Insta-moments of FIDM Grad: Class of 2013

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Temporis

Tonight, we are delighted to have been invited to the 68th Annual LIM College Fashion Show, ''Temporis,'' in New York City. The show is set to feature 30 student models wearing top fashion brands and designers as they come down a student designed runway. 


Hosted by  celebrity fashion stylist Phillip Bloch, the show is produced in its entirety by the Fashion Show Production Club with help from the Styling and Visual Merchandising Clubs.

Proceeds from this event will benefit the LIM Fashion Education Foundation (FEF), an organization that provides financial support to students pursuing an education to further their careers in the fashion industry.

We can't wait! Expect a full report tomorrow!!






xoxo,
The FIDM Life (ALUMNI) NY team

FIDM ranked #2 for best fashion school!

Huffington Post: So you want to work in fashion? Whether your interest lies in fashion design, journalism, or merchandising, these top fashion schools that can get your career off to a running start. Whether it's Parsons The New School For Design -- which boasts a seemingly endless list of fashion A-listers as alumni -- or Savannah College of Art and Design, which recently partnered with ELLE to show the work of their top students on the runways at New York Fashion Week Show, a degree from one of these top colleges will give you the edge you need to break into the cutthroat fashion world.

FIDM ranked #2! :) YAY!!!!

Full article here.

DEBUT 2011 - the main event!

FIDM proudly presents the DEBUT 2011 Runway Show. The only runway show of its kind on the West Coast, DEBUT annually attracts more than 8,000 people over 3 days and features design by graduating students in FIDM’s Fashion Design and Theatre Costume Design Advanced Study Programs as well as work from the Interior Design, Graphic Design, and Textile Design Students.

	Thursday, March 17 at 5:30pm - March 19 at 10:30pm
Location	Barker Hangar in Santa Monica

For more info, click here.

fashion styling by jocelyn

Check out this creation for a fashion styling photo shoot by FIDM student, Jocelyn Rivera (@jayjayspazz)! Pretty cool! Kudos to you! We love it! :)

FIDM Hall of Famers

Day 1: Prep time.

Fashion Design Portfolio Prep...

"Ready, Set, Spring"

it's finally over. at least for now.

How's everybody doing?!!!! FINALS had me walking around campus like a zombie all week! I took my last final today at 3pm -- whew, it's over! I was so ready to crash. Thank goodness, I made it through the presentation! I want to celebrate but I'm way too tired. So tonight, I am staying in and catching up on sleep. Mmm... sleep.....sounds so good. LOL. Though, I am so craving that caramel ice-blended drink from Coffee Bean right about....now.
Good night and good luck to those who still have finals next week! xoxo

merchandise marketing everyday.

You hear a lot of stories about what's it's like to be a Fashion Design student at FIDM. Well, today I'm here to talk about being a Merchandise Marketing student. Let me just tell you, we are pretty much the business brains behind this industry. Okay, this industry is all about co-dependency. We need the creative designs, we appreciate the visual displays, and we praise constant product development, but let's admit it... without the merchandise marketing, how are you running your businesses? We are the buyers, managers, allocators, planners, merchandisers, etc. etc. etc......

And although our days (and nights) aren't consumed with draping, sewing, pattern-making, or flat-sketching... we are up late too! Working on trends board, calculating six-month plans, writing purchase orders, drawing up story boards, researching promotions, putting together a complete employee-handbook, studying business and merchandising strategies, etc. etc. etc!!!

So how do you tell a the difference between FD student and a MM student? Well, one is rolling around a huge black back full of sewing kits with large manila-paper patterns dangling behind them. They look like they haven't slept in weeks. And the other, well, we may have had only 4-6 hours of sleep for the week, but we pull ourselves together. We carry one bag full of nothing but textbooks and the most important item of all: a calculator. Merchandise Marketing everyday, that's how we roll. :)

it's that time of year again: the debut.

