#lattc

This summer I took Apparel Systems Analysis and History of Costume 1. Both of these were online classes and only take half of the summer session (I think both were in the second half for me? I don't recall already)

Apparel Systems Analysis I don't think lived up to its name but whatever, I learned cool stuff after we got through the first half which was all resume/cover letter writing stuff. This was not in the course description lol. Taught by Conte, who is always good (he's my tailoring prof). Then we got to do some excel spreadsheets for tech pack work. Since there's a separate class for tech packs, I'm unclear why we have a class called Apparel Systems Analysis which is not about CAD software since it's online and we can't use the software outside of school.... Mysteries abound.

History of Costume 1 was with Siccardi and she's so-so as a history prof but nice as a person. We had some discussions about her five minute lecture video on Chinese fashion history, and in general she had some factual errors and some speculation that didn't have historical basis. Since it was a very short class, it didn't go super deep. Maybe an hour of lecture videos and then a quiz every week. There were a couple other assignments that still didn't take too long to put together. I put this at about a high school history level, rather than a college level deep dive. But I'm also coming at this from a costuming direction rather than a fashion inspired by history direction.

So first semester was basic Clothing Construction, and Basic Fashion Art & Design, Textiles, and Tailoring 1. The first three were 8 week long classes, the last one was my night class that lasts the entire semester.

Because of my past experience with sewing, clothing construction consisted of me doing my work and then ditching class for the rest of the period and coming back to pick up my stuff lol. I had Osuna and felt her education on this was fine, although again I already knew what I was doing with this.

*side note - I have industrial sewing machines at home so this also advantaged me. A lot of time was spent early on in the class familiarizing everyone with the machines. If you're considering this class, know that my experience will not be universal.

In the middle of that first eight weeks there was a sudden fashion show for Black History Month which I was promised footage from but never received. Ah well. Not sure that Ash would permit me to post them online. Each designer/sewist was given a dress made of wax print/ankara/etc (I can never remember the name) and asked to rework it into something new. I took mine and turned it into a yoked suspender skirt complete with a secondary lining of a coordinating lightweight fabric. Ash got a petticoat to go with it and it swishes very nicely.

I was pretty proud of that and it's been my only achievement this year as far as clothing for Ash. Will get to that later.

Second eight weeks was fashion art and design and it was pretty bad. I couldn't keep up even with intense tutoring from Ash and from an art teacher friend of mine. Barely squeaked by. Some of this is on me, some of this is on the professor. I also had Osuna for this. She skipped a lot of really basic drawing stuff like teaching about values, colors, etc. Didn't teach anything about design principles. Kind of left us to the wind and focused too much on drawing croquis and getting perfect ink lines on our technical flats. Honestly it was a bad experience and I would never recommend this professor for this class especially seeing this semester what students in the other professors' versions of this class have been doing. Lots more general education for people like me with only vague art knowledge. Disappointing.

Textiles was also with Osuna and it was fine I guess. Lots of hands on projects to conceptualize what a textile is. Felt a little high school level rather than college level, but I think that's because this was Textiles rather than Textile Science. Ah well. I ditched a lot of it for the fashion show if I recall correctly. I made friends there though, who have stuck with me through this semester too.

Now, Tailoring 1 was great up until I had to drop about 75% through the semester with a W because I was so behind on my homework in both classes that I couldn't keep up anymore. I was pretty bummed about that at the time. I'll cover why I'm no longer bummed in a future post.

In tailoring 1 we were to make 2 separate vests. I got the first vest done (I'll look for photos and post them eventually) and then the second vest I got it cut out and then didn't get to actually sew it. It's in a bag somewhere, I'll finish it eventually. Hope the moths stay out of it. Ongoing struggle.

Los Angeles Trade-Technical College hosted its semiannual Gold Thimble Fashion Show Spring 2022May 27 on campus.

The theme of the night was “Inspired by Broadway Musicals,” with student designers showcasing their original collections. The categories included athleisurewear, avant-garde, childrenswear, eveningwear, genderless fashion, menswear, and swimwear.

The Gold Thimble Class of Spring of 2022 consists of Helen Chu, Omar Guttie, Nathalie Iwasaki, Sarah Juarez, William Ramseur, Fradlyne D. Saintuma, David Sirouneaan and Kate Whittle.

Production was executed with elevated energy by Manuel Ortiz and Etienne Takizawa.

The award winners competing for the Gold Thimble were:

For athleisurewear, William Ramseur placed first; Omar Guttie, second; and Nathalie Iwasaki, third. In the avant-garde category, William Ramseur placed first; Omar Guttie, second; and Fradlyne D. Saintuma, third. For childrenswear, William Ramseur placed first; Fradlyne D. Saintuma, second; and Kate Whittle, third. In eveningwear, William Ramseur placed first; Helen Chu, second; and Nathalie Iwasaki, third. In genderless fashion, Helen Chu placed first; William Ramseur, second; and Omar Guttie, third. For menswear, Helen Chu placed first; Omar Guttie, second; and Nathalie Iwasaki, third. In swimwear, Omar Guttie placed first; William Ramseur, second; and Helen Chu, third. In the theme category, Omar Guttie placed first; William Ramseur, second; and Fradlyne D. Saintuma, third.

Fashion Design Department Chair Joe Guerrieri said that “the Gold Thimble Fashion Show is a chance for our students to show what they’ve learned over the course of their time at Trade-Tech. It’s an incredibly intense process for them because there’s very limited time to produce a lot of garments.” Guerrieri also remarked on how incredible it was to see the students build confidence.

Inspiring this confidence were the challenges the students had to meet in their interpretations of looks they had chosen from “Anastasia,” “Cabaret,” “Frozen,” “Kinky Boots,” “Moulin Rouge,” “Phantom of the Opera,” “The Lion King” and “Wicked,” while displaying the techniques and talents they mastered throughout their coursework.