Read "Standards for Career-Ready Practice,"as set forth by the California Department of Education here. Focusing on the #6 through#9, choose the one from this group that you feel is the most important as you transition into college and career. Why did you choose this one? Can you relate it to something in your own life or something you have observed?

 

             
Number 7 from "Standards for Career-Ready Practice": Act as a responsible citizen in the workplace and the community, stood out the most to me. When you are working your way up to your dream, you have a lot of responsibilities. It is important to do your assigned tasks and to set a good example for others, such as your boss. The main goal is to show your boss that you a responsible enough to accept any task given by them. By doing so, you get more opportunities. These opportunities may give you, in particular, more experience than others around you. This allows your knowledge to be superior and you will make a excellent appearance and a great first impression when applying for colleges or jobs. In my own life, as I was growing up I always wanted to feel and be treated as if I was older. I wanted to become an adult faster than my body could mature to be such a thing. Unfortunately, my behavior and lack of responsibility reflected that I should not be treated like an adult, since I do not act like one. Of course, I was about 7 or 8 years old then, but you get the idea. The same thing goes for when you are applying to a job or school. If you do not act mature and responsible, nobody will feel comfortable giving you big and serious tasks, in fear you will mess it up. Bosses and co-workers in a job would trust you more if you dressed nice everyday and did a little extra work around the office, then if you wore a stained graphic t-shirt and jeans with tennis shoes while slacking off for hours out of the day. Responsibility is key for anything because without responsibility, there is basically no trust.

Read "Standards for Career-Ready Practice,"as set forth by the California Department of Education here. Focusing on the first five, choose the one that you feel is the most important as you transition into college and career. Why did you choose this one? Can you relate it to something in your own life or something you have observed?

As I am reading "Standards for Career-Ready Practice," set forth by the California Department of Education, there are a few of the standards that particularly stand out to me. However, the one that stood out the most was #3: Develop an education and career plan aligned with personal goals. Recently, I have found this standard to be extremely effective. Since I have been thinking about college a lot, I have always wondered how I can reach my ultimate goal. I have found that setting small, personal goals has helped a lot when moving towards my dreams. This way, I can recognize the value of each step in the experiential and educational processes. Also, it helps me understand that nearly all career paths require continuous education and experiences in order to adapt to the expectations, procedures and practice of the constantly changing work environment. Requesting and receiving assistance and guidance from others such as friends, family, counselors, teachers, and even deans and principals, is a good way of learning and practicing how to communicate with others to move forward. The skills attained from setting personal goals goes a long way when working towards one's main goal. Lastly, goal setting helps set a pathway to your goal, rather than trying to immediately get there. Things take time and nothing will just be simply handed to you. You have to work hard for what you want.

You are teaching your friend how to lay out pattern pieces so that they are "on grain." Write, in detail, what you would tell them. What would happen if you did not lay your pieces out on the straight-of-grain?

In order to have a perfect-fitting garment such as pants, a shirt, or even a dress, the pattern pieces must be layed out on the fabric so that they are "on grain." By this, I mean that the fabric must be layed out evenly on the threads of the fabric that are woven in the same direction. On each pattern piece, there is a line with an arrow on each side. This is called the grain-line arrow. On a pattern piece, the grain-line arrow helps you to be able to tell if the pattern in "on grain." In order to be able to tell, get out a measuring tape. Measure one side of the arrow to the selvage and then pin the pattern piece down into the fabric. Next, measure the other side of the arrow. Make sure that this side is the exact same measurement from the selvage edge, then pin it. Once both pins are in place, the pattern in considered "on grain." This helps with the finished product and making sure the garment will fit correctly to the body and it's curves. Otherwise, some parts of the item may be tighter or looser than the other parts. This would be the result of an error in the measurements for the grain-line arrow. To have a perfect, well-fitted garment, the grain-line arrow must be measured equally from one of the sides of the fabric, preferably the selvage, and must be pinned down to eliminate the chances of messing up the measurements.

Using the internet, read about several jobs in the fashion industry. On your blog page, write about three different fashion jobs. What are they? Describe each. What is the required education level? Is there travel involved? What are the duties of the position? Include any other interesting facts you discovered in your research. Did you learn that there are numerous jobs in the industry that you were not aware of?

