Fashion Design

Archive for May, 2010

During her London fashion week show in February 2003, Katherine Hamnett, the award winning British designer. sent models up the catwalk in T-shirts that read No War, Blair Out. Get Ethical found out more about her fashion crusade…

How are you involved in ethical fashion?

I have always been an environmentalist and with three children, I am naturally concerned about their future. Relating to fashion, I think it really started in 1990 when I commissioned some research on the impact of the clothing and textiles business on the environment. I was horrified at what I found. The first issue was that there are 10 thousand deaths every year due to conventional cotton agriculture, mostly from pesticide poisoning. It was a real shock, because we designers thought we weren?t doing any actual damage using natural crops when actually we were having this colossal impact.

I did a talk in New York telling people involved in the clothing industry about this. I think that was the start of the whole organic cotton trend. It took many directions including the whole eco-look, which became ugly and unaffordable. People don?t like clothes that look like charity.

I?ve carried on the research and the picture now is even blacker. You cant separate agriculture from the clothing and textile industry, just like you cant separate gold mining from the jewellery industry. The clothing and textiles industry is probably the third or fourth largest industry in the world; add that to the agricultural industry (cotton and sheep farming for example) then there is a huge impact on the environment.

How do you tie these issues into your designs?

First of all you have to research all of your raw materials and be responsible. You have to look at what impact the material has on the environment. There are also wider implications such as the slave labour involved in the clothing industry. You have to support fair labour.

Organic natural fibres are the obvious choice for designers, where do man- made fibres fit into ethical design?

There are certain things that I think you have to avoid. I avoid viscose because, although you obtain eco certification on it, the actual process is carried out in the Third World using vast amounts of sulphuric acid, which is then dumped into the environment causing massive pollution in countries such as India and Mexico. You really have to do your homework.

What we need is a website with a global directory of sustainable materials, traditional skills, sustainable processing? even for buttons. A site that does it all and is readily available. It would be a very useful tool for the industry.

It seems that you get very involved as an individual outside of your designs.

Yes, at the moment I am involved in a project with the Intermediate Technology Development Group and the Royal College of Art, setting up a PhD research project to do with something called a widget. It boils sea water with solar energy to produce fresh water and electricity. This has got fantastic potential for drinking water and irrigation. You have to think that at the bottom of the supply chain there are people dying of pesticide poisoning, so by providing clean drinking water you give something back. And if you take a long-term view of the clothing and textiles industry, you have to protect the supplies of raw materials. I think you have to treat the whole process holistically.

How do feel about the way UK design colleges deal with ethics?

I don?t think they do it hard enough. I think you have to teach people to design responsibly. As a designer everything that you produce is man made and its your responsibility as a human being to make sure that what you are doing isnt going to mess things up further. Right now the planet’s dying and its dying fast.

How do you balance a profitable business with ethical issues?

You have to try very hard and you must be competitive. There is no pity in the market. It’s much easier to be a slob, we could all be slobs and use anything, fur, PVC? you name it. But who said designing was meant to be easy.

How can the average consumer support the move towards cleaner clothes?

I think they should be asking questions, asking: what is it made out of? is it certified organic? Also consumers should ask where it?s made. You need to avoid places that dont have good labour laws.

Most ethical fashion companies seem to be setting up on the web. Why isnt there more availability on the high street?

Mail order is good and its cheaper. The web is good, you have your independence and I think that is very important. You find companies involved with huge conglomerates can have their hands tied on environmental issues. Its very hard to separate the environment from politics and you will find that the slightest whisper of any political implication and any company which has a backer won?t be allowed to do anything. Their backers will silence them, because the conventional business wisdom is that you shut up about such things and get on with it.

How can ethical fashion become more competitively priced?

I think what is needed is to go along the same lines as organic food to achieve that level of cool chic. We need to give organic clothing a gourmet market; it needs to be seen as an affordable luxury.

Organic fabric is available. It is cheap. Sixty per cent of a farmers expense is agrochemicals so farming organically is actually cheaper. However, theres all these agents jumping on the eco-bandwagon and adding extra amounts, like a dollar per pound, onto the organic cotton prices. There are farmers in Zimbabwe who are growing cotton organically although they haven?t got a market for it and they are selling it to the conventional cotton mills. They are growing it organically because its cheaper. We can get there!

I work for the ethical clothes directory which also sells fairtrade clothes plus we have Ethical Company articles for you to read or publish.

Online fashion games are super cool. I play every chance I get. My favorite website for fashion design games is GirlSense. It’s so cool. You can do everything. You can make your own eBoutique and design your own fashion brand, and then sell your items to other girls for virtual money. You can participate in auctions where other girls can bid for your creations. I just love fashion. I watch the fashion channels on TV. My favorite designers are Alexander McQueen and Valentino. One day I hope to be a fashion journalist of a fashion photographer. When I play fashion designer games it helps me learn about styling and colors, and how they go together.

