of talent.

And so concluded our final field trip on this whirlwind city adventure. We broke back into small groups to try to squeeze in some final shopping, see last-minute sites, and maximize the mileage on our tired legs, before turning in for our last sleep in NYC.

Day one in the big city

Today was our first full day here in the big apple! Though it was a bit rainy in the morning, it turned out to be a fair–and action-packed–day!

I’m here in NYC with other Fashion students to learn more about design, fashion, and business from people that work in the industry in NYC.

Our first stop of the day was to the Gitman Bros showroom.

There we met with Mr. Chris Olberding; the Vice President of the company. Gitman primarily focuses on menswear, and is a top producer of fine shirting and suiting in the USA. Mr. Olberding exhibited his zeal for the industry and spoke with us about the production of classic, quality clothing. Olberding helped us see how much precision is involved in such an industry; though the basic design and cut of the shirts does not change rapidly, the fabric choices for each line must be chosen meticulously. Possible fabric choices include material that is already produced and ready to be used as-is; manipulated versions of prints or plaids; a print created using a design; and reproduced vintage prints.

Along with Mr. Olberding, we were also able to meet with the personnel from the merchandising, marketing, communications, and managing departments. We asked lots of questions and got a glimpse of Gitman’s business practices and some potential careers in menswear.

After a brief break for lunch and shopping, we got together again for a meeting with Ms. Diane Alexander, the PR Director of fashion powerhouse, Buffalo David Bitton. Ms. Alexander told us many stories–from the woes of interns with attitudes, to the high demands of some celebrities–she has seen it all. As Alexander spoke to us, we were surrounded by Buffalo David Bitton lines for Spring 2014 and–my personal favorite–Holiday 2013/14.

On this field trip, we really got first-hand proof that networking is an integral part of the fashion business. Alexander explained to us all of the ways in which celebrities, bloggers, and magazines can be used to promote a line or product. Alexander was very down-to-earth and not afraid to tell everything like it is; no sugar coating. I loved her no-nonsense nature and one particular bit she mentioned about her interns stood out to me–“I wouldn’t ask you to do something I wouldn’t do myself.” Even the smallest, most tedious and menial jobs must be completed.

And with that we were free to explore the city–for me, it was time to head down to the garment district in search of some new fabric to work with!

Fashion Students Learn About People with Disabilities

On Tuesday, October 7th, the Merchandise Planning and Control class was visited by a unique guest speaker. Shelley Falitico, the Director of Development from the Genesee Arc, came in to talk to the fashion students about people with disabilities. Ms. Falitico discussed how disabilities can be mental, physical, or developmental. She also stated that 10% of the people around us are disabled in some way.

During the workshop, students did activities to get a real idea of what it felt like to have a disability. Students experienced how it felt to be not have vision by wearing blindfolds throughout the hour long presentation. Other students were given masks to place over their mouths, because they lost their voices and could not talk. One student was asked to sit in a wheelchair, with her dominant arm tied down. She was told the lower half of her body was paralyzed, and she had no movement in her right arm, but she needed to complete a task of handing out papers to every student in the class with her disability. Another student had her legs tied together above the knees, and was asked to run to the back of the classroom. This was to demonstrate how someone with Cerebral Palsy might walk.

All of these exercises made the students realize how people with disabilities have to live their everyday lives. At the end of the class, the students could stand up, untie their legs, and take off their blindfolds, but someone with a real disability can not. Some people are born with a disability, others can be acquired over time. It is important for everyone to learn about disabilities and how to deal with people who have them because anyone at anytime could become disabled.

Candace experiences how it would feel if she could not see. Emma experiences the difficulty of being paralyzed.

Fashion Students’ Color Analysis Seminar

Professor Donna J Ehrhart tried example of color analysis.

