the show must go on

Francisco Costa for Calvin Klein -- Spring 2009 Ready-to-Wear

Spotted: Front Row at Badgley Mischka

New York Housewives: Ex-model Kelly Killoren Bensimon with crazy-eyed Ramona Singer at Fashion Week... New BFF's? This is like a trainwreck waiting to happen.

...on visitors.

fidm is like a live museum. visitors from all over the country schedule tours to see the school and as students are studying at the library, working at the annex, or just mingling around on campus... the visitors stare and point like we're some kind of rare animal living in our natural habitat.

'preview day' for prospective high school students last thursday was the craziest. i thought the circus came to town. i walked by the fidm store and people were flooding out the door. i didn't even get in the door at the fidm cafe to get my morning bagel. i barely made it to class on time because the elevators were packed with little people. i'm glad fidm puts on these events, but c'mon...do it when it's not rush hour. we're busy students. get out of our way, we have things to do. i'm known for throwing tomatoes ... these kids were lucky they got by me without some coming their way.

Debut 2009 TONIGHT!

at the Barker Hanger in Santa Monica. see you there!

FIDM LIFE launches a YOUTUBE account!

Check out our YouTube channel for updates, live footages, and random acts of good ol' fun silliness. www.youtube.com/thefidmlife

no money left?!

it's been over 4 weeks and fidm hasn't disperse my refund check! if you are a financial aid student, you know what i'm talking about. every new quarter, we, the student, send in a check request for whatever is left over from our tuition money. i am living off of the very little money i have left and scrambling to feed and house myself. this is getting way out of hand. what is going on? 

so i hear that due to the current economic turmoil, the government is not issuing out any funds to schools or intitution... WTF?! am i hearing this correctly? 

if this is true, you know that that means.... bend over and relax, honey, cuz we're all getting screwed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

[contributed by Michelle Sorlea and Juan Carlos]

just an average student

for someone who is incredibly talented, deeply passionate about costume design, and undoubtly eccentric about life, she is sure good at ticking her intructors off. vanessa* is one of my very good friends at fidm is one of the most hardworking gal i know--but she doesn't like to follow the rules. she doesn't neccessarily break them, but she makes them up entirely her own. i saw a project she turned in that was completely off-assignment, but she did a fantastic job that it took my breath away.

as teachers mark her down because she continues to go her own way, i watch from afar, feeling worried, but more than anything, feeling inspired. here is someone who refuses to give in and conform. i find that to be brilliant all in her own way. some of the most influential people in the world had to stand out in some way or another. einstein was only a C-average student, but who else could've come up with funky formulas like e=mc2? donna karan failed draping in college but she's now the queen of draping on the runway. nicolas ghesquiere is no ordinary designer for balenciaga. go check out his craziness. and how about the king of couture, mr. john galliano? he makes sure he puts on a show at dior.

i learned from my friend that it's not always about following the rules. sometimes breaking the rules will make things more interesting and exciting. we don't all have to follow the "norm". i look up to people that continue to make us think, take us to new places, and keep us in awe. so in the same way i admire the geniuses and extraordinaires of fashion, i admire my friend, vanessa*.

[*name has been changed for privacy purposes]

The FIDM Tote Bag

Roommate Wake-Up Call

Running on 2 hours of sleep

+ I stayed up til 3am this morning
+ I woke up at 5:30 this morning
+ I ran over to the Library & Annex at 7:00am this morning

all to finish my Trend Analysis Notebook...

which includes 5 articles about macro trends in the food industry, interior design, health, technology, and fashion.

walked into class at 8:35am with my completed project

and......................

well, Keele moved to the due date to NEXT WEEK.

and i didn't know. (or didn't pay attention when he said it in class).

there goes a few hours of sleep i won't get back.

listen folks - PAY ATTENTION in classs & DON'T PROCRASTINATE!!

:)

Happy Thursday!

Wednesday

7:30am - Annex, articles for Trends 2009; Study for Wallace's exam

9:00am - Finish 'Motivation' Powerpoint for Consumer Behavior Chapter 4

11:15am - Lunch with Carla (& Megan)

12:00pm - Merchandising Strategies [MIDTERM!]

2:25pm - Print out Project 1 for Boylan

3:00pm - Consumer Behavior [Chap. 4 Oral Presentation & Midterm DUE]

5:45pm - Drop off RA application

6:00 pm - Get Carded Networking Event - Student Lounge

8:30pm - Finish Trend Notebook for Keele's class

10:oopm - The FIDM Life...

...on campus

Pictured above: Chris, Fashion Design 2nd Quarter, International student from Korea.

living in the city

the city of angels, smogs, and plastics.

but here's a cool picture i took a few months ago.

makes me think of new york. but it's not. this picture was taken from

the rooftop of the chamberlain hotel in west hollywood :)

addicted to housewives

Hilarious women of New York. One reminds me of my admissions advisor.

Get Facebook - sign your life away...

okay, not really. but read this article from THE CONSUMERIST and be warn!

Facebook's New Terms Of Service: "We Can Do Anything We Want With Your Content. Forever."

By Chris Walters

Facebook's terms of service (TOS) used to say that when you closed an account on their network, any rights they claimed to the original content you uploaded would expire. Not anymore.

Now, anything you upload to Facebook can be used by Facebook in any way they deem fit, forever, no matter what you do later. Want to close your account? Good for you, but Facebook still has the right to do whatever it wants with your old content. They can even sublicense it if they want.

You hereby grant Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to (a) use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute (through multiple tiers), any User Content you (i) Post on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof subject only to your privacy settings or (ii) enable a user to Post, including by offering a Share Link on your website and (b) to use your name, likeness and image for any purpose, including commercial or advertising, each of (a) and (b) on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof.

