FASH 49/FASH 54A – We made it to the end!

Hello Everyone,

Well the semester is over and what a semester it has been!  A big thanks to both my fashion classes (Visual Merchandising – FASH 49 and Fashion Styling – FASH 54A) for sticking by me this semester; for those who do not know, I became extremely ill for almost most of February, and I’ve been playing catch up ever since then.  I had to cancel classes, or call in a substitute, and even teach while sick, but you stayed with me and didn’t drop my classes, THANK YOU!

Final grades are already posted and as always please contact me at school if you have any questions or concerns regarding the grade you earned.  I think most of you will be happy with your grades as the talent was exceptional!  My next post will be showing some of the work from both classes.

I wish you all a wonderful summer break!  I will be teaching summer school in the construction program.  I’m sadden by the fact that some of you will no longer be by students, as there are no more classes I teach for you to take.  Please keep in touch and let me know what you are up to, and “friend”me on Facebook if you like.  I use Facebook predominately for work and school and I am connected with many of my past students.

See you in the fall!

 

Happy Holidays!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas (if you celebrate that holiday) and here’s to a fantastic new year!

It’s been an amazing year for me and I can’t express how grateful I am to all of you, especially my students.  I have never cried in front of a class but this past semester my fashion styling students brought me to tears.  Your kind words were too much for my little heart to bear ♥!

This class was such a hit, the department chair has asked me to teach it again in the spring (it is usually only offered once a year), and it is already filling up fast.  I’m allowed to take 59 students and last time I checked I was already at 52 (FASH 54A – Beginning Fashion Styling).

I will also be teaching visual merchandising again this spring.  This class is also filling up fast, with a class cap at 59, my current enrollment is 47 (FASH 49 – Visual Merchandising).  If you are new to this blog, these classes are offered in the Fashion Department at City College of San Francisco, as part of the Fashion Merchandising degree of Fashion Styling certificate.

I know I don’t post as often as I should around here, work does take a huge amount of my time…I do post on my tumblr daily.  It’s called the Fashion Teacher.  I’m fairly new to tumblr and had no idea I would become so addicted to it, even more so than my Pinterest.  I guess it makes sense, we are after all very visual people and tumblr allows us to express that quite easily.

Wishing you the VERY BEST in 2013!

A mannequin Christmas tree!

Welcome Back to School Everybody!

Hello everyone and welcome back.  I especially want to say welcome to my FASH 54A students whom I’ve directed to this site for all their class info.  FASH 54A is a new class for me this semester – Beginning Fashion Styling.  I’m super excited to be teaching this class!  I spent practically my whole summer researching and preparing for this program.  I hope all 60 (yep I’ve got 60 students!) of you enjoy this class.

This class is not based on your typical textbook theory, but a practical hands-on approach to fashion styling; by the end of the semester you will have a stylist kit assembled, a portfolio with images you created, a directory of the best places to “pull” merchandise, and source props, and the business acumen for working as a freelance stylist.  Many of you wrote to me over the summer, telling me you were taking the class because you want to begin working immediately as a stylist; so that’s how I focused the class.  You will learn about the different types of photo styling in the various medias, but this class is definitely a “how-to”.

I hope my students from FASH 49 – Visual Merchandising, and other readers interested in visual work will learn something too, in fact I will touch on visual work in this styling class, as you will see styling a mannequin is no different from styling a model.  Visual display artists do what stylists do everyday, the only difference is their work isn’t photographed – the skills are very much the same and transferable from one trade to the other.  After college my “9-to-5” job was doing display work, but I was repped by an agent for freelance assistant styling work too.  Having an agent is great and I recommend it, especially if you live in a small editorial market like me (San Francisco).  The freelance work wasn’t as plentiful as New York, LA, or even Chicago.