On Wednesday, September 18th the Fashion Students conducted a Color Analysis seminar. They were discussing the concepts from the popular book written by Carole Jackson, Color Me Beautiful. The concept looks at the 4 seasons, winter, summer, autumn and spring. The students learned that there are 2 cool seasons and 2 warm seasons. The sophomores draped each student and explained why certain colors were better suited for them, as opposed to other colors. Each of the 75 students who attended were given a chart of the colors that work best for them. Students learned that the colors they wear compliment the appearance of their complexion, hair, and eyes. These monthly seminars are co-sponsored by the DECA Club and the fashion students.

The freshman are hopeful to have their designs featured in the 33rd annual fashion show.

In addition to color draping, the freshman took the floor and showed the sophomores some of the design they have been working on. The freshman are hopeful to have their designs featured in the 33rd annual fashion show. The upcoming t-shirt design contest that is being organized by the fashion design sophomores was also discussed at the seminar. Many freshman have submitted unique designs that will go on the t-shirts to represent the fashion program.

T shirt contest presentation by fashion design sophomores

New Year, New Job, New View

As I begin my second year of the Fashion Design program at GCC, I also began a new job. As required by the Fashion program, each student needs experience working in the area of fashion, either over the summer or throughout the school year. For me, my recent new job was something completely new to me: men’s wear.

My job experience throughout this school year will be at Charles Men’s Shop. It is located at 200 E Main Street right in Batavia. While at the Men’s Shop, I will be setting the window displays. Showing the all of the amazing merchandise the store has to offer, while creating a theme and telling a story, keeping in mind the latest trends for fall was a challenge at first. I haven’t taken the Visual Display class with Ms. Ehrhart (the fashion design professor at GCC) because it begins in October, so trying to accomplish that goal made my first few window attempts difficult. I had a hard time finding inspiration and translating it through men’s wear. Until that time, I had only acquired experience with women’s retail. I had received some advice from the Men’s Shop’s helpful staff, Kristen, Don, and Dave. I also asked both of my professors, Mr. Dudkowski (the fashion merchandising professor at GCC) and Ms. Ehrhart for some advice. I’m very glad i decided to ask for some much-needed tips. After getting a better understanding of the window displays and finding my inspiration, I created a window that i was truly proud of. My vision for the window was the New York City pop up sales, since I, along with all other fashion students, will be attending a field trip to the Big Apple next month. Don Brown (Charles Men’s Shop VP) was recently showing me some pictures from the past trips to the city. He told me of the pop up retail stores that would be selling men’s wear, which made me think of trunk shows. I combined the two ideas with my inspiration of the city and created my window.

Business Wear

I really have enjoyed my time so far at the Men’s Shop. If i hadn’t attended GCC I wouldn’t receive an opportunity like this, nor would I have the always available professors ready to guide me with expert advice. Getting hands on training from such an accomplished and well-known store is great experience. Just as Don Brown had said, along with having fun, learning is the most important part of working at the Men’s Shop. After I have had more experience completing some windows and in-store displays, I could move on to learning new sewing techniques along with more planning and customer service skills.

As I look at window displays, men’s magazines and online articles, I see more now than I would have before this job. I wonder about what the message is that they are sending, what story they are telling, why they made certain choices. This ongoing experience will always make me think more about the way a display is shown than I would have ever thought. There is always room to grow and enhance skills with GCC and job opportunities.

Come down to Charles Men’s Shop and join me on the Wine Walk, October 5, 2013!

Internship at WWD JAPAN

My name is on a Japanese fashion magazine “FASHION NEWS” !

What happened to me? The answer is what I did during the summer vacation.

KONNICHIWA (hello)! I am Asahi, an international student from Japan.

My major is fashion merchandising, and I interned at INFAS publications for two and a half months. The company publishes WWD JAPAN, which is a weekly paper, although WWD is a daily paper in the United States, and FASHION NEWS, a collection magazine published soon after each season collection ended. I belonged to the editor division and worked for both magazines. My office hours were about seven hours a day, five days a week.

