On the streets of New York City

                                       On The Street: A Final Term Project

Myself, along with four other girls in my Creative Fashion Presentations class at F.I.T. were assigned to do our final semester project due Monday May 14th. The project called for a creative visual presentation that includes a press kit and a video along with it. My group decided we wanted to focus our project on the street styles of New York City. We brainstormed and thought we could go straight to the streets and interview people who we felt were wearing inspiring outfits that reflected where they were from in New York City. We split up and three of us did our interviews in Soho, and the other two girls did their interviews in Williamsburg in Brooklyn.

Me and the two others in my group went straight to Soho to find some people to take photos of and get a video interview. After sometime of trying to scope out people, we not only found it hard to approach people, but we found it surprisingly hard to get them to say yes when we did ask. We found that certain ways of asking were better than others, such as making sure they were aware that we wanted a video interview, and that it was for a school assignment and not some tabloid or blog that we want to plaster all over the internet. We eventually succeeded in getting a few interviews and three pictures. We asked three women who gladly accepted the interview. They were all from Spain and were visiting New York City for some shopping. From then on getting the video interviews became easier, and after 4 hours of walking all throughout Soho, we landed four interviews, and several still shots of people who refused a video interview.

Our other two group members did so much better than we did; they were in Williamsburg, and it made me think either they had a way better tactic than we did, or the people in Brooklyn are just way cooler and friendlier (something tells me it is both). We also have a section in our video that features people that attend F.I.T. and their fashion style. We put together our video, and created a lookbook that features all the people and looks that were seen on the video. When put all together tomorrow at our presentation, we expect that it will come together very well.

Runway's are wayyyy longer?

New Show Formats

If you're keeping track of recent runway shows over the past few years, you may have noticed a quite interesting and creative change that has been made. With a lot of today's fashion runway shows everywhere from Paris to New York to Milan, the runways have gotten longer or bigger and way more extravagant. We see this clearly in Chanel's recent shows. Karl Lagerfeld always has his backdrop and runways match his vision for his new lines, and these runways are very large. The only way I can think is that not only do these designers want over-the-top shows that stand out among the rest, they also want their looks to be seen for much longer. We are passed the era when it was just a straight runway stretching about 50 to 80 feet in length. Now designers are looking to bigger and better things. In Chanel's Spring 2012 Ready-to-wear show, the theme was underwater beauty, and the way he reflects that in his clothes is by making them modern and graphic like the things that are seen under the sea which are billions of years old. Lagerfeld says "The oldest things, are often the most modern", in regards to the plant life and creatures underwater. This very creative take on nature is exactly what leads to a production such as this one. Many designers now are taking this same approach with their own shows, in hopes of grabbing people's attention and creating hype over their magnificent runway shows.

Marc Jacobs Fall 2012

Louis Vuitton Fall 2012

WWD MAGIC

                                         WWD M.A.G.I.C Trunk show
                                            ~ February 2012 ~

         For those that do not know what a trunk show is, do not worry, I am ashamed to say I did not know either until I came to FIT. The MAGIC trunk show occurs in Las Vegas every August and February and showcases apparel, accessories, previews trends, and builds business. Thousand of people show up each year to view around 5,000 brands that are either already established in the market, or just emerging. These people that come are mostly buyers, brands, and media that want to see what is available for them to order and put into their own stores. There are seven different show areas which are named WWDMAGIC, FN PLATFORM, MENS/WEAR, STREET, S.L.A.T.E., POOLTRADESHOW, PROJECT and SOURCING. I want to share with you a particular show area that I liked, and that is the WWDMAGIC. This show gives people an insider perspective on the trends shaping the lives of todays teens and young women. This one occured in February 2012, and showcases contemporary better to bridge women's sportswear, dresses, and evening wear. In a video, a man desribes this show as "the mecca of clothing conventions". By going to these shows, it allows buyers and brands to have the ease of going here and having the merchandise right at there finger tips. It is much better than doing it from home, and you get to see in person what the merchandise looks like that they will be ordering. Through this they also get the joys of meeting new people, seeing new designers, and seeing great merchandise first-hand. There is also a runway show that they have within the WWD MAGIC show area. They feel its very important to have it because it bring alot of life to the clothing and helps the buyers understand better what they are choosing. There is also something called an "Emerging Designer Showcase" where only about 15 or 16 new emerging designers are chosen to showcase their looks at MAGIC. This is a dream come true for any emerging designer needing that extra boost to put them in the spotlight. Something else I found very interesting was they had a section called the "Blogger's lounge" where they view the looks and put them on their blogs, they tweet pictures of the clothing, instagram, and tumblr.  Basically it is known that well-known bloggers are becoming a new marketing standard, and their voice can reach communities that other marketing cannot reach. Overall I love the whole idea of these trunk shows because it creates so much ease for the buyers and allows designers to showcase their items to big name companies. Someday I hope I can experience a truck show like MAGIC.