cara411-blog

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On Thursday May 4,2017 we visited the Met Gala to see the premier of the Comme Des Garçon's fashion exhibit. It was the most beautiful, weird, mastermind collection I have ever seen! Rei Kawakubo is an amazing designer and she has a very brilliant mind when it comes to her garments! Thinking outside the box and stepping away from the norm is what she does best. If you know her name you know for her crazy silhouettes and uses of technical fabric. Im absolutely obsessed with her creating thinking and also the way she constructs the pieces. I was trying to get as close as I could to the garments so I could really look at the details and it's insanely amazing! I took pictures of EVERYTHING! Like my phone is filled with her entire collection!! This was definitely one of my favorite visits and I'm so happy that our group saw it on the first day it opened up so that was really cool. If you asked me to choose a favorite look I couldn't tell you because each one brings a different perspective to her overall collection and they all are very different so that would be a hard choice for me!

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On Thursday April 27, 2017 we visited The Randa company. Let me just start off by saying this was the most professional and well organized meeting thus far! It was really nice to see how hard they worked putting this presentation together. We got to see presentations by a lot of different departments and we earned very valuable insight to their company and etc. We also got told that we are one of the top schools they select to find potential employees for their company. We got to speak with various alumni and what they do for the company and that was very inspirational because they were once in our shoes and now they're in a position at Randa which is awesome! Overall the presentation and knowing that possibly one of us could be working for them was very cool and exciting!

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On Thursday April 13th we went to visit Material Connexion and I was sooooooooooo fascinated with EVERYTHING that I saw. I will definitely be going back. Basically Material Connexion is a company that makes various different materials made from different and unique things from all over.  Like for example we saw things like pineapple leather, heat sensitive material that changes colors and just crazy things of that nature. Our tour guide explained that various company's are able to use these products via their membership.  Since I am a design major I get inspiration from just about anything but this had me hypnotized. I went through every aisle looking up and down and I still feel like I missed a lot of materials. But yes, if you can’t already tell I will be stopping by once more before I leave NYC this semester. 

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On Thursday, April 6th we visited the FIT "Paris Refashioned" exhibit. The years covered were 1957-1968 and it featured great influencers of fashion to this day. Some of the designers featured were Karl Lagerfeld, Pierre Cardin, Hubert de Givenchy and Yves Saint Laurent just to name a few. The stories the tour guide told us were very cool and she definitely presented each one with great enthusiasm which made it even better. There were various items that I wanted right off the dress forms but I know they cost a fortune (which I don't have lol). I love how all of the clothes that were in there were all timeless. The designers featured probably didn't know there clothes would be mimicked even today so that's pretty cool. I really enjoyed the tour and seeing all of the clothes from Paris the fashion capital of the world!

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On Thursday, March 23 we went to visit the famous Mood fabrics. I have been there about 20 times before our visit but it was nice to get a tour and get information on different things that I didn't know before. I finally got my Mood bag which I've been trying to get every time I go but you have to spend a certain amount to get it. We also went to Mood Home where we talked to a Kent State graduate by the name of Tamaa and she talked to us about moving to New York and being in a new environment which was nice. Mood is literally heaven on earth for a fashion designer so every time I go I'm like in awe of what they have. I can't forget about Swatch! The infamous pooch has murals of himself in Mood and appears on "Project Runway". Going into Mood is a new adventure for me and it gives you so much inspiration for new projects. -Cara

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On March 16,2017 we visited the Donegar headquarters and listened to a presentation by the creative director, David Wolfe. Wolfe starts his presentation off by saying "Fashion is a reflection of the society who wears it" and I thought that was very well put because it's true. He talked about how in our day and age architecture is now ahead of the fashion industry when it comes to creativity. He states that color is having a dramatic major comeback and that one of the most important things a designer should do first is consider color. Which is the most part is an after thought for some of us, let's be real here. He also states that he is more interested in "seasonless, timeless, ready to buy clothing. He showed us some pretty cool stuff in his slides as well like different trends and silhouettes and future technology.

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On Thursday 3/9/17 we visited “Accents by Sophia Inc.”. Sophia’s store is filled with beautiful jewelry like necklaces, bracelets, and earrings just to name a few. All of her jewelry is made with all natural gems and stones. 

Sophia went on to explain how each gem or stone has a significant meaning to it like for instance the ivory gems are used to prevent wrinkles, pink gems mean passion, brown/tigers eye gems mean protection and etc. She also told us how families in southeast Asia buy Js and pass them down from generation to generation and they believe that is what keeps their family together. 

