Cait K. 🎀

The Van Gogh Immersive Experience in NYC was an incredible event that provides viewers with an amazing glimpse into the life of Vincent Van Gogh. His discovery of painting, his studies, the search for his artistic style, and the relationships he had with family members and others were highlighted throughout the Immersive Experience. These influential moments and inspiring pieces produced by the artist were brought to life through projections, sounds, and lighting, allowing one to be fully involved with his precious world. Within his lifetime, Van Gogh produced around 900 abstract paintings and about 1,100 sketches and drawings, all focused on nature and his surroundings. Most of these pieces were completed within the last decade of his life. Experts believe Van Gogh produced a new creation every 36 hours, especially as he was obsessed with refining and re-envisioning his work.

Having the opportunity to view other students’ NYC Tumblr blogs was a great way to see everyone’s creativity and take-aways from the study tour class. Most of the blog layouts were one of three themes. A majority of the formats were post by post, with the other entries only visible by scrolling through the page. Another common theme was utilizing the same post by post content, however a grid of pictures in the top right corner of the page was added. The final layout was a vertical style as four posts were lined up next to each other with extra entries visible through scrolling. This variety of themes assisted in conveying the creative measures each student utilized in their NYC blogs.

The world of fashion may seem like a very simple yet massive industry filled with endless brands and employees. This idea far from the truth as the fashion empire is relatively small and extremely connected. To further knit each member of this world, an international tradeshow called Texworld links global suppliers, fabric buyers, designers, and fashion professionals all together. Through the innovative app designated for Texworld’s events, these essential personnel are able to physically find desired content with the simplicity their smartphone.

There are four different sections of products and services throughout the Texworld venue. Fabric, apparel, USA services, and upcoming Donegar trends are available for interaction through both the app and in person. With the fabric and apparel sections, visitors are able to use the app to scan fabrics and silhouettes they are interested in, which will notify the supplier of their preferences and result in the company reaching out to the potential client. In the USA services section, there are a handful of booths from various companies that are within the country and available to consult with immediately. Tying in each element of the Texworld trade show, Donegar has a few themes displayed for inspiration, complete with a concept, a color palette, fabrics and patterns.

Prada is a major icon in the fashion luxury market industry. With a start in luggage, Prada has evolved their merchandise into a vast range of clothing pieces and accessories. The infamous triangle is one of the sole elements that has been an essential staple to the empire as it continues to capture the attention of their beloved clientele. Most recently a younger generation has grown in admiration for the brand, resulting in Prada’s sudden interest to market towards this influential age range. This may be a benefit resulting from the global pandemic as the e-commerce for Prada evolved during this era, which expanded the popularity and demand for their iconic pieces.

M&S Schmalberg is one of the oldest remaining fabric flower shops in New York City. The reigns of the business have been passed down through four generations since opening in 1916. This company is well-known for creating fabric flowers that can be used in apparel, weddings, accessories, millinery, and home furnishings. Some of these beautiful pieces have even been utilized in designs produced by Oscar de la Renta, Marc Jacobs, and Vera Wang. There are endless possibilities of floral designs that M&S Schmalberg can create to exceed their endless requests made by their beloved clientele.

Canadian brand, Aritzia, is a unique and innovative fashion design house that offers beautiful pieces with exceptional service in aspirational locations. The company was founded with the primary focus to solely provide individual style with high quality materials. Playing to this original aesthetic, each store front is developed with certain characteristics that portray key elements of the surrounding area. Influences such as natural materials, custom art and furniture, and other local inspirations are eclectically displayed throughout each establishment, motivating the consumer to visit the variety of stores to discover these thought-out touches.

One element that sets Aritzia apart from competitors is their in-house labels. Aritzia offers a variety of different brand names, all of which are produced solely by Aritzia. There are different styles to each label to make them appear more diversified, however they are all separate design teams within the Aritzia brand. Within the establishment, the store is divided into sections based on their private labels, allowing an easier shopping experience for the consumer. These pieces can only be found at Aritzia locations, adding to the unique aesthetic the company portrays.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, or the MET, is well-known attraction in New York City. Initially coming to fruition in Paris, France, the MET was desired to be a national institution and art gallery that would bring art education to America. This idea sparked the creation of the MET a few years later in 1870. A roman sarcophagus was the first piece to reach the museum, which was soon followed by a handful of other artifacts arriving within the next decade. On March 30, 1880 the MET officially opened to the public on 5th Avenue, and has been a growing attraction ever since.

The world of fashion is known for being a cut-throat industry. Change is a constant factor that can either make or break an individual and/or brand. Kent State’s School of Fashion alumni provided great advice on how to successfully navigate this evolving empire such as getting your name known and taking advantage of all resources. The most critical piece of guidance is to work extremely hard in everything you do while making strong connections that can be beneficial at any point in one’s fashion career.