The first and most important thing to do when you create an eBoutique, is to think about the background. This means the flooring, wallpaper, and accessories. You can do all these at GirlSense. It’s real life-like. I’ll explain exactly why each of these items is important, but first, you need to think in terms of the whole eBoutique, and what kind of image or vision you are trying to convey: Do you want your eBoutique to be fun? Do you want your fashion design game to be classy and sophisticated? Maybe you want your eBoutique to have a laid back feel to it? Think about it for a while, and play around with the designs. Think about what clothes you are going to display in your eBoutique, and create it accordingly.

Let me give you some tips on floors. They might sound insignificant now, but believe me they are an important part of your eBoutique. Therefore, put some thought into it. Look at all the available options at GirlSense, and pick the one that will match your concept the best.
For example, a tiled floor makes you think of the Middle East – countries like Morocco or Egypt. A wooden floor, on the other hand, might make you think about a house in a cold country, like Norway or Canada. Wood has more warmth than stone.

My advice about flooring is just one example of how to approach the design of your fashion design games eBoutique. Do the same with wallpaper, furniture, and accessories. Soon you’ll find that you have created a complete concept. Then you’ll be ready to put your clothing line together. Soon you will be playing online fashion games, and getting satisfaction out of having other girls buy items from your eBoutique.

JohnM is a writer for Compucall. For more information about online fashion games, visit GirlSense.com.

Kalakriti School of Art and Design has now opened up at Kilpauk, Chennai, India. With improving life styles, there is increasing demand for branded and custom designed fashion wear as well as interior design products. This has resulted in an increasing demand for professionals in these fields which Kalakriti aims to fulfill.  Aiming at high standards of course delivery tuned to the demands of today’s markets, Kalakriti has brought together a number of highly experienced lecturers in these fields. Special feature of the curriculum is the practical experience provided through site and industrial visits, guest lectures by industry experts, use of multi-media to enhance course delivery and projects for hands on experience. The Institute also offers CAD design programs for both Fashion Design and Interior Design.

Kalakriti also aims to encourage traditional Indian art forms among through short term courses in Kalamkari Painting, Madhubani Painting, Kerala Mural Painting, Rajasthani Gem Stone Painting, Warli Painting,  Tanjore Glass Painting, Stained Glass Painting, Aari Embroidery and Saree Designing.  These courses are open to those from all walks of life including students, home-makers, professionals and retired persons.  Exclusively for children, the Institute conducts regular classes in Indian classical dance and music as well as in drawing, painting and handicrafts.

The Institute also will be conducting subsidized low cost vocational courses in Tailoring, Pattern Making and Handicrafts for underprivileged girls and give them assistance and guidance to get jobs or launch their own self-employment units.

Situated at 4, Manikeswari Road, Kilpauk, opposite Bain’s School, they may be contacted on telephone 2643 1022 / 9840709217 or details may be obtained from the website:  http://www.kala-kriti.in

Sujatha Nair is an MSc and MPhil in Textiles and Clothing Sciences from the University of Madras. She has many years of experience in teaching fashion design at some of the premier fashion institutes. She has launched this school to impart knowledge and education to young boys and girls while helping under-privileged girls to learn vocational arts.

The last 20 years or so have been huge for home video gaming. You can do almost anything in a video game these days, from racing in a Grand Prix to cooking breakfast. And because you’ve grown up playing them, and video game design is such a hot market right now, you might be looking into how you can get into the field and help to create some of the most entertaining video games around.

Lucky for you, there are a number of schools that offer courses in video game design. And the number of traditional schools offering video game design programs is growing every year. It’s a hot market and it takes more than just a computer science degree anymore to get into it. While you can always look into 3D design and computer programming at any major university, there are some schools that you’ll be able to find almost anywhere that offer specific courses in video game design.

Devry is a school that most have probably heard of and might at first shun because of its mass marketed approach to schooling. But with its video game design program, Devry offers specific, targeted courses that prepare the potential video game designer for exactly what they’ll be working on.

You’ll take courses in game specific math and physics, computer animation, and design mechanics that are all focused directly to video game related topics. The result is a school that doesn’t just teach you about 3D animation, but about 3D animation in video games. Devry will be comparable to a major university in cost though, operating independently as they do, nearly $14,000 a year for full tuition.

The Art Institute is a nationwide network of schools that offers everything from fashion design to cooking. But as the fastest growing art related field, computer animation and specifically video game design have made the Art Institute one of the best schools to get a degree in the art of video games.

Not only do they offer an online school, which includes separate programs in Animation Programming and a Game Art and Design Program, there’s also the option of extending your schooling and receiving a Bachelor’s degree, something many of the technical colleges don’t offer. Tuition for the Art Institute, if you attend a physical branch is fairly high, comparable to out of state tuition at a major university. The online school is a cheaper option but will still cost you about $1200 per course.

ITT Technical Institute is another one of those very commonly heard names that pops up constantly on the TV, and one that offers a video game design specific program that will prepare you for entry level work in less than 3 years. ITT has 85 locations, so it’s easy to find, but you’ll be paying full tuition like many of the other private institutes listed, comparable to out of state tuition in most states.

For those that complete a two-year course in video game design, it’s possible to come out of school and immediately find a job making video games. And for those getting a four year degree, it’s almost guaranteed you’ll land an entry-level job designing the games of tomorrow. The video game design market is hotter than ever right now, and it’s becoming easier and easier to get in at the ground floor.

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