Sophia wholesales her jewelry to different stores as a private label. She manufactures all her jewels in her studio in New York.  So she is very hands on with every aspect.

During the time we got to talk to her she told us how to follow our dreams and do what we want and never let anybody tell us other wise. It was very inspirational seeing that her dream became her reality and that she absolutely loves what she’s doing. I really enjoyed this visit and I definitely took in everything that she told us.

... Until next time. 

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On Thursday, March 2nd we visited Anna Coroneo's showroom in Tribeca. Anna designs various prints that she either paints or comes up with them in Adobe. She runs her company pretty much by her self, she has no team so she wear every hat there is in the business. She does have a store that's located in the UK I believe, and she goes there to check on it once in a while. She told us that she prefers to be s small business and I agree, I feel like when you become a bigger brand it's less personal. I was really inspired by what she does and her way of thinking. Her products are amazing as well and they vary with scarfs, hair fixtures and etc. She was really inspiring to me because she made her dream her reality and has her hand in everyone aspect of her business. I will definitely be emailing her and communicating with her in the future because she was very helpful and welcoming in that aspect. Overall I really enjoyed the visit!! It was awesome and I will be in contact with her in the near future!!

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Harry Show On February 28, 2017 we went to the Harry Show. I have never heard of a Harry Show until Prof. Piazza introduced this visit to us at the beginning of the semester. Shortly after that I started seeing his show on Instagram and I would see famous people I know interviewing with him. After seeing that I was thinking well maybe he's cool lol. We were definitely in for a treat when we went because we were the audience for the Mardi Gras themed show (which aired Tuesday, February 28th.. and I need to still watch it because someone told me I was on the screen a lot). They gave us masks and beads to wear which was fun. Harry is also from New Orleans so he sung a few songs for his opening, danced and played instruments in the crowd with the audience. He's very personal and I thinks that's cool. Let me just say this it was my first ever being in a live studio audience at a talk show. I was expecting Harry to take a lot of takes for each scene but the show was literally the exact same as how you see it on tv. So that was shocking. The guest were people I didn't know about really, but one of them is the lead actress in the film "Get Out" that I really want to see. The others were people from "Tiny House" and a chef that came in and gave us cookbooks and beignets which was dope and delicious. This was a great experience and I hope to be apart of Harry's or any other talk show host's audience. Until next time!

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On 1/16/17 we visited the Nordstrom Hautelook offices where we talked with 2 associates who gave us the more business and planning side to the company. They talked to us about their policies and also their job titles. It was very beneficial to hear some of the information they were giving to us like how Nordstrom, Hautelook and Nordstrom Rack are all geared towards different age groups which was very fascinating. I will be looking on Hautelook very soon to see what cool things I can find!

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On 2/2/17 we had the opportunity to go to the FFANY Shoe Show which was held at the Hilton Hotel.  It was very interesting to see how all of the different shoe companies turned the hotel rooms into show rooms to best display their product to the buyers.

Alicia was our tour guide for the visit and she gave us some insiders on the show. There are 4 shows a year in the months of February, June, August and December.  The objective of this event is to let buyers come in and basically pick shoes that they like and want to be in they’re stores. 

The shoes that were being presenting aren’t out in stores because they are prototypes of what is in the making so unfortunately I can not post any pictures of the shoes that I saw. But I can tell you this though, the shoes were amazing and the velvet trend is here to stay for a very long time :)

Until next time! 

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On 1/26/17 my field experience class and I visited the Rebecca Minkoff store in Soho, New York. During our visit we were introduced to the manager, Bri and assistant manager, Jesse who gave us a little history on how the Rebecca Minkoff clothing brand took off. To just give you a quick brief of that one of Rebecca’s friends was going to appear on a late night show and wanted to represent Rebecca in some way. So Rebecca then makes this t-shirt for her to wear and a lot of people were inquiring where she got the shirt from and that it was sparked her brand for the better.

After sharing a little bit of history on the brand she then shows us the new technology that they have going on in the store. They have interactive mirrors where you can have additional items sent to your fitting room, order drinks, change the lighting to see the garments in a different setting, and you can also look at look books to see how certain items are paired with each other from the stylist perspective. They are also one of the first stores that I have seen that have a self check-out technology where the customer can go to the iPad outside of the dressing room and pay for their items and be on their way.In conclusion the store is very beautiful, the technology is crazy impressive and her inventory of garments, handbags, shoes, and accessories are amazing.