Tribute

So here we are then at the proper launch of our blog and twitter. We hope that you will enjoy our posts; they could be about anything that our business gets involved in, from colour trends, trade show reports, fabric collections, buttons, or prototype samples we are developing, whatever takes our fancy really. We are also fairly opinionated so expect us to spout forth from time to time on any issue we think needs airing.

The first topic on the agenda is something that has been bothering me for years and at last I get a chance to get it off my chest. Actually it would be more accurate to say decades as I first encountered this problem when working as a trainee sales rep for a London based Textile Agency back in the eighties. The company represented many textile mills from around the world which meant that one day I could be pounding the streets with suit cases full of knitted fake fur from Austria (I hated the stuff) and the next with a collection of Italian printed swimsuit fabrics or perhaps it would be some Brazilian denim or Spanish colour woven shirtings which all made for an interesting and varied working week. Trips to visit the mills themselves were invaluable experiences as there is nothing quite like seeing (and hearing) hundreds of looms in a weaving shed or smelling a dyeing and finishing department to enhance your understanding and so after a few years in the job I had a fair amount lodged in my brain that I could impart to my customers.

Recently a free magazine dropped through my letterbox and whilst flicking through the glossy pages I came across an article about a group of colleges that had put on a fashion show for 700 guests. Several pictures of students modelling their creations accompanied the report. To say that the work on show was poor would be an understatement, in fact describing these monstrosities as items of clothing would definitely fall foul of the trades descriptions act, these things resembling the output of a pre-school nursery session with lashings of crepe paper and glue. This took me back the three decades or so to when the phone would ring in the Agency office and I would listen to the voice explain that they were doing their final year fashion show and desperately needed fabric so could we spare a few meters? We would receive many such calls and each conversation would go something like “what sort of fabric were you looking for?” …..pause….”err, I don’t know, fabric”……”woven, knitted, plain or printed?”…. err it doesn’t matter I just need some fabric”

So my question which appears to be as valid today as it was way back then is; what do fashion colleges teach their students? How can a garment designer even contemplate achieving a satisfactory result if there is no thought or understanding of the main component that will be used in the making of that garment, i.e. the fabric. This may seem harsh and of course it is a generalisation and I have no experience of what the system is like outside the UK, but seeing that recent magazine article suggests that there is still a problem with design students finishing their courses with huge gaps in their knowledge which cannot be a good thing for our industry.

Your comments are welcome.
Will.