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First, I finally met my mentor. The school organised a mentoring program with Holeproof, an underwear company owned by Pacific Brands. The program's objective was a bit vague in the beginning since the mentors and mentees were unsure how it was supposed to work. I had a bigger problem since my mentor only started working for the company the day after we visited Holeproof to meet our mentors and to learn about the mentoring program. I didn't have a good feeling about it since I knew that new employees would be very busy with training and orientation and a voluntary mentoring program would be an added work for them. Also, nobody could tell me about the mentor's background, whether he's a fresh graduate (in which case, I wouldn't be learning much) or someone who's had loads of experience in the industry (which would be a great thing).
After about 3 or 4 weeks and some slightly panicky emails to the program coordinator, I finally met my mentor, F. I was invited to sit it while he gets briefed on the new design range. L, his supervisor, and F were fantastic letting me ask questions and elaborating on the answers. My eyes kinda glazed from all the info but I learned about the process of designing and the amount of work and collaboration that goes with designing and tweaking a range of underwear. F had 4 weeks to change some bits and pieces, to include graphics, to incorporate colour, etc but not tweaking too much with the silhouette all the while consulting with the other team members and the graphic print designer and staying within the price range.
The briefing went on for an hour and a half. And I wanted to learn more but I had to leave since he had to start working. I did get his email address though so I'll be emailing him some of my questions.
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For Fashion Business, I was surprised and happy to get my very first 100 mark. The highest I got since I started studying Fashion Design was a 97 and that was in Computer Aided Design II which was funny since I got a 67 in Computer Aided Design I. Lol.
I had to do a report on a fashion item, didn't have to be clothes, it could be shoes or bags, and write about the history of the item and how it became well-known. I wanted to do my report on the red high heels but when I found out that a lot of my classmates were doing their reports on shoes, I changed my topic to the Wrap Dress, as popularised by Diane Von Furstenberg.
My report was a bit long but I'll try to upload it along with my report on Roger Vivier, which I did for Fashion History. Now that one I found very interesting. Not many people know about him but now that they've relaunched Roger Vivier, the label, I'm sure his fans will increase.
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For Millinery, we had to do a flat pattern hat. It was a hat where you had to do a pattern and cut out fabric and sew them together. I had so much problem doing the skull cap for it. I think I did 5 patterns and did 6 toiles on calico. Finally, I gave up and used sinamay, which was great for holding the shape but the rough edges makes it itchy on the head. Will have to change that I guess.
Photos will follow.
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