#004 /making the grade
This past fall we were asked by the Arts Institute of Vancouver to photograph the clothes that the graduating class of the fashion design program had created for their end of term runway fashion show. The collaborative process with the school, students and faculty of the Fashion Design, Graphic Design and Film programs to create the imagery for the printed program was so rewarding for us, it became one of the reasons that we created TEST/model magazine! We think that it would be beneficial to those readers who might be thinking of a career in Fashion design to showcase a small selection of the student designs along with a short interview with one of the program instructors, Anita Heiberg.
Hello Anita, can you tell our readers a little bit about yourself, first of all, what do you teach?
I teach Fashion Design, mostly construction and pattern making.
OK, so is that one course or is that one program?
Multiple courses, so multilevel construction, first, second and advanced levels as well as pattern making.
How long is the fashion design program at AiV, what is the length of the course?
Currently it’s six quarters (18 months).
How many times would a student have you over that six quarters?
Um, it depends, but for the most part I get them fairly early on, maybe with a Textiles course (another course that I teach) and Construction 1. I’ll probably end up having them three to five times over the 18 months. Sometimes it might be more depending on the courses I am teaching in a semester.
How many students are in your classroom at one time, generally?
We have been consistently in the eight to ten student mark but it doesn’t max out beyond twenty.
That sounds like a good ratio. What is the breakdown between male and female students?
It’s mostly, almost always, exclusively female! Occasionally we get one male here and there and I think that in Fashion Merchandising there is three male students right now.
WOW!! Attention all male students, enroll immediately in a Fashion Design Program! 🙂
Do you have many International Students? Do you know?
I would say that twenty-five to thirty percent of our programs students are International Students.
WOW! Where from?
A lot of students from Asia and some from France and also South America.
What sort of age demographic are the students? From youngest to oldest?
We get quite a few who come right out of high school, so in the eighteen year old range and twenty seems to be a common age also but in the last group that graduated we had two women who were in their forties. Coming back to do sort of a career change.
Oh, that’s interesting. How was that with the younger students?
It usually works well, as long as everybody is sort of there, focused and on task. It creates a camaraderie that holds everyone together.
Do you find the kids that come early, like right out of high school, have been obsessed with fashion their whole life? Or, is it just something they would like to try? Or, is it sort of a mix? (laughing) I ask because I am still confused about what I want to do!
Definitely a mix! I would say that the ones that are usually the most successful are the ones where fashion is their “life’s blood”, they’ve wanted to be in fashion forever. There are always a few that show up with that enthusiasm and during the course they go “um, actually I just really like to shop”.
HA!!
Fashion isn’t quite what they thought it would be so they either figure that out or if they prefer they can switch to the marketing/merchandising side.
Do any of the Marketing/Merchandising students take your courses also?
There are some crossover courses that the design students take that are beneficial to their careers, such as marketing. I don’t teach any of those courses but the Merchandising students take a textiles course from me. Product Development, Trends & Forecasting these are also some crossover courses that both groups would take.
What is your background as far as education?
I did my Bachelor’s degree at Kwantlen University. That was a four year program and then two years ago I continued on an did a post graduate course in Innovative Pattern Cutting at Central St. Martins in London.
How was that experience for you?
Kwantlen was very practical, “know your market”, “what will sell?” and Central St. Martins was INSPIRING!
Interesting, I actually appreciate the “practical” because I don’t believe that you can teach “creativity”. Learn the ropes, earn your “bones” and THEN get your creative juices flowing. Bring that creative energy back to the practical and create a monster!
Do you love teaching?
Yes, that is why I am going to go back to school and do my Masters, go back and focus more on the design. I want to continue to teach and I think that the continued study will make me a better teacher.
Have any of your students, since you have been teaching gone on to do any design or work for other people?
Yes, we have a few students who work locally with Chloe Angus, working as assistant designers with her. We have marketing students that are working with Melissa Ferriera at Adhesif Clothing and there is one of the more recent grads, Chantal-Joy Lamoste whose design you photographed. Chantal is working for Club Med in South America, designing and maintaining costumes for all their show productions.
Interesting, how is that going for her?
She’s having a great time.
We have also had a few students that have gone over to England and Ireland who are pursuing their dreams there.
Are they apprenticing or interning?
Yes, we have some interning at companies right now.
Do you recommend that for students as a way to get their foot in the door.
It is a good way to test out the job opportunities and also to build a network and start collaborations.
This has been great Anita! Do you have any parting wisdom for our readers?
Yes, this business is so much about who you know and meet, take advantage of the networking opportunities no matter where you are. You can meet the most interesting people and opportunities if you are focused on being in the present and open to the possibilities. I have many stories about “conversations” that would have never had happened if I had stayed on the couch!
Thanks for your time Anita, and best of luck with your Masters!
