Fashion Designing 2008 in Austin Texas

Austin School of Fashion Design started our new session on January 7 with 52 new students for this six week session. The timing was great with Project Runway starting up again after a long wait....so we are all watching to see what happens on this season. I added a commercial from our school to the first Project Runway sessions, and we have gotten a whole new group of students from the commercials. And we also created some new classes including Hat Design, Men's Shirt Design, Grading, and Children's Clothing Design. Go to the class page to see the pictures.
We had some other great news this past year....Our former student and now instructor at Austin School of Fashion Design, Julia Plume, won a very competitive design challenge this year called the Texas Search for the Next Top Designer. It was sponsored by the Dallas Fashion Incubator, and Julia's winning of this challenge was impressive. She took all of our courses and then read everything she could get her hands on, and put her first collection together immediately and sold it to two of Austin's best boutiques...The Garden Room and C. Jane's!!!! I am very proud of her, and can't wait to see what she is going to do next.
Julia is teaching two classes here that will really be of interest to the student who is ready to put their collection together, and doesn't know where to start. Julia's first class is "Marketing, Manufacturing,and Presenting Your Collection". This class takes the student through all of the steps of marketing a collection, starting with textile shows in the United States and Europe, picking a showroom and sales representative, finding a manufacturer, preparing first samples and line sheets, designing and buying labels and hang tags, delivery dates and shipment rules, as well as finding graders and pattern makers and sewers. This is a very indepth and informative class.
The second class that she is teaching this session is "Creating and Constructing Your Collection". This class allows the students to form their own design company, pick fabrics together, and design a collection together. The students will then create the flat patterns, cut the garments, and sew them together. The Collection will be in our Spring Fashion Show that we are planning for April. This also is a great class, and encourages the student to think in terms of collections and pieces. Sewing experince and flat pattern skills are necessary for this class.
Our next bit of good news is....we are adding a retail section to our school where we will carry all of these hard to find design tools that the students need, such as pattern paper, oak tag paper, good scissors, hip rulers, clippers, flat pattern books, etc. There is No Where to buy these necessary supplies, and I feel frustrated for the students trying to find these things. Most of the sewing supplies in Austin are geared toward quilters and they just are not what the student is looking for in design. So very shortly, we will be carrying those supplies. YEAH!!!!!
Please go to the About Us page on our website and read the bio information on all of our instructors. Julia won a great award, but all of our instructors, Kim Allbright, Ashley Raines, and Rick Gonyo are all equally qualified and creative professionals.
I wish everyone a Happy New Year.....Happiness, Health, Serenity, and Creativity. Be good to yourself. Mary Margaret Quadlander