WWD1

My daily routine:

Cleaning a room for the editorial department when other employees go to a different meeting room.
Answering telephones and connecting editors. Most phone calls were from the PRs of companies including Prada Japan, Chloe Japan, Dior Japan or sometimes from designers.
Opening the mail (About 200 envelopes a day!) and distributing them to each employee.
Making a schedule sheet with Excel for the upcoming events and exhibitions.
Picking garments that will be used in a shooting or returning them to each brand.
Putting the back numbers of WWD JAPAN in order.

They may seem to be chores, but I could be in the office with editors who write articles for WWD JAPAN (which I love reading!) and I was excited about doing my tasks that could help them.

Men’s fashion week in Paris, Milan, London and Florence was held from end of June to first of July. Kaname Murakami, the editor in chief of FASHION NEWS, came back to the office from his business trip for the fashion shows and asked me to help to make the 2014 S/S menswear issue.

My job for the FASHION NEWS was…

1) Making phone calls to about 150 brands’ PRs to ask whether they would cooperate with us and answer some questions about the shows or not.

2) Mailing surveys to each PR, including some brands’ PRs whose companies are located in London.

3) Collecting the surveys from PRs by the due date.

4) Putting the survey answers on a server as well as printing them, so all the editors in the office could see them.

5) Calling some PRs who had not sent back the surveys. I called them several days before the due date to urge them to mail to me as soon as possible because their brands could not be in the magazine if they missed the date.

6) Making the content pages below. In this task, I needed to be careful that I spelled everything right!

7) Making the reference pages, including the brands’ names and telephone numbers of the customer centers and PRs.

During these jobs, I continued working for WWD JAPAN.

Finally, I finished all my jobs for FASHION NEWS, and my name is on it! I was so surprised! My favorite part about the internship was meeting the editors who work for WWD, and being able to keep in touch with them. If you are interested in an industry, I recommend you try to intern with people working in the real world. You will have a lot of good opportunities! I am very proud of my experience.

If you want to read these magazines, WWD japan or Fashion News, let me know!

“Haute Dogs In High Heels” Genesee Community College DECA CLUB

Genesee Community College’s DECA Club is an associated national organization for students who are interested and have the passion for going out and taking on the world pursuing careers in marketing, business, and or fashion retailing. This club gives the opportunity to expose students to a lot of different career skills through activities like field trips , public speakers luncheons, and the annual College Fashion Show. Such programs included in the DECA club are

Accounting
Business Adminstration
Supply Chain Management
Enterpernurship
E-Commerce
Fashion Business: Event Planning
Fashion Design
Fashion Merchandising Management
Sales and Customer Service
Tourism and Hospitality Management

“Shenique’ Johnson (Right) & Candice Cooper (Left) The Haute Dogs In High Heels Servers”

Every year, GCC has a Club Fair, and gives students the opportunity to learn about clubs on campus and what they’re all about.

This year’s Club Fair theme was “Hot Dogs” for National Hot Dog Day, and all the clubs had to come up with something for their table surrounding the theme’s title. This year’s project managers and representatives for this table were myself as well as DECA members Candace and Alaina. Coming up with the theme for our table was hard, but it was fun deciding the final title especially using fashion words we learned throughout the business and fashion classes we’ve taken. As the preparation came into play, our light bulbs began to shine bright to an idea so the DECA club could stand out from the rest. The night before, we made five packs of hot dog wieners, designed a poster, and added a few touches of some flyers respresenting last springs fashion show “Fashion Foward” and what it was about.

“A Student Trying on the shoe bar heels, getting lessons on how to walk in heels “

Lastly, we had the idea to display various styles, shapes, colors, and designs of high heels, because as a fashion student everything can be fashionable; even a hot dog! The students and faculty loved the table, and were very inspired by the theme too. Everyone who passed was offered free hot dog wieners with condiments for the apperication of stopping by the table and finding out what the club has to offer. As a added bonus, we let some students pick out a pair of shoes to wear and get lessons from the DECA club project managers on how to properly walk in heels, and to have the appropriate attitude! At the end of it all, it was a very fun experience that I will remember for the rest of my life, and a great opportunity for the new students to know about the DECA club and what we offer as well as the different programs and majors involved in the club. We explained to students that the DECA club members help out the annual fashion show, as well as what goes on into the making of the fashion show, its history, and how successful last year’s event was.

