 |
By Debbie Purvis |
The battle against boredom offers a fast-paced, mecurial career.
Fashion expresses out individuality, our style and image. It's part of everyday existence, whether in our clothes, furnishings, car design, or structure of the buildings on our street.
Donna Karan, a top New York fashion designer once said that fashion combats the routine of our everyday lives. It's based on boredom and in Canada it's big business.
The path that fashion takes each season is based on designers' interpretations of today's influences. These influences can include street fashion, culture, current events, celebrities, media and industry promotions, environmental concerns and technological advances. Since these clothing creators understand the need for change in society, they continue to offer new ideas and concepts that can be adapted to individual lifestyles and personalities.
Most influential designers show their haute couture collections in Paris, Milan and New York. After these elaborate productions, many designers will offer a selection of their ready-to-wear (prêt-à-porter) clothing at more affordable prices for the fashionable elite.
Within weeks, key styles will be copied by the better quality garment and accessories manufacturers.
This process divides the fashion into three major areas...textiles, apparel manufacturing and retail sales.
Catching the consumer - dressing the window to lure the buyer.
Neil Asselin, 24, uses many, many skills as a visual presentation artist. Neil has always appreciated the function of fashion based on art and design. His favourite high school subjects were art, language and history, and Neil went on from Sudbury Secondary School to take Fashion Merchandising at Centennial College in Toronto. There he honed in on the textile, colour and design theory courses.
He got involved with the college's annual fashion show, teaming up later with the Peter Lawrence Production Company to plan and produce shows for independent retailers and designer collections. Although only a sideline to his career in visual merchandising, Neil found himself involved in all aspects of fashion show production, from the selection of merchandise (100 outfits per show), to designing the stage, booking the models, arranging lighting and music, and preparing press releases.
Neil's advice: Be willing to work hard, never let anyone put you down. If you have an idea, stand up for it, but be receptive to criticism. By remaining open minded, you'll continue to learn and grow.
Today Neil operates his own business, but before that he worked in the Visual Display department at Holt Renfrew. While a Centennial student, he did his field placement with Holt. After graduation he joined Holt as a junior display artist, earning just over $5 an hour. When he left as a senior coordinator three years later, he was earning $16 an hour.
His job? Designing and supervising window installations (changed on a weekly basis), executing interior merchandising functions, dressing mannequins, rearranging fixtures. Although creativity is key to the job, each major retail chain has established guidelines to follow.
Props are also important. Each store has its own selection of mannequins, fixtures, fabrics, trims, coloured paper, vases, flowers, signage materials to create on any theme. If a specific prop isn't available, the store may borrow from another retailer.
Neil admits he was nervous when he started in this field. He was concerned that his ideas would be rejected by senior team members and he took his time watching and listening until he felt comfortable with his opinions. Once he had proven himself, his confidence increased and his talents were duly recognized. Recently Neil's work received an honourable mention at the 1989 Festival of Fashion for a trade booth he designed.
To inspire his creativity, Neil pursues interests in music, interior design, fitness and health, nature, travel and language. To increase his manual dexterity, Neil has been mastering the art of cake decorating.
So what about the future? With a pause, he answers: "Knowing that I can leave something behind so that people can see the world's beauty the way I do."
tgmag@tgmag.ca