Author Archives: Bryan jimenez

Exploring FIT’s Fashion design a Career in Design by Bryan Jimenez.

Bryan Jimenez

Professor Ellis

English 1101

11 May 2015

I am Bryan Jimenez, a student currently enrolling a Fashion Marketing major at The New York City College of Technology, even though I am enrolled in marketing classes now, I plan to transfer to The Fashion Institute of Technology where I will be enrolling their Fashion Design major. Fashion Marketing is a great major for me because it can help me manage and market my business one day, but the major I always wanted to pursue is Fashion Design. Fashion Design is the best career for me because it is a really wide industry and there are many opportunities for individuals with passion like me, it’s a field where I can develop my creative skills, it makes me happy, and the pay is really good if one gets to a high position.

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The Fashion Design major I want to enroll in FIT can be very helpful in all types of ways regarding my dream. Just a two years degree can help me a lot, according to the FIT’s major catalog “students will learn the fundamentals of professional draping, patternmaking, and sewing techniques. Students will also master computer aided design, and learn how to take a design from concept to finish garment.” (FIT, p.3) Draping, patternmaking and sewing are crucial skills in the fashion design major, I quite know how to make patterns and sew but these classes FIT offers will help me take my skills the next level of greatness. After earning a degree in my major there are a lot of job opportunities available according to the FIT’s major catalog “The major in Fashion Design offers qualified students the opportunity to prepare for positions as designers, assistant designers, technical designers, stylists, or fashion executives.” (FIT, p.1) Using what I learn at FIT and the connections I make through it will help me acquire these positions I listed above.

Fashion Design is the best career for me because it is a wide field with many opportunities. A lot of people think designers only have 2 opportunities in life, either design for their own brand or designing for someone else’s brand, in fact, that is not the case because designers have many opportunities in the Fashion Industry. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics “The employment, or size, of the fashion design occupation in 2012 was 22,300.” (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014) within this number there are designers designing for other established and/or underground labels also other jobs such as stylist, creative director, product manager, and modeling. Creative Director is the job title I am aiming for. A creative director is the highest position a designer can be assigned to if in their own fashion house or someone else’s fashion house, a creative director does not design, instead they give orders to their designing team on to how to design and which concept to use when designing and creating fabrics.

 Another reason why I believe Designing is the best career for me is because Fashion is a field where I can develop my creative skills. During my sophomore year of High school I was going throughout a hard time trying to decide what I wanted to pursue as a career. I went from wanting to be a lawyer to a cop and from a cop to an artist. The primary reason I wanted to work as a lawyer or cop was because of the money involved and the many more changes to get into that major, but my family convinced me to do what I loved and what makes me happy. Artists and Designers are in the same category, both think of an idea and make it into a statement (garment/piece) that touches someone’s heart. I am always thinking about ideas of how to make a simple garment into a statement. I believe I have a gift of creativity, a reason for this is the fact that most of the garments I’ve created I didn’t have to plan or even think about it for long, it just comes to mind, I sketch it and construct it and I’m only going to get better at these strategies by doing internships while attending to FIT. According to the FIT’s student catalog “an internship at a leading fashion house gives students the experience and valuable connections. Internships sites have included Donna Karan, Ralph Laurent, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, among others.”(FIT, p.8) Being a FIT students will give me the opportunity to intern at fashion houses which are very hard to acquire if one doesn’t have the right knowledge. These internships will not only help me perfect my craft but will help me connect with big names in the industry.

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I’ve been fortunate to have a family that allowed me the freedom to pick my own path in life. A lot of Hispanic parents would not look at fashion or art as a path, but my family does. When I finally decided that I wanted to pursue this major a lot of friends and close individuals tried to convince me that it wasn’t the best major to do since it’s a very hard industry to get into, instead I did not pay mind to their comments and went after my dream. I make a lot of mistakes while making a garment some are sewing where I wasn’t supposed to, not following the line in which I was supposed to sew into, sewing pieces the wrong way, and much more. These mistakes can become tiring after some time but one thing is that I always find the way to fix them and finish the project. Instead of these mistakes I make put me down and make me think I’m not good enough they inspire me to keep moving forward, they flatter me to the point where all I want to make is perfect and at the end that is what I always strive for.

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The fashion industry is full of glamour, therefore there is obviously a lot of money involved within these jobs. The jobs I am personally aiming for after graduating from FIT are either Merchandiser, Buyer, Stylist, Independent Designer, or Creative Director. According to Fashionista.com these are the paying average for each position: “Merchandiser $64,700 per year, Buyer $69,800, Stylist $141,700 per year, followed by Independent Designers $155,400 per year, creative director $191, 00 or more per year.” (Sherman, 2013) The pay within the fashion industry are decent compared to other majors and jobs but it is what I love and dream to do one day therefore the money involve in this industry is not my main focus but it is my side focus. The education I learn at FIT is going to be crucial for my success.

