Hey Everyone!!! It's been a month since I've updated, I wanted to share my experience of going to Parsons School of Design Summer Intensive in NYC! In November of last year I was looking for fashion and costume design programs since I am unable to do school due to physical therapy for learning to use my prosthesis. I wanted to take classes to get the experience learn more about fashion/costume design and also be able to get credits to add more to my portfolio. I came across Parsons summer Intensive, it is a program where they condense everything they teach at their school into three weeks, So I decided to take two classes at first, it started off as one in June for sewing and construction and one in July for fashion visuals, which meant six weeks in NYC!
I had to find some handicap accessible housing, I emailed the school and they responded saying they didn't have any handicap housing available for six weeks. I started looking around Manhattan because the school was located in Greenwich Village in Lower Manhattan but of course the prices for staying in a hotel were outrageous!!! So I had to cancel the class in July before the deadline hit or it would of been too late to get a refund. ( I did get my refund back.) I canceled the July class instead because I felt that it was more important for me to learn construction, pattern making, draping and sewing on the industrial sewing machine and to also learn more and understand the technical side of it also. After I canceled the class they emailed me telling me they had a handicap accessible dorm room with a roll in shower that was available. I was really relieved.
Fast forward to June I arrived to get ready to get settled into my temporary dorm for three weeks, they gave me my ID card to be able to get into the school and another card to swipe for getting into the dorm. The first day of school I had to get all of the materials needed for class plus bedding, food and hygiene items for the dorm. over the three weeks of this course we had to find inspiration and figure out the kind of fabrics we wanted to use for our garment. All of our inspiration, swatches, sketches and pictures went into a "design journal" to show our process. We had to do five different variations of sketches of inspiration in our design journal. I picked one sketch that I really liked that was heavily influenced by "A Series of Unfortunate Events" and "Marie Antoinette". I really love both of those eras, and they are two of my favorite movies!
I had a very helpful scribe to do the tasks that I was unable to do, while also taking the notes for me. He had no fashion knowledge which made translating my ideas difficult at times. He was extremely nice and patient though! There was an extremely helpful and nice maintenance man that fixed a machine so I could use it, he was one of the best parts about the school! My boyfriend also helped when he could, but he also knows nothing abut fashion design. My scribe actually brings up my main complaint for the whole experience... the Teacher!
He and my Scribe got into it over a very small problem in the notes (A semi-colon!!!) which lead to two other girls with fashion experience who go to Parsons full time being brought in to help me (Allison and Lashun). My Teacher was incredibly difficult! He made mountains out of mole hills constantly and seemed to be trying to slow down my progress intentionally, he was an extreme Diva! Nitpicking things that he would later excuse on my classmates right after. He would make me re-pin all of my muslin back onto the dress-form for simple mistakes like the directions the pins were facing... I could go on, but this post is already quite long! He talked to all of us (Me and my helpers) in a very disrespectful way through the entire class. The experience was very stressful with him intentionally holding me back, it seemed like most of the time he wanted me to drop the class!
I did learn what I needed to know for this class. I got my moneys worth and learned more technical details that go into designing a garment. I finally got to design a costume! I had been wanting to do that for so long! I would say that my overall experience going to this class was positive, but teachers should be more willing to adjust their expectations of people with disabilities and better understand them. I didn't expect this work to be easy, but its a very discouraging experience when someone intentionally holds you back. I ended up getting an A- for the class, I'm not sure why points were deducted (It didn't say), but I'm glad I got a good grade, and got to make a very unique costume! The whole class also had to do a presentation explaining the costume and the process and inspiration that went into it. I ended up pinning a collage onto a dress form next to the garment of different inspiration of movies I love!
I purchased my fabrics from several different stores in the Garment District. Ive never seen so many different fabric stores with such beautiful fabrics! I found the tattered looking fabric at Elegance Fabrics along with the fish net mesh, the crinkled organza with the embroidered leafs, and the black silk for the skirt. The rose trim came from Daytona Fabrics. The skirt was not graded with the top, it was made to make the garment look more finished on the dress form (he would not let me make the skirt in class, Lashun and Allison helped me do that after hours.).
I would not have been able to do this class without the help of Sam, Allison, and Lashun. They were so nice and went above and beyond what most people in their positions would have! Thank you so much guys!!!
I'm thinking about making a video to describe my experience in the class and with the teacher in more detail!
Thanks so much to everyone supporting this blog! You guys are awesome!!!
On The Plane headed for NYC!!! ID cards on the right!
No shower chair, a bit odd...
My Five sketches!
Sketches and inspo in my design journal!
Muslin on the dress form, very early design process!
The finished product! With my team! (L to R Garrett, Me, Allison, Lashun)