The amount of jobs in the fashion industry are endless. One of them, a Trend Forecaster, is an interesting job to have. A trend forecaster combines their knowledge of fashion, design, and history with business information and consumer research. Ultimately, these people provide new knowledge to designers, product developers, and buyers, assist in the creation of new products, and they look for ways to improve old products. In addition, they search for facts and analyze those findings to predict trends that would positively affect the amount and types of fashion products that the customers will buy. To be a Trend Forecaster, one must have at least a bachelor's degree in, usually, fashion design or merchandising, marketing, visual arts, or consumer behavior. Secondly, there is a person called a Fashion Sales Representative. These people sell manufactures garments and accessories, as well as other fashion products, to buyers, provide samples, illustrations, and catalogs to the product line of the company, listens to customer concerns, and they also do a lot more! As for education, there are no minimum requirements. However, it is recommended to have some sort of training in fashion. Lastly, another job in the fashion industry is an assistant fashion designer. An assistant fashion designer is an entry-level position, where one assists fashion designers and chief designers as well. They may help with designing clothes or even preparing for fashion shows and debuts. Also, they may help with sewing, pattern making, cutting, coloring, and sketching. In May of 2008, the median annual wages for salaried fashion designers were $61,160. The average starting salary for this job is around $40,000-$41,000 a year and earn up to $47,000 per year or even more! There is an extremely large array of occupations in the fashion industry and there were tons I had no idea about!

Based on yesterday's FIDM presentation, explain the difference between a Fashion Designer and a Product Developer in Fashion. You may use the internet as a resource, but please answer in your own words. Write a minimum of twelve sentences.

Fashion Designers and Product Developers have different jobs. Fashion designers love to study trends and sketch designs. They enjoy selecting materials and having a part in the production of their designs. Designers help contribute to the creation of millions and even billions of clothing and accessories purchased yearly by customers. Men's, women's, and children's fashion is what a fashion designer designs. This may include sportswear, swimwear, maternity wear, footwear, lingerie, and even eyewear. On the other hand, a Product Developer is educated on not only the aspects of design, but also on the engineering side, too. The people may work with others such as marketers, accountants, scientists, and other professionals to guarantee the safety and security of the goods that are being produced. Developers work and  communicate with clients to create a visual of what each one of them wants. After that, the Product Developer may research the market where the goods might be sold and look for possible competition. Additionally, they research materials in order to be able to create the highest quality product at the lowest possible cost. Next, they might work with engineers to create a rough representation of the product the client wants. Typically, it is first be created on paper. Then, it is transferred to a computer software or program. During this time, the developer may tweak and modify the product. Lastly, a product developer works with marketers to create a successful product launch. Fashion designers design garments and fashions, while Product Developers design AND are educated on the engineering and marketing side of production, too.

After the speaker leaves, you will write a paragraph of at least 10-12 sentences describing what you learned during the presentation - both about the fashion industry and about FIDM.

A guest speaker from FIDM made an appearance today and I leaned a lot from her presentation. $350 billion is spent a year on fashion alone! In California, casual high fashion is common and we are the biggest center for fashion in the United States! The founders of Juicy Couture were FIDM graduates. Since California is the biggest center of fashion in the United States, and not New York, even Tom Ford relocated his fashion week to Los Angeles. Inspiration to fashion designers is often living creatures, scenery, traveling, and sometimes even other fabrics. It takes a million gallons of water a day to dye fabrics! This is horrible since California is in a drought. Dying fabrics contaminates water, too. This makes it hard to re-clean the water afterwards. Stores want to reach out to the senses of their customers. For example, different departments of a store may smell different to appeal to your senses. This may help persuade you into buying their products. Sportswear is a big user of video advertisement which appeals to the personal sporty side of some people.

Why do you think it is important for everyone who works in the Fashion Industry to have some 'technical' or 'working' knowledge of clothing construction and fabrics? In other words, if you are working as a Fashion Journalist or as a Fashion Buyer, why do you need this knowledge? After all, you are not making the clothes. So why is it important to know?

People involved in the fashion industry must have some sort of technical or working knowledge of clothing construction and fabrics. This is because the fashion industry is all clothing and accessories, shoes and makeup. For clothing and even some accessories, fabric is used. Being educated on fabrics and construction helps one have a better understanding of what and how they are making something, with minimal mistakes, rather than constantly messing up because of lack of knowledge. Fabrics are tricky. There is an extensive array of types of materials and fabrics to use for making garments, and each one of those has it's own qualities and restrictions. For instance, some materials cannot be pressed with an iron while others can; some fabrics are water resistant and others are not; some cloths shrink and others do not. Each fabric is different and knowing the difference between them is key to being able to construct the garment of your choice and imagination. Constructing the garment itself is a little more difficult. Draping and sewing skills, mixed with creativity and precision play a huge role when working in the fashion industry. Additional skills are required for a successful fashion designer or merchandiser, but those are the basic ones one needs to know in order to construct clothing. Knowing your fabrics and materials comes a long way when attempting to impress someone with the same interests as you. Fabric education helps the designer, blogger, etc., know how the garment may fit, how it should be washed, or if it can be pressed or not. Lastly, without this knowledge, the production of clothing will be hard because you will not know what materials you have to work with and if they will even work together. This is why knowing fabrics and materials is important, especially in the fashion industry.