I recently interviewed a Menswear stylist who works with GQ Magazine. Stephen Campbell is his name, “I attended FIT pursuing the fashion design dream, 2 years later I graduated and started my own womenswear line, which did not work as much as I intended it to but on the midst of this nightmare I was going through I started looking for fashion jobs other than designing. I found a stylist position at GQ which I took which is the position I am currently on. Throughout that job I started networking with well recognize designer which now I work for as their fashion show’s stylist.”(Campbell, 2015). Campbell is a living example of how a designer can success without having to design or have their own brand. I meet people like Stephen every once in a while at Zara which is my work place so I can only imagine the people I will be able to meet as soon as I start attending FIT. According to the occupational outlook handbook “fashion designing jobs are decreasing on an average of 3% from 2012 to 2022.”(Bureau of labor statistic, 2014).  Fashion Jobs are decreasing job by job, this tells me that I need to work really hard to become the fantastic, different and outstanding designer I want be. I now have to make a change and work as hard as I can to stand out and be different.

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If an individual is really passionate about something they will go after it no matter what stands in front of them.  Nowadays there’s a lot of young people wanting to be designers but their work is so effortless, it’s literally a Hanes T-shirt with some prints on and that’s it. For one to be a real designer/fashionista there needs to be real effort put into the craft, creativity, among other factors which I don’t see on this young people’s clothing lines. The first advice I’ll give someone who wants to do this major at this age and time is do research. Doing research on this major teaches one the ways of this industry, it helps understand what’s the real role of a designer, how much creativity is needed and the history of how fashion became fashion.

Works Cited

 Campbell, Stephen. Personal interview. 2 may 2015

Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT). “Fashion design.” Fashion institute of technology undergraduate programs. Web. 9 May 2015

Laurent, Sherman. “How Much Fashion Jobs Really Pay.” Fashionista, 2014 edition, web. 9 May 2015

United States. “Fashion Design.” Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2014-15 Edition, Fashion Designers, web. 9 May 2015

 

Writing My Brain by Bryan Jimenez

Introduction

This project literally changed my life. It’s insane how a simple activity like the ones I had to do for this project changed the way my mind functioned three weeks ago. Before going in deep with this project I did not really payed any attention to what was on my mind during my walking hours but after the day of thoughts, I started realizing my thoughts are very important and they reflect how I am as a person. This project was also very helpful because it showed me what was lacking off in my life.

Thinking in Writing

An average day of mines I wake up thinking on how my day is going to take off. The times when I don’t have school, I usually work on my craft. My craft is fashion design. During my day of thoughts I was making a jacket I designed. My mind was so into the garment I was making that nothing else was on my mind but ideas of how to make my garment better. I am a person who gets bored quite fast so I had to switch up what I was doing. I later grabbed my math homework and started looking through it, another thing about me is that I hate math, so my thoughts about math are always “who created math”, “why do we need math”, “ugh”, etc. I hate this kind of thoughts. One reason is because it makes me lose my focus on school. I was analyzing how I passed my math remedial class, which I thought was hard even though in reality was not, but the secret was that even when I thought it was hard I made my mind believe it was easy and that way I learned a lot more than what I was learning with my ignorant way of thinking about math. I notice that I also think a lot about my future. At times I zone out thinking if I’ll get to my goals in life and it feels real while I’m there. But I’m sure I’ll not get there if I focused so much on how my life would look in the future and not about the work I have to do right now to get there. After writing this I want to start focusing more on my craft and not get bored with it, I want to have fun with the fabrics, textures, the sewing, the draping, etc. Also with math I want to be able to love it and not hate the moment my break ends and I have to head to my math class.

Thinking visually


This image represents how fast I work on my craft and sometimes it comes out wrong. You probably don’t see anything but I do. The flaws with this is the white thread in between the fabrics. The thread is always supposed to be the same color as the fabrics.


This picture represents the passion I have for my craft. Every Day when I wake up and see this it inspires me to keep working harder and harder on my dream. I also want to learn how to be patient and to wait until I have a plan to go ahead and create something.


This picture represents the bored math problems I have to go through on my math course. Which I don’t like but I tell my mind I like so I can learn them.


This picture represents the fact that math isn’t just about numbers, it’s about shapes, it’s about architecture, it’s fun, this is the way I want to feel about my math course.

This picture represents the idea that I spend to much time zone out thinking about my future instead of doing what I have to to right now to get there, it’s like my goal is right there so close to me but It’s getting farther because I’m not doing what I have to do on time.


This picture represents how I want to feel about my future. A car starts at point A and ends at point B but between A and B there’s a road that car has to take. I sometimes think I’m on point B when in reality I’m on point A. I wanna feel as if I already left point A now I’m on the road to point B.

