I love living in East London because you find quirky little things like this note. Graffiti walls, potatoes with Q-tips at every bus stop top, and art galleries around every corner makes East London so lovable.
One thing they do not teach at my school, London College of fashion is draping. Many of you who know me know I struggled at my placement last year because I didn't know how to drape... barely even knew what it meant. So I took it upon myself, checked out some books and even paid to take classes at F.I.T. for a semester and the people at my placement also gave up their time to teach me how to drape because it is absolutely essential to know. Pattern cutting is great, obviously, but when it comes down to it you won't always have BLOCKS from Curtain Road (college campus) and thats when draping comes in handy. You can drape anything, a basic pencil skirt, dress, trousers, you name it- you can drape it. The best part is you skip the paper and you go from draping- marking- cutting out the pieces nicely and then using that as your pattern to cut out your pieces in the final fabric. This video shows that the people at Chanel drape their jackets (YES JACKETS), at my placement everything was draped, and at other Universities, draping is the first thing you learn and you continually learn it for the next 4 years. It upsets me so much that my College that I am paying thousands of dollars for does not teach the importance of draping. It is used so often in the industry, especially in New York. I'm sure there are many places in London that drape right onto the stand and get their patterns that way. It's ridiculous to me. And it doesn't matter that I'm "not in New York," the truth is draping is used everywhere.
Some guy in final year womenswear asked me what I was doing while I was draping my shirt. I told him, "I'm draping." He proceeded to ask me, "so you are making your pattern pieces like that?" It's called draping. You put fabric on the stand, drape what you want, mark it and then transfer it to pattern paper. That's my final pattern.
The main reason this pisses me off is because I was not taught this and it is fundamental to fashion design. I struggled so much at my placement until they offered to help me out. I paid extra money to take classes at another university just to learn how to drape and I learned more there than I did in the past 3 years of attending LCF. It's such a shame.
Don't get me wrong, pattern cutting and making up is so important- I am just saying that draping needs to be taught and is just as important. And I am also not saying that everyone in New York drapes, but every single designer is taught that. This is also not to say Chanel drapes everything. I understand you can make beautiful garments without draping- that's not my point. IT IS CLEARLY THAT STUDENTS SHOULD BE TAUGHT THIS SKILL BECAUSE IT IS JUST AS IMPORTANT AS PATTERN CUTTING. This is my personal rant on how ridiculously unfortunate it is that LCF does not see the importance of draping. Other than that, it's nice to get an inside look into the Chanel studio and see its' famous tweed jacket get sewn up and put together.
I absolutely love Taylor Tomassi and seeing her be all goofy and run around Paris with the Moda Operandi women just gives me all the more reason to LOVE her!! The clip shows the best of Paris Fashion week with bits of Taylor and Harley Viera-Newton jumping up and down!
I've done a few other posts with Tomassi through the years, check em:
Just had one of those dreams that validates everything that has happened in the past, but also brought back some pretty bad feelings. Why are some dreams memorable when I wake up and some aren't? I wish I forgot this one because it's making me feel the same type of cruddy as I felt not too long ago.
Haha this is so great, "no models feelings were hurt in the taping of this show." Vfiles
"can you do a rick owens type of walk, just die a little bit" ahahaha
and I love the Alexander Wang comment. Can't wait to see more of these.
