Author: CDVL

September 6, 2022

I am awaiting the arrival of the first official athleisure wear collection. The college has officially placed the order and I have closed my first official wholesale deal. Over the summer I worked with Apple Creative Studios and Afro Milan Fashion Week where I networked with the likes of Lawrence Steele and created a capsule collection for Milan Fashion Week. In preparation for fashion week I began planning my arrangements and outfits. Dr. Tolliver and I discussed further plans for our course and he assigned me with a syllabus. Next, I connected with Markesha to perform a fitting with the majorette uniforms. The majorette uniform designer would conduct a fitting with the majorettes on my birthday while I am in Italy for fashion week.

September 13, 2022

I am in Italy for fashion week. In the next couple of days I will be attending the reveal of the collection at Apple Milan near Duomo. In the meantime, I had dinner with Lawrence Steele and we discussed strategies of how I can position myself in the fashion industry. I asked if he thought it was a good idea for me to come work for him at Aspesi and he declined. He told me he could get me a job at Marni, but the work environment at Aspesi was unwelcoming. We also discussed whether or not I should go to graduate school. He disagreed and told me that graduate school was a waste of time. We also discussed whether or not I should move to Milan upon graduation. He thought that Milan would be a great fit for me. His only concern was getting me validity in the country. I received a notice that the majorette fitting went well and the majorette designer received all the measurements and would create samples from S to XL.

September 20, 2022

I attended the reveal of the collection at Apple Milan. I was reunited with several friends that worked alongside me on the collection. I was also able to connect with new people. The presentation happened on the screen in the back of the room. It happened during normal business hours so we had regular people who were invited to be a part of the demonstration. We showed a powerpoint of the ideation process, the sketches, the patterns, and the mood board. There was also a live demonstration of the box covers and pillows turning into hats. We were able to interact with the crowd and discuss our hats and what we felt about the experience. I talked about the Albania and Morocco hat and the American and Saudi Arabian hat. We answered questions and networked more with the crowd. 

September 27, 2022

We had the exhibition at ICA Milan next to the Fondazione Prada. The exhibition consisted of all three projects that took place during the month of July at Apple. Our project was on the far left side of the room and it included TVs with the collection being shown. There were patterns across the wall, sketches across the wall, models that were sitting on the chairs demonstrating how a hat turned into a pillow or box cover. The middle part of the room was for the metaverse. It had iPads that showed all the projects in one place. There were also headsets where you could enter the metaverse and see the projects. Lastly on the far right side of the room, there was a tent with the final project that played which consisted of a film of students. The event went well and I was able to network with new and old associates. I also visited the Tokyo James fashion show where I met a designer for Off White. 

October 3, 2022

This week we read from the Fashion Marketing Textbook. We read the introduction and chapter one to begin studying marketing. We also watched Bury My Ashes at Bergdorf’s, a film about the famous New York Department store Bergdorf Goodman. The store is known as the most renowned and exclusive store in New York. They are known for their display windows where they showcase elaborate scenes accompanied by merchandise. There was also a segment in the documentary where different designers talked about their experience trying to be showcased in the department store and that process. Overall this week I learned about how older stores have been able to stand the test of time through their marketing strategies.

October 10, 2022

This week I learned about fashion marketing segmentation, targeting, and positioning. Also I learned about the pricing of fashion. The STP and the pricing are crucial at this moment because with the first athleisure collection coming shortly I have to make my own prices to market them to the students. Reading the book taught me the correlation between pricing and value and how that differs geographically. I also was assigned to watch Adidas vs. Puma, a story of two brothers who founded a German shoe company that survived WWII. I learned from the movie that new ideas seem crazy at first then eventually they are status quo. I also learned in order to do well at something you have to be willing to take risks and be resilient. 

October 17, 2022

This week we read from the Fashion Marketing textbook about how to market a brand and the different types of marketing strategies. As we are getting closer to the date the clothes are going to arrive the textbook is becoming more and more important because I will need to market this brand on campus. We also watched the film about Marc Jacobs that took place during his time at Louis Vuitton. This made me realize Jacob’s history and his trajectory. He became the creative director of Louis Vuitton, but throughout the documentary he had a low self esteem issue. He sees fashion as inferior in the art world. He also does not have any assets. Louis Vuitton pays for his cars and places of residence while he only invests in art. He also allowed Louis Vuitton to buy his company. Bernard Arnault discusses how Louis Vuitton is their top grossing fashion house. My hunch is that conglomerates like LVMH buy smaller companies like Marc Jacobs so that they can’t compete with them and keep them on a smaller scale. I realized I could not let this happen with my company.