Thinking reflectively

I’m Bryan Jimenez and I’m twenty four years old, I’m now graduating from the Fashion Institute of Technology. At FIT I met a very special person who I am now engaged to and we are working together on our fashion dream. During my student years at FIT I did a lot of internships that allowed me to network in fashion, photography, and art. Thanks to this new friendships I made throughout college I am showing a spring/summer ’21 “Ready to Wear” collection at New York Fashion Week. My fashion career has grown so much in just five years, from sewing at my room to having my own showroom. It’s unbelievable how far I’ve come. During this essay I will argue to myself on how I can become successful by changing the way I was thinking five years ago. Four things I would have done in the past would be to focus on school, on learning the basics of anything before going in too deep, on practicing more exercises, and appreciating everything I have in my hands now.

People say there’s no reason to go back on the past since nothing can be done or change, but I personally wish that a “going back to the past” machine existed. If I could go five years back on my life I would definitely focus more in school. During 2015 I was attending City Tech it was on my second semester, I had a part time job and I was also working on my clothing line. That entire year my least prioritized responsibility was school. I set work and my career goals before school, which was not good because I lost focus and I was not taking school serious so my grades immediately went from b’s to -c’s. Due to my grades going down I had to stay another year in City Tech to get my grades up so that FIT would accept me, which I felt like it was unnecessary because I had the chance to get good grades and I didn’t use it. If I had gotten better grades in college I probably would not have to take all these exams my job and college is now requiring me to take. If I was to speak to the kids in high school or college I would highly recommend them to focus on school. There’s nothing more important then school and that everything will fall into place as soon as school is done.

Everything we do in life requires some type of learning. Some learn visually , some study and some are self taught. I am an fashion designer and everything I know about fashion I have learned myself, I learn how to sew by practicing everyday and even though I know how to sew and construct garments I can say that I am not the best at it yet. If I could go back five years to when I first started sewing and designing I would tell myself to focus on basics before going big. When I first started pursuing this fashion dream I was 17 and I wanted to rush the process and that cost me not money but time. Time because I would always do something wrong while I was sketching or sewing and I would either have remake what I did wrong or most times I would have to start over. That costed me a lot of time which could have been used to learn other techniques. After a year of rushing my work and having to remake project after project, I finally understood that I had to learn the basics before I can move anywhere else, I then started over doing simple stuff such as t-shirts, sweaters and on and on, trying to make it as perfect as I could and I can now five years later say, those lessons I learn while remaking garments taught me that the process is very important and everybody has to go through it to become professionals on their craft.

If I had the opportunity to go five years back from now and someone told me to do exercise I would probably tell them “I don’t have time for the gym”. Five years ago I really did not have any time for a gym. But what I did not know is that I did not have to go to a gym to practice exercise. A book that change this mindset of mines was “Brain Rules” by John Medina. Medina talks on how beneficial exercise is not only for our body’s and health, but also for our brain. After I finish reading “Brain Rules” I realized that I was just killing myself if I didn’t practice any types of exercises and so I started walking longer distance than my usual walks, riding my bike more often and from there on I started the hobby of doing some type of exercise everyday.

Family it’s the best gift men has. Five years ago I knew that sentence but I was not seeding on to it because I was too busy living my own life to the point that I did not realized that I had a family wanting to spend time with me. Like I said earlier I wish a going to the past machine existed so I can appreciate not only my family but everything god has handed me. As soon as I started working on the arts and fashion Everyone around me started telling me “you are so talented”, “one day you will make it” but I didn’t really saw that talent in me until now, maybe because I was making garments the wrong way or maybe because I didn’t have the skills an average designer has after some time in the fashion world but the point was that I was learning and I did not recognized the beauty of learning. Now every time I learn something new about any topic not just relating my craft I feel proud of myself because I finally understood how to value everything I have and learn everyday.

I remember how bad I wanted to be on my twenties five years ago, now I am twenty four wishing I could go five years back, the irony of life. My life it’s really not bad at all for all the mistakes I made throughout my teenager years but it can be a lot better if I had payed more attention in school. If I was giving the opportunity to attend school again I would definitely cut everything and everyone off to focus on school work. On the other note my fashion works are where I pictured them being five years ago. I am glad I learned the lesson of practice during my journey and thanks to that lesson I am who I am today. Five years ago a lot of my friends were into fitness and doing exercise but I wasn’t and I regret not associating with them as much earlier in life because now it’s really hard for me to do exercises everyday. Now that I am 24 I am still the same slim boy from college and even thought I am not ashamed of how I look I still wish I was a little bit more fit. I can believe it took me five years to start appreciating everything I have in my life, it took me to open my eyes into the real world and see how other people live and how I live. And that’s how my story ends.