Credits:
models
/andrea a. /shannon for liz bell agency
/kristina /rosemary for modelco
/sari for lexington models
photography / victor john penner
producer / marlisse penner
hair / emma park / alana martin / beth turner for avant garde
makeup / caitlin callahan (key) / atefeh shojaie for mac cosmetics
first assistant / rob seebacher
interns / bill hawley / sebastian penner
retouching / manolo lugo for the lab
videos / courtesy of AiV
volunteers
jonie wong / fashion design
aldrin delumen / fashion design
alicja ferec / fashion design
carolina wong / graphic design
sharlyn vanden broek / fashion design
special thanks to the following for their support and/or loan of products and service…
aiv / aida poostizadeh / anita heiberg
/ beth margolese / brenda wong / guy babineau
/ kevin wall / paul winskell / sandra scott
special advisor / mike granek
avant garde / jon paul holt
clearly contacts
international media films inc.
liz bell agency
mac cosmetics
modelco
nikon cameras
the lab / hieu nguyen
town shoes
As a Fashion Marketing student at the Art Institute who also did PR for the event, it is fair to note how much work went into this evening. From the organisation of the event to the actual construction of the garments, the work is substantial! So I love the angle of this article. It promotes the incredible work pumped out of the Fashion Department of Ai Vancouver and also the intermiglings of everyone working in the indusrty from the ground up to bring these inspirations to life, to create the lovely evening and launch these incredible designers. So thanks T/m and congrats on a job well done.
-Jared
Thanks Jared! We look forward to working with you in the future.
T/m
Hey, Vancouver Coutuere! this is Awesome. <3 4ever.
Yes, some talented designers in this program and it was a great show!
T/m
*I discovered your blog site on google and check a few of your early posts. Continue to keep up the very good operate. I just additional up your RSS feed to my MSN News Reader. Seeking forward to reading more from you later on!�
Fantastic post! It is clear that you know a great deal about this subject matter.
I’d like to thank you for the efforts you have put in penning this blog. I am hoping to check out the same high-grade blog posts from you later on as well. In fact, your creative writing abilities has motivated me to get my own website now 😉
I am currently fihiinsng up my BA in Child Development and Family Studies and thus far I have only work with children from 2 weeks to adolescent while helping support their families. The Physician that I would want to work under is an Obstetrics (OB) because they are in direct contact with pregnant women and their children during pregnancy. I would choose this particular specialty for a variety of reason such as having the opportunity to see individuals become parent for the first time, seeing how much love is surrounded in the process, being there to help the mothers while there in a vulnerable state. One of my main reasons is because I think that the whole birthing process is fascinating and to be able to be a part of family’s lives while going through this process, I imagine to be extremely rewarding.A of physician specialty that I would least want to work with would be a psychiatrist. Although I believe that psychiatrist do some spectacular work and help a lot of people through difficult situations I personally believe that this job would be to emotionally draining and overwhelming for me. This makes me question whether or not I would be able to handle it. When I set out to do a job my goal is to do the best that I can and I don’t feel that I could successfully do this job to the best of my ability.
I leave a response whenever I appreciate a article on a blog or I have something to valuable to contribute to the conversation.
It’s caused by the passion displayed in the post I
browsed. And on this article TEST/model
Hello! I could have sworn I’ve visited this blog
before but after browsing through a few of the articles I realized it’s new to me.
Regardless, I’m certainly delighted I discovered it and I’ll be
book-marking it and checking back often!
Genuinely when someone doesn’t know then its up to
other viewers that they will help, so here it occurs.
My website ボストンバッグ 心細く制作
Since there is so many fields of spleiacties that I have a choice of, I still really can’t choose one. So I am going base on my personal experiences. My original goal back in high school and maybe even before that, was to work in a Neonatal ICU! I had a brother that passed before he had his first birthday from heart complications, and that year I spent a lot of time at hospitals with my parents. My goal the first couple of years was to work with babies just like him. That was until I had my own children, I would of still loved to have worked in that career field but the heart ache I would most likely endure when one of those babies did not make it home. I could not have handled!On to more positive experiences, I have worked with the elderly and Geriatrics interests me very much. Being surrounded with people that have lived a fulfilled life is so much more rewarding. Even though at times it is the ending stages of their lives, and it is sad when someone does pass. It’s less of a heartache to know that most of the time they are ready to move on. They are still very dependent on you and when you are able to help them with their needs that’s the most rewarding of all, plus you form a special relationship with the patients and their families.
Greetings! Very helpful advice within this article!
It’s the little changes that make the greatest changes.
Thanks a lot for sharing!
Hi, i read your blog occasionally and i own a similar one and i was just curious if you get a lot of spam responses?
If so how do you reduce it, any plugin or anything you can recommend?
I get so much lately it’s driving me mad so any support is very much appreciated.
Also visit my web site – アグ ブーツ 品質合格
I have been surfing online more than 2 hours today, yet I never found any interesting article like yours.
It’s pretty worth enough for me. In my opinion, if all web owners and bloggers made good
content as you did, the net will be a lot more useful than ever before.
I like the valuable information you supply for your articles.
I will bookmark your weblog and test once more right here frequently.
I’m quite sure I’ll learn many new stuff proper here!
Best of luck for the next!
Very good website you have here but I was curious if you knew of any message boards that cover the same topics talked about here?
I’d really love to be a part of group where I can get responses from
other knowledgeable people that share the same interest.
If you have any recommendations, please let me know. Appreciate
it!
Your info is really important.
Excellent article. I absolutely appreciate this website.
Continue the good work!
It is not my first time to visit this web site, i am browsing this web page dailly
and obtain fastidious information from here every day.
I have read so many articles on the topic of the blogger lovers but this article is
really a nice post, keep it up.
Every weekend i used to pay a visit this web
page, for the reason that i want enjoyment, as this this web page conations genuinely
nice funny information too.