Advice to prepare for a career designing clothes

May 2, 2005 3:46 PM

My 14 year old cousin has expressed an interest in pursuing a career as a clothing designer. What sorts of things can she do now to improve her potential for success in this career path? How will her performance in highschool affect her chances? I'm thinking that a good start would be to get in touch with the better art schools (although I'm not sure which those are) and find out what they look for in admission requirements...
posted by Manjusri to education (13 comments total)

I think calling schools or their alumni for informational interviews is a great idea. One of my friends went to the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC and ended up as a designer for a major label. Another grad friend from their started her own design shop in Chicago.

Also, a subscription to Women's Wear Daily or DNR is a nice window into part of the design world.
posted by jeanmari at 3:55 PM on May 2, 2005

Are you located in the SF Bay Area? Either Berkeley or Oakland has an arts magnet high school, I think, with a special emphasis on fashion design.
posted by luriete at 4:00 PM on May 2, 2005

If she's near any halfway decent fashion school, they may have summer courses for high schoolers. (I know Academy of Art University does it, but FIDM may as well.)

Any good art school would like to see her book -- a portfolio of sketches -- in order to get in. She should start putting that together as soon as possible and get in the habit of working on it.

Every school has different styles, different connections in the industry, etc. She should start sketching. Go to community college over the summer for figure drawing, textile design, the basics. This way she gets the basic skills down so she can fly through the "boring" classes and her involvement shows how much she cares to an admissions department.

If she sews, she should start putting pieces together. If she doesn't, she should learn. It's not a requirement to get in, but it's critical to getting through any good program.

I don't know an art school with high academic standards as far as SAT/ACT/GPA goes, but the higher the GPA, the easier the financial aid. And art school is often as expensive as medical school (although the full program doesn't last as long).
posted by Gucky at 4:13 PM on May 2, 2005

Also, stage crew at school. They always need help in the costuming department, she'll learn valuable, practical skills and again, show her dedication to her craft to the college admissions people.
posted by Gucky at 4:22 PM on May 2, 2005

I would imagine that once in college, getting into a good internship would be the most helpful. Either look for a college in the same city as a company she wants to intern for, or look for a college that does an "overseas" program to a city that has a company she wants to intern for. For example, a lot of my friends got hooked up with great internships while on the New York City "overseas" program from our school.
posted by pwb503 at 4:30 PM on May 2, 2005

As a former art-student in a design oriented program, I regret not starting to truly persue my profession earlier. Getting into most art programs is not that difficult (IMHO). There are the "exclusive schools", but portfolio reviews tend to be like tests, but more "crammable", that is.. if you focus for 1 year on making a portfolio, with a little guidance and some focus, I think pretty much anyone could gain admittance to the big name schools. The smaller programs have their merits as well, but big school/small school is a whole different can of worms.

I gathered that the schools I applied to judged me on SATs, academics, and talent. They wanted a certain correspondence between those three. I would expect any university to want that also, but maybe art kids are big flakes.. and they want a little more assurance.

The various qualities will be weighted of course.. if you go into an illustration program, and you're a pencil maestro, maybe they'll let you slide a bit on the academics. If you go into fashion and your sketching is sub-par, but you show a real ability in fabric, likewise. Schools have philosophies though, about talent and their role in developing the student. Some schools have an idea that sketching in pencil is THE critical basis for all later learning, some might emphasize history, and some might look primarily at technical skills. Being familiar with the history of a school, and the figures that they consider their "luminaries" can be helpful.


As for what I would have done if I could go back to being 14 - When you're 18, everyone wants an internship, and you have to be careful that the ratio of work/learning is reasonable. When you're 14, if you have a good letter/sharp mind/good communication skills, you might end up getting some cool mentoring type relationship, maybe even with a local start up boutique or fashiony thing (?), where they appreciate a young tenacious mind. In a small office, you might be keeping the refrigerator clean, but end up helping with some draping, inventory... or maybe organizing scraps of cloth and fetching a bit of meat for lunch.

