It's a Tough Job, but somebody's gotta do it!

In this difficult day and time, most people would be hesitant about entering into an industry where retailing is the key. This has proven to be a point for millions of people, as we all sit back and make note that all of our pockets are hurting a great deal because of the current economy. I, personally, am feeling the reel of people not spending their money, because I too work in the retail industry. People are holding their dollars a little tighter these days, in preparation for what could be. However, the apparel industry is one that has taken huge hits as well. People are deciding to hold on to their money and use what they have, or make do without. Yet, this is not the only challenge that faces retailers of apparel. Issues lie within the industry as well.
Mass merchandisers have been a huge source of problems to many specialty retail stores and grocery stores.They have recently began taking over anchor spots in malls for the past 3 years. It is projected that over 300 of these stores will anchor themselves in local malls in the next 5 years. In the past four years Target and Wal-Mart's apparel sector has grown by nearly 21% respectively. These companies are contracting with celebrities such as Mary Kate and Ashley Olson, or designers such as Isaac Mizrahi. They are offering stylish garments carrying a good brand name as a private label. They are dumping lots and lots of cash into the apparel sector because it brings people exclusivlely to their stores for the purpose of that Brand. Also with private labels, these are causing some extreme challenges to retailers as well. These private labels are often less costly and combat the underperfomance and overpricing of brand names. Stores also will market their private label brands better, taking better floor space and giving better displays.
Stores such as Zara have also revolutionized the fashion industry, causing major issues for other apparel companies, which are generally known to be slow to adopt new ideas. Zara is considered an agile vertical retailer. Through technology it is able to identify trends and items that sell or don't sell at stores. Through this data they can make appropriate sourcing, manufacturing and replishment decisions. One way that they can make this happen is by holding inventory in fabrics, as opposed to finished products, therefore they can make tweaks if need be. This company is able to have a particular item from the drawing board to floor sales in about one month!!! Zara is to the apparel industry what Dell is to the computer industry.
Hopefully the industry will jump onto the new idea bandwagon, and technology will help the industry as a whole.

sweating it up in the shop

As bad as this sounds, I definitely have to say that I am a proponent for the sweatshop industry. It sounds like a harsh, unethical way to be. I am completely aware of the horrific, long working hours, unacceptable conditions, the child labor, and the lack of respect that these workers receive. When I began to research this topic, I searched the term "sweatshops." The ONLY responses I got were of pages and pages of people talking about how horrible sweatshops were. There were pages and pages exposing several nationally known companies, citing their particular uses of sweatshops.
Yes, the working conditions for these people are bad. They have to work long hours, endure uncomfortable working temperatures, and seven day work weeks. If in comparison to American laws, these companies definitely are in violation of our work laws. However, if it weren't for these jobs, these employees would have no money and no opportunities. They would have to sell their children into prostitution to help feed the other members of the family. 90 percent of the workers in the apparel industry's sweatshops are women. (wikipedia.com) These women work 16 hour days, seven days a week. If they are sick, they are easily replaced, and this isn't exactly "fair" in terms of the way people are treated. However, when looking at the overall situation, these sweatshops are in third world countries that have no other export to offer the world economy except their cheap labor. These sweatshops offer employment to women who have little or no other options. With the money that they make from the jobs, they are able to feed their families and even send them to school.
It is a horrible situation, but in a world that most every country is technologically and economically advanced, the cheap labor offered by these Asian countries is their way of saying "Don't forget about us!" They give us cheap labor, and provide food for the families that would otherwise starve. It may be unethical, however, I believe that there are some necessary evils in the world. And this would be one.