Internships are a huge essential in the fashion world. These assist in opening potential opportunities while providing the ultimate sneak peek into what your dream career is like. Most starting jobs in fashion are not as glamourous as one imagines. The easiest and lowest tasks may be passed onto the interns or ground-level employees; however, this provides the perfect opportunity to present your work ethic and determination, which can lead to a major climb up the company ladder. Being open to any possibility is also an important factor as nothing ever goes according to plan, especially with the ever-changing fashion industry.

Mood Fabrics is an iconic material supplier for those interested in fashion design. Located in the heart of NYC’s Garment District, Mood supplies both home fabric and fashion fabric to all creative consumers. These two fabric categories are separated by their own store front locations. Home fabrics are found in the store right along 37th street. This location has a ground floor with a loft full of material for home furnishings. Right next to the home store is the infamous fashion fabric store, which is on the third floor of a business building right next to the street view location. There are three expansive levels to the fabric store, filled with all of the material a fashion designer could dream of.

One of the most powerful and influential tools in the fashion industry is trend-forecasting services. These systems lay out the foundation of inspiration for many major fashion designers, retailers, and corporations. The Doneger Group is one of the top trend-forecasting services, and are primarily known for their website. Through their online presence Doneger provides global trend intelligence, market information, a focused merchandising direction, and an expert analysis on consumer behavior. More recently, Doneger has gone through some massive remodeling for their online website, making content much easier to obtain.

With their new website, The Doneger Group is able to include more data and segments of conversation focusing on connecting better with clientele. Vice President and Creative Director Shelda Hartwell has been tirelessly working with those at Doneger to redesign the online platform to focus more on the post-COVID consumer. The first page of Doneger highlights some great ideas for subscribers about what is happening at the moment from a consumer point of view. These sections also change almost daily to consistently provide fresh content each day.

As Vice President of the North American Channel Trading for Ralph Lauren, Loren Ojugbana has an extensive amount of advice learned from his climb to the top of this prestigious company. Ojugbana initially started his career in the fashion industry as a manager for menswear at Sears. The venture to reach his current occupation was anything but a straight path; there were plenty of ups and downs, including taking a lower job than what he did previously. This may have seemed like a set back at the time, however Ojugbana was able to make connections with others that assisted in catapulting his career. Detouring to different job levels also allowed Ojugbana to gain a wider area of expertise that further benefitted his future.

Being able to afford that fancy new car, carry around a name-brand purse, and flaunt exquisite jewelry pieces are all part of the luxurious aesthetic everyone dreams of. This glamourous lifestyle is found through all forms of prestigious products, from high-end hotels and vehicles to designer apparel and accessories. Although these strongly-demanded brands appear to thrive on their own without any major competition, they previously lacked in marketing their products to attract more consumers, and building relationships among other empires. The sudden change in this deficit was credited to the Luxury Marketing Council, an organization that links together all categories of the luxury market such as hotels, vehicles, apparel, etc. to benefit both the brands and the desired customers.

Most people have never heard of the Luxury Marketing Council as having the opportunity to work/connect with them is only through invitation or member connections. The CEO of this unifying organization, Chris Olshan, highlighted the main goal of the Luxury Marketing Council: to assist these grandeur companies in coming together to increase their revenue. Through gathering collective information from globally-known prestigious brands, the Luxury Marketing Council works to consistently attract the consumer to invest in higher-end pieces, especially with the most recent shift in the luxury market.

Known as the Hollywood Glamour era, the 1930s were an influential historical time. During this period Americans were dealing with the horrors of the Great Economic Depression and the Dustbowl. Civilians began to indulge in movies as a way to escape this hard reality, which in turn rose to inspire every day fashion. New garment technologies were introduced such as zippers, elastics, acetate, and nylons. These elements assisted in bringing a much-needed dramatic change to womenswear, further motivating unique fashion trends in the following generations.

Women’s clothing took a new, innovative turn from shapeless silhouettes to sensuous figures. Open- and scoop-backs with a slim waist created by bias-cut fabric were a craze in providing elegance to a more formal attire. Sportswear also became quite popular as women were spotted in colorful sweaters and skirt sets when on golf courses or any other sporting activity. The sweater and skirt combination has been a major trend within the recent years, along with the popularity of open- and scoop-back pieces during the spring and summer months.

Nordstrom is a huge catalyst between top design houses and consumers. John W. Nordstrom founded the company on the belief that customers should have access to incredible service, selection, quality, and value. This confident message is one of the most noticeable elements of Nordstrom, and continues to accelerate the chain into the future at the top of the retail market.

Nike is an iconic empire in the fashion industry as the company offers so many diverse products for each individual. With the main goal to bring inspiration and innovation to all athletes, meaning everyone with a body, Nike is running full speed ahead at expanding human potential and technology. As they advance towards this mission, Nike is aiming to utilize more state-of-the-art technology in their products while developing new sustainability promises to promote a more positive impact on the planet.