Who says Hot Dogs can’t have style?

A Student and her children attending the Club Fair Posing next to Candice Cooper (Left)
Alaina (Upper Right Hand Corner) Our High Heel Specialist. & Candice Cooper (lower Right) Posing with our “Haute Dog Wieners””

Assignment Number One

This fall I began my first semester at GCC; after what felt like the blink of an eye, summer came to an end and I found myself searching out an open seat in class. One of my most anticipated classes–Fashion, Trends and Design–proved itself deserving of my high hopes. Within the first week I already felt immersed in the world of fashion: we explored color trends, discussed the ever-ambiguous definition of “Sportswear,” and were exposed to the high-paced thrill of design.

For our first assignment, each student created an original T-Shirt design; the only boundaries being our target market and our imaginations. Immediately my mind began to take off in many directions, seeking possibly inspiration for my design. In the end I found myself enthralled with an unlikely candidate—burlap. I couldn’t get out of my mind an image I’d recently seen at a wedding: coarse, unyielding burlap wrapped around the stems of elegant, soft Roses. The beauty behind the juxtaposition of the primitive burlap material with the natural grace of the roses spoke to me and truly inspired my design.

The main features of my design are the burlap bows affixed to the shoulders and the princess seam-style trim. In each feature I attempted, respectively, to translate my inspiration by using a stiff material to create a soft, gentle bow, and by adding structure to what would otherwise by a soft, flowing garment.

After completing week 1, I feel confident that the rest of the semesters’ classes will continue to challenge me creatively and help assimilate us fashion students into the cutthroat industry that we all love. I can’t wait to see what is in store for the next weeks!

Bridal Scene – Eternal Inspiration

Eternal Inspiration featured brides, groomsmen, bridesmaids, and a junior bridesmaid in Fashion Forward on April 27th. The gowns that were donated to this scene were completely transformed into new designs that any fashion forward bride would be inspired by. The tuxes by tuxedo junction gave our men a sharp classic look, with an edgy twist. Our first design was a peacock inspired gown by Karen Sessonna, Karen designed this gown to act as a peacock and transform itself on the runway.

Designed By Karen Sessanna Model Lindsey Visser & Sean Allen

This next gown was created by Jill Kowalczewski to look like the sketch featured on our tickets and posters.

Designed by Jill Kowalczewski Model: Taylor Lauricella

“The Queen” was dyed by Samantha Vogt and designed by Jill Kowalczewski. This ombre gown features the classic costume imagery of a queen.

Designed By Jill Kowalczewski Models: Megan Fowler & Christian Hoffmann

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Special Thanks to everyone who contributed to my scene, I couldn’t have done it without you!!!

Fashion Forward – Model Photos and Fashion Show DVD Info

Keep hold of the wonderful memories from Genesee Community College’s 32nd annual fashion show, Fashion Forward by purchasing photographs and the DVD………

Digital copies of the show photos can be purchase for $1 a photograph.

Click to view photos

These photos are royalty free, personal use and high definition.

http://glaserphotography.zenfolio.com/f830219185

A full length DVD of the entire show, including behind the scenes interviews, can be purchased for $29 including tax and shipping from Leighthouse Productions:

Click to order your DVD copy of Fashion Forward

http://leighthouse.biz/?page_id=148

Genesee Community College Blog

1st hand experiences from GCC students!

Fashion

NYC: LIM and Tommy Hilfiger

Day one in the big city

Fashion Students Learn About People with Disabilities

Fashion Students’ Color Analysis Seminar

New Year, New Job, New View

Internship at WWD JAPAN

“Haute Dogs In High Heels” Genesee Community College DECA CLUB

Assignment Number One

Bridal Scene – Eternal Inspiration

Fashion Forward – Model Photos and Fashion Show DVD Info

Share

Share

Share

Share

Share

Share

Share

Share

Share

Share