October 24, 2022

The clothes finally came in. We are launching them tonight at midnight madness. I am very excited and nervous to see the school’s reaction to the new collection. This week we read the chapters from the book Brand Story on Ralph Lauren and Dolce & Gabbana. I learned the strategies both companies used to become successful. We also watched White Hot where the founder of Abercrombie and Fitch created imagery around white men with very athletic bodies to create a company around unrealistic body standards. This documentary was a great documentary because it shows how people can feed into any idea even though they are just buying a basic T Shirt. 

October 31, 2022

The debut of the collection went well. We did not sell anything during midnight madness, but we received great feedback. I ended up selling again at the fall festival and we got some good sales. The point of sale system that the school has is not good and it needs to be upgraded. This brought some difficult exchanges when the card machine did not work, forcing us to lose sales. This week I read about MAC, Vera Wang, and LuluLemon. I really enjoyed learning about these brands specifically LuluLemon because they sell athleisure wear and this is my goal. I really liked how they had the business model of yoga associated with the brick and mortar stores to make yoga seem more approachable. I also watched the film Fresh Dressed which I really enjoyed seeing the evolution of hip hop into fashion houses. I was not satisfied with how all of the fashion houses fell. I am still concerned about that. 

November 7, 2022

This week was really crazy because we ended up planning a fashion show in a week. I had to find models. I wanted to represent all the different types of people on campus while keeping it short to eight minutes. Coincidentally there was a fashion show happening for global night the same night and they had already ordered a stage. They will put the stage up early so we could use it during lunch. I decided to do it during lunch so it could be during the peak hour of traffic. I had my mother and my grandmother volunteer to come help. We enlisted models on campus including students, faculty and staff. 

November 14, 2022

The Fashion show is tomorrow and I am very busy getting everything together. I had to make sure everyone felt comfortable in their clothes. We did a quick rehearsal to show everyone when to come. The show had to start at exactly 12:00 and end at 12:08 because the models had to go to class. My mom had the idea to make the models wear fun outfits with their clothes. I encouraged them to wear blazers, sunglasses, purses, hats, and whatever else they thought would make the outfit look chic and match their personal style. I was also able to get my friend to come take professional photos. We had an announcement put in the Irvine and blasted it on social media. These were different marketing strategies I learned from studying marketing this semester.

November 29, 2022

The fashion show was a success. All the models came on time except for one, but it didn’t make a difference. We had a great turn out and received so much support from the school. We sold over one thousand dollars in revenue. We received great publicity on social media as well because people posted their purchases. People really enjoyed the show and liked how it involved staff from the dining hall, the mailroom, professors and students. I did not allow the models to keep the clothes and in return they loved the clothes so much that some of them ended up buying some clothes. People really loved the mannequins as well and they boosted sales because people could see the clothes clearly. It was a great experience, but the point of sale was still an issue. Without the card reader it made it difficult to process money. I learned in this experience that this was a lot of work.

December 5, 2022

Overall this semester I learned the importance of marketing. I feel like I am just getting started. Studying while practicing marketing gave me some invaluable experiences. I was not just learning from the textbook but I was actually implementing the lessons I learned in real time. I was able to make mistakes and recover quickly. This was a great opportunity for me to learn the importance of marketing and how essential it is in every business. I also realized that I am not sure if this business model is the right one for me. I definitely need more help because I cannot do all of this on my own. I learned this semester that I am ready to become an entrepreneur full time and I will not be working anywhere. I realized a masters program was not for my career path. I realized that I was never going to be ready to start my own business and that there was never enough books or time to prepare me. The best lessons happen by doing and making mistakes. I will continue this into my next semester as I take on new clients and expand my business. 

For the final project, I was really excited to make a book cover. I have always wondered how illustrators make book covers. The cover of a book gives the first impression of a book to a reader. The famous saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” shows how influential covers are to a reader. I chose to do one of a my favorite books called Quicksand by Nella Larsen. The book is about a woman who is half white and half black. Her mother is white and from Denmark. Her father is an African American. Throughout the novel, the lead character, Helga, struggles on whether she is black or white. She struggles on whether or not she wants to marry a white or black man too. She deals with a lot of depression.

This cover is inspired the Romare Bearden collage style. Bearden cut of faces and put them together to make one face out of many faces. He used grays and other vibrant colors in his work. He also used graphics. His typography includes images and graphics. In my cover, there is a woman smiling on one side of her face and crying on the other. The sky in the background is cloudy, but there is a sun in the corner. The sun in the corner juxtaposes the cloudy background revealing the characters inner conflict. The wedding dress signifies the pressure she feels by society to get married.

