Tailoring Your Portfolio: Strengths and Weaknesses

I got an email the other day from a reader that inspired this post. She was good at sewing and had looks done for the garment portion of her test, and wanted to sketch them, but was wondering if she should still do a mini collection like I'd suggested here. I told her she should definitely just sketch the looks she'd sewed instead. Since she was better at sewing that worked for her. I chose to do my mini collection since sketching was my stronger more confident area. For some of you, you may feel equally good at sketching and sewing. Make sure that whatever area you feel weaker in you work the longest and the hardest on (I wanted to throw my sewing machine out of my window).

RC

Post Rejection: Cry, Throw Your Sketchbook Against the Wall, Curse Everyone that DID get excepted, now, Strategize

Okay, this post is dedicated to all the people who, like I did in the past, instead of that great big packet you got that shitty form letter, which basically told you you're not good enough to learn how to be better. Yes, say it with me, you're not good enough to learn how to be better. Let off all your steam, some of you make take longer than others, but, if you want it bad enough, you're going to get to this point.
Reapplying, putting 3000% into your next portfoilio, and getting that big acceptance packet.

Essay Tips (Updated with Formatting Tips 12/29)

************UPDATED 9/5/12  check out my Tip and Tricks for F.I.T.'s new guidelines Click Here

Sorry for posting this so late. But here I am. I wanted to post my essay, spelling errors and all, but I can't find it anywhere, which sucks. If I do come across it I will definitely post it. 


 I'm going to keep my tips simple, I realize not everyone is a writer, and there's nothing wrong with that. But a lot of times it can be confusing about what to leave in and take out, so we are going to talk about that and we are going to talk about some essay pitfalls you need to avoid. Overall this essay, particularly if you aren't doing a face to face interview, is the only time you have to express yourself in words, so that they know who you are, meaning you're essentially pitching yourselves to these people, and keep in mind its always competition.

New Page

Hi guys I uploaded my portfolio on its own page, check the tab next to home below the picture. I'm not a colorist as you can tell, , so it was a real task coloring my sketches, since I usually leave them black and white. I will try to get to the essay tips in the next couple of days. Take Care Rachel

Hi guys, I plan to update within the next couple of weeks some essay tips. I also want to reformat my blog so that you have easier access to the information for each portion of your admission. It has been brought to my attention F.I.T. has changed its portfolio requirements, so if someone wouldn't mind emailing or posting it in the comments section it will be appreciated. Rachel

Design Test

I will be uploading a tips and tricks for drawing soon. But just wanted to share the sketches from my design test I picked Spring in Tokyo Japan. The purpose of the design test is for F.I.T. to see your ability to merchandise, this is why you can only use a certain set of looks and you have to mix and match them. I hate the coloring on the first one, I remember being scared the marker would blur out the detail lol.

On Kanye West: So this is why we go to fashion school

Point Blank. I am sick of celebrity designers. The other day I hope Mr. Divo mic snatcher Kanye West brought the zenith and subsequent downfall of this trend.

His collection was a horrifying mess of stolen ideas, with a lack of focus, amateurishly displayed on professional models and shown at Paris freaking Fashion Week. Ladies and gentleman, this is everything you should not do.

Let me expand on this briefly. I have argued on several websites about this, and this morning I am reading a great article from Eric Wilson about this, view it here: Kanye West, Designer (Yawn) I think the storm gets brewed with someone with a not so great reputation, and infamous history of narcissism, decides to be the 1 billionth celebrity to start a fashion line. And then he feels the need to do his first show in Paris during the fashion week calender among the greats as if we should all expect him to start at the top. But just because you are at the top of another profession means you get to skip the leaning curve in this one. He climbed the to the top of the pedestal and was kicked off it so hard, he's still reeling.
From NY Times : His show was described by those who attended as, at best, a disappointment, and yet the rapper could be found almost everywhere during Paris Fashion Week defending himself. At a dinner party in Azzedine Alaïa’s kitchen on Sunday, Mr. West complained rather bitterly to those assembled that he meant for those sausage-casing dresses, the sagging trousers and the swimming jackets dripping with sparkles and strips of fuzzy bits to fit the way that they did, though everyone else seemed to read them as a failure in tailoring. At the Céline show, he engaged Joe Zee, the creative director of Elle, in a lengthy dialogue, loud enough for everyone around them to hear, in which he noted, as one example, that he did not very much appreciate the criticism of his decision to show fur for summer.
“All I said was congratulations,” Mr. Zee said afterward. “I wasn’t even there.”
Gotta love Joe and his pleasant shade throwing. In the fashion world the ONE THING you can't buy, is respect. The scattered weak applause says it all.

Tips and Tricks (Updated with Sketches)

1. When doing the fashion artwork portion of the test. Do a mini collection instead of random dresses. If you are a particularly great sketcher, you can throw something in that doesn't go. But my advice would be to design a collection around that outfit.
Why? is what you might be asking. The reason is this. F.I.T. is primarily looking for students that can get jobs when they graduate, the more students that find jobs the more money they get from the state. I know that doesn't sound glamorous does it? Yet it's true. If you show them that you can focus your ideas, you get the edge.

Here's what I did for my portfolio. Excuse some of the coloring, it just goes to show you don't have to have a prefect portfolio to get excepted. The theme I chose was cocooning.

Dealing with Rejection

I spent a lot of time with this blog talking about how to get IN to FIT, but nothing really about how to deal with the painful aspect of not receiving that big white magical acceptance package.
It sucks. Big time.
I cried the first time I got mine. I think I cried harder the when I got the second one.
I promised myself I would take my time, start my new portfolio six months in advance and this was going to be the LAST TIME I applied to this damn school.
Mind you this resolve came after my second rejection letter.
Tidbit of note: There was actually a 5 year break between my first and second application.
I don't think I can even find the words to express the anguish I felt when I got rejected from this school. This is something I've wanted to do since I was seven years old. I actually have sketches that date back to the early 90's and here these people were telling me I wasn't good enough. In a shitty form letter no less.
Well here's a lesson I wish someone would have told me the first time: Get back on the damn horse and apply again. This is why I say it's SOOOO important to go to Portfolio Day. It can be pretty brutal, the line for F.I.T. was horrendous, but if I hadn't gone, I know for a fact I probably wouldn't have gotten in. Seeing their 'standard' accepted portfolio allowed me to see what they wanted and scrap what I was currently doing to tailor my portfolio to that. Something you might not know is that there is a formula for getting into this school; a very commercial, boring formula, and it's all over this blog. But it's a small price to pay for cheap education (compared to Parsons). As Ralph Rucci says: "Once you know the rules - it's easy to break them." -- Good Luck

Fabric Swatches

I've been meaning to post this for a while but just never got around to it.
If your like me and you come from a lame town with no fabric store you can go to
Mood Fabrics for fabric swatches. They are about .75 cents a piece, and have a huge selection, so if you can't find what you want you can get something close to it. As far as I know F.I.T. doesn't want you to staple the swatches so I taped mine.