I hope in the next few weeks to also be making some changes around here.  I am hiring another former student who will be upgrading this site and helping me with a new design.  I may at that point decide to move FASH 54A to its own blog – the working title I have for that idea is I’m a Stylist.  I chose that name because I laugh every time I hear someone say it.  I’m not trying to be mean, but now soooo many people say they’re stylists (Thanks Rachel Zoe), it’s become the default career for the fashion industry.  Years ago “everyone” was a model, then “everyone” was a designer, nowadays, “everyone” is a stylist :)!

At least at the end of my class you’ll be able to say it and really mean it – welcome back!

Glory Days Fashion Show

Art and fashion definitely go hand in hand.  I think we can all agree that’s pretty much what we do as visual merchandisers!  Below is some information sent to me of a local fashion and art showing of one of our local design schools.  If you are in the Bay Area I hope you will support these students and the local talent!

 

The Bachelor of Science degree students of the Fashion Marketing & Management program of The Art Institute of California, A College of Argosy University, Sunnyvale are presenting “Glory Days” on Saturday, June 9, 2012. This is the first fashion-related show for the Institute since the Sunnyvale location began accepting creative talent in 2008.

“Glory Days” is a production of The “Freedom” Fashion Show & Art Event, which debuts what will become an annual event of fashion, art, and design; revolving around the ideas and images of “freedom”. The event is taking place at 1120 Kifer Road, Sunnyvale, the location of The Art Institute of California, A College of Argosy University, with an agenda that will show case the artistic works of the various programs offered through the creative arts institution.

Doors will open at 11am, beginning with a reception and gallery event of open and juried submissions of art and design work by current and alumni students. In addition, tours of the facilities and information about the institutions programs will be offered. This will be followed by a student produced fashion show at 1pm, which will feature a variety of looks focused on the use of America’s most-iconic, fashion staple – denim.

Viewing of the gallery submissions will be open until 3pm.

 

Thanks Woody Anthony for sending this in!

Visual Merchandising by Tony Morgan (2nd Edition)

The textbook I use for this class is Visual Merchandising – Window and in-store displays for retail by Tony Morgan.  I really like this book as it doesn’t read like the traditional textbook with too much technical jargon.  It’s very informative and would make a great addition to the display person’s library whether they are a student or not.

I am happy to report the book has been updated and the second edition is out.  Thank you very much to Laurence King Publishing for sending me a copy (one of the few perks of being a professor!).

This book will now become required reading in my class, before it was only on the suggested reading list, but I reference it so much and my students are in line to borrow my class copy, I’ve decided to make it mandatory.  The cost is $40 (if you’re wondering) or about $26.00 on Amazon.

Tony teaches visual merchandising at the London College of Fashion and is the head of the visual merchandising department at the Fashion Retail Academy in London.  Wow – a whole school devoted just to fashion retail!! I think that’s fantastic and wished one existed on this side of the Atlantic.  Most of our fashion schools are devoted to design with a few classes in merchandising and marketing.

Happy Reading!

Thanks for a wonderful semester!

Hi Class,

Whew – what a busy couple of weeks it’s been!!  I’ve finished grading the final and have submitted your grades.  If anyone is interested in knowing how they did on the final and what their overall grade is in the class, send me an email.

Thanks so much for a creative, fun, and wonderful semester.  Having great students definitely makes my job as a teacher so much easier.  I wish you all the best of luck in your future endeavors and don’t forget to keep checking in here, and keep in touch with me.  I love hearing how my students are doing in their careers, especially those of you who pursue jobs in Visual Merchandising – like Charmaine M!

Big congrats to Charmaine on her new VM position with Aritzia!  You are so talented, they are very lucky to have you!

Some of you have already looked at the new schedule and see that I will be teaching course#: FASH 50- Runway: The Business of Modeling, in the fall (in addition to my construction and engineering classes!!).  This is the first time the college has offered this course in a LONG, LONG time, so we are excited to be able to offer it again.  I will be co-teaching with noted fashion show producer and model Charleston Pierce.  He is an extremely well-known model, with years of experience here and abroad.

Have a safe and happy summer!

Love,

Arcadia