This cover is inspired by Josep Renau’s work. His work includes warm colors and black and white. He has celebrities like Marilyn Monroe in his work. Vivien Leigh is pictured on the cover. Leigh starred in Gone with the Wind, a pivotal film in the 20th Century. Monroe and Leigh were both monumental actresses. Like Renau, I wanted to use a woman of great influence in my work. Renau also used fire in his work so I included fire. I put the ring on her ring finger to signify Helga, the main character in the novel’s struggle with marriage. The expression on Leigh’s face is not happy which is what is normally expected with a marriage. The hand reaching out hand signifies a cry for help.

In this design for the flyer, I used Romare Bearden as the inspiration. He uses cut up faces to bring together one face. I used different and different bodies to align with his method. I also used different scales like he did as well. The different faces are for the different identities she is. She also struggles with choosing a white or black husband.

This flyer is also modeled from Josep Renau’s work.

Here is another poster I did. Vertov used facial features and consecutive pictures that followed down the page. His dynamic composition was something I was trying to emulate. At the top of the picture there is a picture of a foreign country. The country made me think of Denmark where the main character is from. The boat that goes completely through the page signifies her constant traveling throughout the novel. The hands in the air signify worship. The main character deals with issues with religion. The woman looking down in the top right hand corner symbolizes Helga’s mother who is dead looking down on her. The woman in the bottom right corner symbolizes Helga talking to her mother and asking her for guidance. Also her constant identity issue. The Apollo theatre in Harlem represents her acceptance in the black community and her enjoyment of her time in Harlem during the 20’s. The tan background signifies the Quicksand that she constantly feels she is in.

The hardest part of the project was trying to recreate another artist style without it looking redundant and unoriginal.

The best part of the project was being able to incorporate a novel I have enjoyed in the past into a project. That made the project more fun because I was able to revisit the novel and get ideas.

I was a little apprehensive about this project. I have never been graded on my usage of photoshop. I normally use photoshop for my recreational time. I normally use photoshop to manipulate pictures, create logos, or posters. I have never used it specifically for shapes. It was challenging but I enjoyed it.

I started off with a Z because I thought it would give me plenty of negative space. The Z gave me plenty of negative space, too much. I found myself struggling with making the Z look too unequivocal or too equivocal. The Z was easily mistaken as a zing zag by my peers and I did not want that. I also struggled with making it look equivocal because the Z made harsh lines that were hard to manipulate. 

Here is my first Z. I thought it looked too much like a zig zag.

• 

Here I began using a lowercase z. As I continued to manipulate the Z’s height, I did not like it. I thought it was too equivocal. Yes, it looked like a Z, but I felt like it could be easily mistaken for other things. 

I tried once more and manipulated and warped the Z completely. The was finally equivocal, but it lost its whole shape. Frustrated, I moved on to another shape. 

Next, I tried a Q. Unlike the Z, the Q had more curved lines that would give me flexibility. As I began manipulating the Q’s shapes I realized it looked extremely equivocal with even the slightest notifications. Not many people could tell what it was. I figured it was because the font and moved onto another letter.

I had better luck with the A. I chose it because I thought the plethora of shapes would give me options. I distorted the A so I could use strange shapes. 

Here is the Original A.

I quickly realized the number of shapes was limiting. I struggled making the A unequivocal but original.

Here was my first final.

I reflected and thought it was too repetitive and created more.

I pushed the lines of equivocality. I bent the shapes to create landscapes. I created more images that would be left up to the viewer’s interpretation. I used opacity and shadows to create depth. I also tried different greys to add tone. 

Here is my Final.

The first row of A’s is unequivocal. I hoped they would easily be identified as the letter A without being repetitive. The first A has dark tones that create an ominous theme. The triangle is reflected in the center of the letter and creates a pointy object. It reminds me of a knife. That is the most uneasy picture to look at. It looks ominous and mysterious. The middle top row A looks like a cliff to me. I tried to make it look like a person was contemplating jumping off a cliff. The person cannot see, but the viewer sees, below is the exact same circumstances. So if the person jumps, they will just end up in the same situation. There is no escape. 

In the third photo from the top row, I created upside down A’s in the sides. I liked the parallelism of the A’s in the empty spaces. 

For the equivocal A’s, I tried to push the boundaries of legibility. I tried to create faces and landscapes. 

I also made an Extra below

Next, I chose the letter Y. I thought four shapes was too many to manipulate. Y was my favorite letter. I really enjoyed manipulating it. I was able to play with the opacity and give illusions of a lowercase Y. I played with the warp tool to make the Y look like it was liquid, like a wine glass.

Above were my original y’s, but after some helpful criticism in class, I changed the last Y. The left pointed shape bothered many people because it did not look intentional.

I redid the last y to make it look more intentional.

I left this Y out and chose it as an extra. It was one of my favorites. I liked how it looked like a lowercase y while still remaining equivocal.

Here are my finals Below.

Here is an Extra Y

Here is an extra A. I had fun with the paint bucket and tones on this one