That language is the same as in the old TOS, but there was an important couple of lines at the end of that section that have been removed:
You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content.
Furthermore, the "Termination" section near the end of the TOs states:
The following sections will survive any termination of your use of the Facebook Service: Prohibited Conduct, User Content, Your Privacy Practices, Gift Credits, Ownership; Proprietary Rights, Licenses, Submissions, User Disputes; Complaints, Indemnity, General Disclaimers, Limitation on Liability, Termination and Changes to the Facebook Service, Arbitration, Governing Law; Venue and Jurisdiction and Other.

Make sure you never upload anything you don't feel comfortable giving away forever, because it's Facebook's now.

Oh, you also agree to arbitration, naturally. Have fun with that.

life at medici

Hola Chico!

Chico is FIDM's custodial go-to guy. He's been with the FIDM team since 1999. He's always around on campus picking up after everyone. He's a grandfather to two beautiful kids, 5 and 9 years old. With almost a decade of committment at this school, he swore he will never work more than 8 hours so he can go home to take care of his grandkids. He's a hard worker. Give him a break. And next time you see him, say hello!

spotted: JABBAWOCKEEZ

winners of the acclaimed season one of america's best dance crew made more than a splash at the century city mall as they stopped by to sign autographs and take picture with fans and supporters as they launch their new t-shirt line.

fashion week: backstage at the maggie barry show

model getting final touch up
maggie barry models

fidm student volunteers at fashion week

crazy backstage...

MAKE SURE TO SIGN UP AND VOLUNTEER AT FASHION WEEK WHENEVER YOU GET THE CHANCE. IT'S A FABULOUS OPPORTUNITY TO MEET DESIGNERS, MODELS, EDITORS, AND NETWORK WITH MANY IN THE INDUSTRY!

IS FIDM WORTH SPENDING MONEY FOR?

Michael from YouTube "mastatagga" answers the question..



Watch the whole thing.

It's MIDTERM week!

So you'll be seeing me at the Annex 7:30am all this week, finishing some last minute touches on projects, papers, and even studying before exams. It's all part of being a fabulous and studious student! :)

[photos courtesy of Nora Iren]

blogging

right now i am taking 5 classes: merchandising strategies, consumer behavior, trend analysis, merchandising math, and color and design theory. i enjoy all but one. Merchandising strategies is my least favorite class because i just don't care for it. everything is retail and perhaps i went into the wrong field, but i absolutely can't stand retail. maybe it's just a phase... hopefully it is. i don't know we'll see.

anywho.. it's valentine's day and i'm sitting at home studying for this class. i have a midterm on wednesday, i'm not ready, i don't understand the concept.. and the teacher doesn't like me very much. whatever.

trend, i love. math, challenging... but i don't hate it. color and design is fun. consumer is okay... teacher is cool. strategies... boring.

maybe i should go through school a little more positive. but HELLO! i'm at fidm. besides all the bimbos that i have to deal with on a daily basis, here i am trying to figure out what to do with my life. following your dreams is not so easy. actually it's NOT easy. it was tough, but with just 2 and a half quarters left to go before graduation, i'm freaking out! what the heck am i going to do in the "real" world? the market is scary right now. people with degrees are getting laid off! the economy is screwing everyone up... and in this industry, we're getting hit pretty hard.

pretty hard.

fidm students are ...

Thursday morning...

8:30 - Trend Analysis

11:15 - Meet with Carla at Fashion Cafe

12:00 - Work

1:30 - Trend Report

4:00 - Appointment with President

5:00 - Pick uip Deput tickets

6:00 - FIDM book store

6:30 - FIDM shuttle home

7:00 - Study for Consumer Behavior Midterm
Finish Sketching for Scholarship

How I got screwed over by FIDM

[story as told by Courtney Kraus]

FIDM is possibly the worst school in the entire u s and a.

I began at FIDM this past fall as a fashion student thinking that it was going to be amazing just like my "advisor" told me. WRONG. I quickly realized that a majority of the girls that attend this school were not here for the right reasons. I came out here to study fashion because I wanted a career in a field that i was interested in. The girls out here are here purely because they want to live the hills lifestyle. This was extremely discouraging.

Then once i started, i quickly realized that there were many problems that i was not aware of. The school expects you to know everything about the way finacing here works on your own and if you try and figure it out and ask questions EVERYONE is outrageously rude to you. They make you feel like you are an alien and you are retarded for not knowing things that were not brought to your attention. FIDM FINANCING IS THE MOST IGNORANT DEPARTMENT AT FIDM.

When i moved into FIDM housing i thought wow, this is gorgeous it must be nice. WRONG. After hearing from people that also live in downtown la, that they were paying WAYYYYY less than i was i was getting irratated. But, i thought whatever atleast i have a place to live. Come time for registering for housing for the next quarter the housing department of course had to make things extremely difficult. My roommate and i requested to live in the same unit with different roommates cause both her and i are from out of state so it would be an extreme inconvience. They said we were taking advantage of them for asking for this and make a huge scene...... WOWOWOWWOWOWOWO

We eventually just said whatever and did what they said. We were moved to a different unit with girl we throught were okay....

[to be continued...]

ak fhzuihf;ivhohv

that was my attempt at profanity...

since i don't swear. haha...

well anywho, i have a 5-page paper due tomorrow... and i am nowhere near finished. this is ridiculous. 5 page is not too hard at all... but i have to write about home depot...and i pretty much have to BS the whole thing. okay... here it goes.

FIDM, you better be worth it!!!