Survey to help me with a project?

I was looking for a little help with a survey.


I was supposed to be fashion major back when I started college a year and a half ago, however right when I was about to start my classes I ran into an ethical snag. I wanted nothing more in my life than to be surrounded by luscious velvets, designing, sewing, marketing as an alternative fashion designer. However- let's just say that I have a lot of beef with the fashion industry and that put me off to the whole thing...

In the year or so since then I found myself in a different major, drifting, directionless, and miserable. Eventually I went back to the idea of being a fashion major, this time with fresh hopes, fresh perspectives, fresh ideas, and strategies to avoid dealing with the parts of the fashion industry I find less-than-savory. I can't let my qualms with the indurstry as a whole put me off, especially since in my personal work I feel as if I can avoid many of those little thorns. After all, positive or negative, fashion is a powerful thing, and one that cannot be ignored. It gave me confidence and a sense of belonging when I was a teenager, and still helps me to feel confident and beautiful today. I adore it, and something which I cannot seem to tear myself away from.

Needless to say, I've decided to return to my first love and enter my school's fashion program. However, as I work through it I don't simply want to complete assignments, but instead work towards beginning my career; creating a marketable body of work that reflects me as a designer. I'm not looking to get in over my head just yet, but instead maybe sell a garment every now and then, just to help get my name out while I'm still in school.

As I will be starting my work as a fashion major very soon, I've decided to that doing a bit of research in hopes that it will help me along with my design work.

The survey can be found here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6B3KZYF



My vision for myself and my future is pretty grandiose, and will likely be crushed by reality if I don't struggle hard enough to achieve it. My long-term dream is to fill the gap I feel we have in the alt. fashion scene; that being a need for clothing made with both labor rights and environmental stewardship in mind- from the fields to the loom to the seamstress. I know that vision is a long time coming, but I still hope it will happen... someday.


Also, if this is out of place, give me a heads up!

What, it's required for you to follow the trends?

nsanelilmunky wrote:

DarkDreamer wrote:

However- let's just say that I have a lot of beef with the fashion industry and that put me off to the whole thing...

Which part? The Yearly trend manual, the back-stabbing/b!tching/ect, or the having to be in a major city to get a minimal job in the market?

Heh. Once upon a time this little Munky tried being a fashion design major also. The manual bit really p!ssed me off.

I actually never heard of this manual... probably because when it comes to mainstream fashion and the larger fashion industry, I still live under a rock.


My issues mostly stemmed from the fact that the fashion world is so damn shallow, especially with women's wear. It just seems to perpetuate a very narrow ideal of beauty... one which myself, and pretty much every other woman I know, can't fit within.

Also, I try to be responsible in my work and in my life, doing as little damage as I can to the earth and her people, and what I initially felt I could do within that framework was very limited. However, since I initially left fashion, the options available for fair trade and organic fabrics have exploded- where before I could scarce find fair trade broadcloth for under $15 per yard, I can now easily get fair trade, organic, cotton velvet for the same price that a conventional polyester velvet would be at Joannes.


And a lot of the people in my school's fashion department are total b!tches whom I'd rather not deal with... but I'll suck it up, since there are a few absolute sweethearts in fashion despite the overall b!tchyness and shallowness of the department.

I'd just bite my lip when it comes to the manual if I were to go into alternative fashion. As for shallowness, that is to be expected.

I had mentioned on another forum that our idealize concept of beauty has gotten so out of hand that even rail thin models are too fat for designers, so they have to photoshop them to make them even more skinny--so much so that their heads wind up being bigger than their pelvis. I wish the industry would go back to using someone like Marlyn Monroe.

^^^and people 5'4'' like myself!!!

There was a season of ANTM with short models but they still were super thin

nsanelilmunky wrote:

^^Really? They never showed you the manual? That was part of my orientation to the program. They actually held it up and flipped through it a bit.

They haven't done that to me yet; granted I'm not officially starting in the fashion program until the 20th. Also, my school is rather unconventional and disorganized, so to be totally honest I wouldn't be surprised if I only met a few professors who actually covered it or even cared about it.