Fashionable and Stylish

Flat Sketching - Must Know While interviewing candidates for design positions, we've seen applicants' portfolios filled with beautiful illustrations and then say "That's nice, but can you flat sketch?" If flats are included in their portfolios, they are usually basic, lack important details, and are not visually appealing. If the candidates sketches are halfway decent; my Modesty Couture Class next question is "do you know Illustrator and Photoshop? " Almost everyone says yes, but it's usually far from the truth.A lot of fashion school grads seriously believe that they know these programs well, but what you learned in school isn't enough - fashion schools don't teach these skills well enough for entry level designers to be competent within the fashion industry. Schools just cover basics, which are usually forgotten without practice. Take the extra effort to practice and become comfortable with Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop and other programs beyond what schools teach: read books and take additional courses (offered in either classroom or online settings).

Creating Specs in a Copycat Industry - Must Know Knowing how to spec (measure and detail) a garment to create garment specifications, or "specs" is a fundamental skill. Many companies create their spec sheets using Excel. Although garment sizes and measurements vary from company to company, depending on different market segments and categories, if you know the principles, you'll be able to quickly adapt to the standards of any company. You don't even need to know how to develop specs from scratch! As a head designer, to set spec standards for a company, I usually went to different stores, found garments with a good fit and copied the basic measurements. This is quite common - the fashion industry is a copycat industry- most fashions hanging in the stores are knock-offs of another company. Once, during a shopping trip in London, a store salesperson noticed I was a fashion designer collecting style ideas. He mentioned that his store received a constant flow of American design companies such as Calvin Klein, whose designers come to knockoff their merchandise. That's right - even top designer brands use knockoffs for their ready-to-wear collections. There are even official terms: a "knockoff" is when a style is copied and a "rub-off" is when patterns are copied.