Wow

I honestly believe that fashion within itself is an artform. The way that a designer creates his or her designs are drawn upon from inspiration. They are artists in the way that they take the world and put it into clothes. They are inspired, and they create. Italian designers are known for seeing clothing as an art form. They do not wear clothes, they are the clothes. The fashions that spill from Milan are adventurous, bold, sexy and trend forming. The designers put together these amazing dresses that simply take your breath away. The dress in the Cavalli line, with the real flowers. It made the model look like an absolutely breathtaking princess. The shows also portrayed alot of metallic retro-type wear. With bold accents on each outfit, and mod styles, you could tell that the 60's and 70's were a huge inspiration for many of the spring lines.
So after searching desperately for information on Fashion week in Milan, I finally found some in! It was a tough find, it seems that Milan's week isn't as big as the shows in New York or Paris. And I also found that there were alot more men's fashions displayed. I know as a fashion major, I need to be interested in men's and women's fashions. However, as a girl, boy's clothes seem to bore me, unless I can wear them! Well, Roberto Cavalli has me convinced that I could definitely rock some of the Men's Spring line for 2009. Dolce and Gabanna's formal suit with the sheen finish made me want to rock a suit. (I am not a suit-wearing kind of girl!!!) They even made jeans sexy. I have fallen in love with Italian fashion, like I never knew that I could.
I have always thought that Italian anything was sexy. Now I have a whole new understanding. To argue as to whether or not fashion is better as an art or as a versatile peice of clothing. Well, that's just ridiculous! Whatever you decide to wear, that is your own individual art form! It is how you choose to portray yourself to every single person that you will encounter that day. It says everything about who you are, and how you live. It displays your mood, your style, your personality, sometimes your profession! While people love the high fashion, and so much of a market comes from these trend setting fasion shows, that will eventually inspire people individually. So yes, we need Milan to keep up with the art, that will eventually inspire everyone. Everyday.

everything....that inspires me

I believe with all my heart that a fashion designer is not just a designer at all. It's not just about the clothes that are strutted down the runway, nor about who buys what, or how well it sells. A true fashion designer is an artist. Fashion is an art. The way a person displays his or her image to the world, is portrayed by fashion. The clothes that they choose to purchase, reflect who they are as human beings, and this is how the world sees them. This is their own personal art. The designer wants to dress his market tastefully and, more than anything, uniquely. For each line or collection that is introduced, there has to be something that has influence him or her. Something that catches their eyes, and makes them want to portray that in their clothes.
As an up and learning designer myself, I have to pull ideas from my world, when it comes to creating a design. Before I could go into what inspires me, per say, I would have to say a little about myself, for a person's personality has a lot to do with what would inspire them. To put it bluntly, my view on life is to not waste one single second, being unhappy. It is a waste of time because you will never have those minutes back. So I look to all the tiniest, most minute details of my life, to make me smile. While walking outdoors, the beautiful array of colors on a brisk autumn morning, or listening to the birds chirp while I walk my dog in the morning. I pull so much of my designs from nature. The bright floral colors, to the rich greens in the grass. The way the soft petals of the flowers feel against your skin.
However, I have a strong rock and roll edge. I absolutely love pairing strong masculine peices with super feminine drapey, sheer fabrics. Rock and Roll has been a part of my life since I was a small girl. Rock and Roll is a lifestyle. Its hard leather pants and bad ass T-shirts. I love to incorporate an edgy, rock feel to a line. I would have to say my greatest ambition, as a designer, is to dress the people that hate mainstream fashion. People that dress like everyone else, disgust me. With fashion you can portray such individuality, your personality, and even how you may live your life. I want to dress strong, independent women who are completely in love with themselves. I want them to wear my clothes, and think "DAMN, I look good!!"
This is a picture of a dress that I have sketched. I'm a terrible drawer, so i apologize for that. However it's a halter, empire waisted dress. However I have put together some completely different fabrics to create texture. Above the Black, Red, and silver sequined belt is a red leather halter, with fabrics bunched at the dresses empire waist. The bottom part of the dress is made with a red silk chiffon. Very see through, but loose and flowy. A fabric that you want to touch. The Leather Halter would be made from an extremely soft, butter-like leather, and would come up and tie around the neck with a simple bow tie.