I think understanding business and technology early on is really cool, all the kids I know with noses for business graduated already having put together small projects, this and that.. She could make hand bags and sell them on eBay, anything, if it is her passion, it's good to find out early.
posted by Jack Karaoke at 5:01 PM on May 2, 2005

The bit about cloth and lunchmeat was supposed to be an English literary reference, but I bailed on it.
posted by Jack Karaoke at 5:20 PM on May 2, 2005

Parson's School of Design in NYC is another big name for fashion design, and also not hard to get into; if they don't take you right off, they will probably take you with a prerequisite prep summer course the year before you start. Getting in is not the hard part.

The hard part is getting through the "Foundation Year" which is all the 'fundamentals' (color theory, form & shape, life drawing, etc) and not a whole lot of "making stuff you think is cool." I don't know if all art schools do this, but I would expect so, at least to varying degrees, and that is probably the part that she should start thinking about more seriously, as a significant portion of people drop out before specializing.
posted by mdn at 5:51 PM on May 2, 2005

I tutor for a wealthy family, and right now I am assiting one of their daughters in applying to fashion design programs. Recently, I accompanied her to Los Angeles for "Portfolio Day" at Otis College of Art and Design. Portfolio Days are free and held throughout the year at many schools all over the US. Typically, 17-19 year-olds bring their porfolios for short reviews from their choice of dozens of schools. It would be a wonderful experience for your cousin in a couple of years.

This 14 year old needs to take life drawing as soon as possible. No one can draw the proper dimensions of a 'fashion body' without first being able to perfect the average body. School after school recommended this to the girl I work with. Additionally, courses like painting, sculpture, SEWING, and textiles (in short, all art classes) will benefit her. The kids I met at Otis had amazing portfolios. Fashion design programs require 6-15 portfolio pieces, usually as slides or color copies. It is always a mistake to create work for a portfolio, so your cousin should start a fashion journal as soon as possible.

I would also recommend that she eventually get a summer/after school job at a free-standing boutique or even one within a department store (like BCBG). She will learn merchandising, which is another important dimension to fashion design.
posted by maya at 6:11 PM on May 2, 2005

Thinking about the dozens of unsuccessful designers that have come and gone throughout the years, I would advise a degree or concentration in business, not art. If she's serious about making a career out of it, good marketing/accounting/advertising skills will keep you around a lot longer than good drawing skills.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 6:19 PM on May 2, 2005

Get her hooked up with the sewing and business boards on craftster.org. Lots of independent designs there, and lots of girls willing to give tutorials and coach someone through learning to sew, design, make a portfolio, etc. Good community, lots of talent to share.
posted by heatherann at 12:31 PM on May 3, 2005

I would advise a degree or concentration in business, not art. If she's serious about making a career out of it, good marketing/accounting/advertising skills will keep you around a lot longer than good drawing skills.

Although I can't recommend for or against the school, the Academy of Art University requires all majors to take a number of business, merchandising and marketing classes. Even "legal contracts for artists." Fashion has classes especially for the industry. (I know. I got stuck in a fashion section even though I was an ad writer...)

I'd assume that any respectable fashion school includes a good background in all these topics. Anyone confirm or deny?
posted by Gucky at 11:31 PM on May 3, 2005

Anyone confirm or deny?

parsons seems to offer a 'fashion marketing' as well as a 'fashion design' major, but I only see a couple classes on "business" in the fashion design major... on the other hand it doesn't specify everything you're required to take.

But, there is no doubt that the graduates of parsons are prepared for the fashion industry. Business school might be better than "random fine-art school", but if she chooses a program specifically geared toward fashion design (like parsons or FIT) and sticks with it, she wouldn't end up with a degree and nowhere to go. She would most likely end up with a job at a design company somewhere, possibly her own little boutique on mott street (or whatever), if she's really good at business stuff & willing to put in the intense hrs.

The point is, if she really wants to do it, she should make sure she loves the idea of going to an office to think about clothes, not the idea of having her name on a label or hobnobbing with oscar nominees, or whatever. Like any industry, the superstars are the exception, and you gotta actually love the nitty-gritty.
posted by mdn at 8:24 PM on May 4, 2005