FIDM's annual Debut Fashion Show features collection from the Advanced Study Fashion Design program. It's very competitive, very exclusive, and only the best of the best get accepted. Think of it as our very own Project Runway (except no one gets kicked off). After an extensive 9 months of training, designing and creating their designs, the 10 selected talent put forth their work in a fancy runway show for the rest of FIDM and industry people. This year, the main event takes place on Friday, March 12th at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica. Have you picked up your tickets yet?

Look out for us at the 8:30 PM show!

Rest In Peace, McQueen.

Alexander McQueen dropped out of school at age 16 to pursue a career in fashion design...
Tragically, McQueen was found dead in his London apartment in February 2010. The cause of death was apparently suicide.

Excerpt from NYmag online. Read the full article here: Alexander McQueen - Designer Fashion Label

how i spent my superbowl sunday

by megan nicole willerford, 5th quarter fashion design

Nick Verreos doing his thang...

Photos by: Eimi Akunama

BLISS by Monique Lhuillier

FIDM grad and wedding gown extraordinaire, Monique Lhuillier has designed a brand new and... (wait for it....) affordable collection called BLISS. This collection will include 14 fabulous dresses, all ranging from $2,400 to $3,500. Not sure when this line will hit the stores, but all you bride-to-be's should be on the look-out! You could be walking down the aisle wearing a "Monique" original without breaking the bank! Now that's something to be blissful about! Mazel Tov!

making complete nonsense = mixed art/fashion

When I walked into the Anthropologie store at the Americana in Glendale, this piece of exhibit completely drew me in. As I passed all the racks of hot items for fall and the table of new accessories, I couldn’t help but wonder where I’ve seen such similar art before. This unique, irregular yet potent display in such a retail environment startled a powerful message that I, too, may not be able to conceptualize. Then it hit me.

DMF’s art website: mixedmediartist.com. If you don’t already know, Dawn Marie Forsyth is the Chairperson of Fashion Design at FIDM. I remember crossing through Ms. Forsyth’s website some months ago, but her overriding and racy images stayed with me.

DMF’s personal composition takes the audience into a whole new level of standard juxtaposition. For a topic that rarely discloses perceptibly, this artist dissects and presents her message through the deconstruction and comparison of material things.

In her words, “These processes of deconstruction and reconstruction allow me to create tactile environments that expose limitations, our own and those put upon us by others through social constructs.” Her interpretation for feminism and social freedom points the validity of how we can discover new meanings and lessons from reconstructing and revitalizing old constructed ideas.

Looking closely at the way tangible pieces display such complication symbolizes the restraints of real life’s struggle. Perhaps it would take relentless research, patience, and creativity to understand this unconventional way of accepting the existence of human limitations, but Ms. Dawn Marie’s work of art, in all its metaphoric complexity, is not at all short of inspiring.

I would be curious to see what she does next...

**artwork belong to Anthropologie (in the Urban Outfitters' family)

And the winner is...

A unique competition sponsored by Cotton Inc. allowed 15 talented FIDM students to showcase their skills in textile and fashion design. The challenge was to think outside the box and create an innovative gown made purely of cotton material. After months of textile research and fabric testing, the remaining 5 finalists made their stance for the final judging which took place on September 3rd at the LA campus.

The FIDM Life team would like to honor and congratulate Andres Alves, Textile Design Major, for winning to Grand Prize of $10,000!! What a scholarship! Thank you Cotton Inc.

A picture of the winning gown will be posted once I can get my hands on one...

how we spend our friday evenings...

7:45pm: Carlos rolls one of the FIDM dress-forms out of the 5th floor lab.

7:46pm: He gets on the elevator and reaches the 1st floor, but gets stopped in the Rotunda by one of the guards...

FIDM guard: Excuse me! Where do you think you're going with that?

Carlos: Uhh... I'm going to go drape in the park.

FIDM guard: I'm sorry, you can't do that. Please take the dress-form back upstairs.

Carlos: What?! But I want to finish my work at Grand Hope park!

FIDM guard: Seriously, you need to roll that back upstairs... I'm calling security.

Carlos: Um, I don't think so. I'm paying 32 grand to be here.... if I feel like draping outside, try to stop me.

TO BE CONTINUED...