Ethnicities and Their Influence on Apparel

Let's use our imaginations for a bit. Envision two different ads, for two completely different stores. First ad, a black woman stands on the street at night, wearing stillettos, leggings, and a long satin tunic. She is accessorized with a huge bronze belt and bronze sandals. In the second ad, there is a 40-something white female. She is dressed in a white skirt and polo shirt holding a tennis racket. These two ads portray two separate lifestyles, with different goals, and different ambitions. These are two completely different people, portraying two completely different ethnic markets entirely. A strong, sexy, confident African American woman would prefer to wear a brand like Baby Phat. A conservative 30-something white female would step out in something more similar to a Talbots ad. Market researchers and merchandisers work hand in hand to study and figure out how these women think and how they want to portay themselves through fashion.
The apparel designers take this valuable knowledge and show it in their runway shows. Baby Phat is operated by Kimora Lee Simmons, for example. Her ex-husband, Russell Simmons is an extremely influential character in the hip-hop world. She, as a designer, catered to women who she saw herself as. She wanted to target her designs to a strong independent black or Asian woman. A woman who embodied the hip-hop lifestyle.
The woman in the second ad that we mentioned, is a woman of the upper middle class. She is probably a republican who attends bridge games and garden clubs. A store such as Talbots would cater to a woman of this particular lifestyle. A merchandiser working for this store would want to know what is hot in the world that she lives in, which is by far, at the opposite end of the spectrum from ad number one. All the women in the world don't look the same, and we don't like to look like everyone else. How we were raised and the environment that produces us, influence how we decide to dress ourselves. With such a plethora of communities and races and ethnicities, it will always influence the way the designers dress us.

Fashion shows make me HAPPY :)

It's an election year, the United States is on the verge of a major depression, and then it's time for the Sring 2009 Fashion week. What a fantastic way to take our minds off current troubles at hand! :) There were so many designers and so many different trends to take in, that it would be crazy for me to try to hit every single designer. However, there were a few recurring trends within the shows.
So, a major trend for spring is going to be hard structured garments, or all the way in the opposite direction, soft, flowy, romantic type fabrics. Carolina Herrera and Donna Karan's shows were both display flowy, soft feminine fabrics. Fabrics that made you want to touch, and feel. Fabrics that make a girl feel girly, which is what we all love. Hard, structured type garments made their way into the Calvin Klein show. It was almost a magical way the fabrics just stood out from the clothes. Structured, strong-woman type outfits subtly located throughout all the shows. Pencil skirts were also all over the place, especially the high-waisted ones.
Anna Sui's show is the one that stands out most in my mind. She being my absolutely favorite designer, I adore her designs anyway. However, for Spring 2009 she decided to take us to the Oriental. There were influences from India, Japan, even a little Hawaiian? She used bright, jewel toned colors. All the fabrics were very, very heavily detailed and eye catching! The heavy neckwear was also apparent in about every outfit. It was just all about the tiniest little details. The fabrics spoke for themselves
Overall, the designers were trying to pull America's eyes away from all the negativity. The use of bright colors, texture, structure, or romanticism; Spring 2009's fashion is definitely going to make us all smile.

recycled clothing

Organic clothing has become a huge market in the past 5 years. What is organic clothing, exactly? For an article to be labeled organic it has to be approved by the Organic Trade Association. The fibers for the fabrics have to be grown on an organic farm, No pesticides or chemicals may be used in the growing process. However, because it is more expensive to grow cotton this way, it is very costly to buy organically. People want to help the environment, but it can be costly in this time where recession is evident and inflation is crazy.
Hemp is a fiber that is grown entirely without chemicals, naturally. the fibers in hemp can be blended with cotton to make fabric that is shown to be more durable that cotton alone. However, because hemp is outlawed in the United States, this fiber can't be grown here. It is outlawed because the cannibus plant that produces hemp is related to the marijuana plant, the US outlaws all growth of the plant here. It can be used to make apparel, bed linens, even boots!
Hopefully, with more people looking to help save mother Earth, more research can be done to look for other ways to grow in more environmentally friendly ways. Don't forget about recycling your own clothes as well! Shopping at second hand stores, mending and patching up your torn clothing, or even converting old socks to dust towels! Shopping in your friend's goodwill piles is a good way to save a few dollars as well. :)