Thursday, March 17, 2016

Math and Art Equals Fashion

It could be said that getting to the top within the fashion industry is not an easy task.  The question is how we can get to the top. Unfortunately, there are multiple answers to this question. Fashion is an industry where art and math are put together. You need to know your client, his/her expectations, wants, and budget while you create an artistic excitement.

Fashion requires visual perspicacity, visual discrimination, and an overall sense of the numbers. These factors are really important when making new prepositions in this industry. Most of the times humans tend to expand to their most comfortable side of the brain. Generally, it is been said that when you are good at math you are not good at art and the other way around. Fashion requires both, and perhaps this is where the fashion industry portraits its most challenging features. Indeed, the mathematical part of this business is not for everyone because requires a great deal of detail, and a tremendous sense of organization. Being creative is not easy either. I have to say that even when is underestimated, this part of the business is as difficult as the mathematical component. Being creative requires a tremendous ability to filtrate what is seen around while making this visual information into garments that are able to communicate to customers who have to assimilate the new creation. Even better these customers when exposed to the result have to decide if they want to buy them or not.

Now the question is if there is a methodology to teach and learn how to combine the creative aspect of fashion, while being aware of the ultimate goal of being accepted by customers. Unfortunately, eye and sensibility are not easy to learn neither to teach, and even when you have both, you need to add the monetary factor, the logistics and many multiple administrative activities that most of the fashion creatives don't even want to touch and even worse don't want to learn.

The Editor in chief from Teen Vogue, Amy Astley, says in an article published by Forbes in 2014, when referring to the professionals that she would like to hire: I look for people who read books, newspaper, who are aware of what is going on in the world, who are smart, who go to museums and exhibits, and who know about artists. I agree with her, but I will add that fashion also requires an understanding of the how this complex business operates: the short and fast cycles that this industry is submitted continuously,  the brutal monetary competition, and the complexity of the logistics involved since this industry became global among many other factors.

If you are thinking on getting into this industry, you better get prepared to expand and stretch your perspectives to the unlimited world of art and science, where multiple pieces are required to put together seamlessly to be successful.

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Lessons to learn when teaching to be creative

I have been teaching for a while Technology in Fashion at Philadelphia University. You may think this is a very dry subject, full of machinery and computers. Fortunately, my class has become a lab where I have my students using their creativity. The very first semester, I was very much trying to show my students the advancements in terms of machinery, software applications, wearable technology and 3D printing. Tons of theory. The class went well, but I thought I was missing something.

I was always on the creative side. When I went to school for Textiles, I always wanted to come up with these projects where people could react in different ways. I made a woven cape of animal intestines, a shoe of ivy and flowers made with woven tapestry techniques, that I named Nike Primavera (Spring Nike), a window crocheted with wild Ives, and a fabrication for rivers Knitted with grass, among many more projects. Unfortunately, my creativity and curiosity stopped when I confronted the real world and I had to go to work and made a life of my diploma.

After my first semester teaching Technology in Fashion at Philadelphia University was over, I felt I had the opportunity to retake my creativity and  ideas and projects came to my head, like those old times when I was a student. The result has been wonderful. I have an unstoppable tool called technology to my service this time. I love to see how I am introducing my students to use technology not only to complement the actual business practices, but to use it as a tool where there are no limits. Technology is here for them to be used, not in the traditional ways of standardization, speed to market, etc. but to explore new fields and come with ways to do things that no one has sought before.