Good Advice

From an interview with Joshua Prince-Ramus, Founder of REX architecture 

what advice would you give to the young?
I have one specific piece of advice: don't follow conventional
paths. this is the best moment you could ever be a young
architect, because the playing field in this economy is
becoming even. for a long time, the older generations
ate the young. they're going down right now and there's
no definition of what architecture will be. don't try to get
a junior job at the best firm you can and spend the next
30 years working your way through. this is the moment
to move back home, use all your contacts and start
operating locally. do great work locally and define
what architecture will be for the next 50 years.
the more general advice is that no one can teach you
how to design. no one can teach you how to be creative.
but they can teach you to be self-critical. in school you
should focus on learning to be self-critical and on
contracts (laughs). spend most of your time
- if you're in architecture school - over at the law school
or the business school because that's where you're going
to learn tools. the real things you can learn in architecture
school are tools. focus on tools, not on your studio course.

http://www.designboom.com/eng/interview/rex_architecture.html

New World for the Brave

For the skeptics and those too lazy to be imaginative, here are a few facts about fashion and the different kind of world we must accept we live in.

Fashion design, true fashion that is, not just clothing design is meant to be culturally and socially relevant. Just like art, true art that is, not just empty visuals.

Anyone who is seriously interested in fashion design has to acknowledge the fact in order to design well, you must go above and beyond beauty or shallow aesthetics. A great designer must understand the women and men who they are designing for and the world they live in. Designers must not only take into account silhouette, textures, color, styling, popular culture, subculture trends, accessories, merchandising, mobility, technology, our modern fast paced lives, but also the concerns of these growingly savvy consumers.

Fact: People today are demanding information about the products they consume.
You can't make a loose sketch, pick some trendy fabric, pay 2 cents for some mother of 8 to sew it up over seas, expect her to be cool with it,  ship it to your local retailer and expect people to throw down a stack of cash while they call it "fabulous."

People want well-designed products.
They do not want products that have been overly processed with the following:
Chemicals (such as the bleaching, sizing, degumming, and finishing toxins used in the textile industry).
Cheap and cruel labor.
Visual trash.
Media-grown expectations.
Immediate gratification.
Fame-hungry mediocrity.


 Consider that when you think about luxury.



Sure there are people who have seen this genuine consumer trend and have tried to make money off of it without actually partaking in true ecological practices. But there will always be people who would do anything to get ahead, make a buck despite the means, and take advantage of people and their beliefs. Take look at what's happening on Wall Street, smell the greed and desperation. This does not and SHOULD NOT overpower and shadow those who have an understanding of what's truly at stake and have made investments in the developing of better practices for the collective.

Although you made be fed up with advertisements promoting all things  "green" isn't it like throwing the baby out with the bathwater if you disregard the movement altogether?





Sure, there are a lot of contradictions with the sustainable movement in fashion. Such as the fact that designers have 6 different collections going out every year. How do you promote sustainability when every new collection delivered to stores basically poses the previous as aesthetic waste? Why design things with an expiration date when you could design things that with time gain value?

We have problem here, because this mean we must fight what we know, what they have taught us and all those who are either in denial or too busy trying to get noticed. Design must be rethought. We do not live in the same world we knew five years back. There is a recession (economical and cultural). We must take advantage of this opportunity to do things differently. Because we can't keep adding 2+2 expecting to get 5. 


Lets use our heads. Intelligence is the new black.

Time Machines

http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/oct2009/gb20091012_492194.htm

As designers we must play the clairvoyance part. We must foresee colors, shapes, cuts, details, stories, needs...
We place bets on the voice of our imagination.

But as the world dances to a fast tempo, the week is the new trimester. The speed of the imitators follows the beat. So how could we expect people to wait. When we've shown the a good future they could have now. Cable internet or dial-up?

So lets talk speed here, because something is going to happen. The question is who's going to make the first move. Sure we can see the future, but how is seeing the future of any help at all if we still have to wait to live it?

We have got to rethink production. So we must design differently. That we we can deliver what is really needed: good fashion.

adjust your speedometers.

Custody Battles

This is an opportunity to come together and speak about design as a collective.

The industry is saturated with talent and vision which can act as a great foundation for a discussion on fashion design theory, highlighting what we all do individually and together to produce great ideas, great design and great products regardless of market or niche.

The world has long produced great designers, and while each designer has their own vision, we can focus on what may be a common fashion philosophy.

Such philosophy would transcend aesthetics, customer, and execution methodologies but rather concentrate on the variables which are common to all of us: culture, society,  craft, politics, beauty, function, creativity and innovation. 

These are elements of design for the collective consciousness. For designers who take fashion as an important platform for expression, these elements must be as critical as silhouette, fabric, or color.


Much of the fashion world, its importance and its reputation is handled by parties with little or no part in the design process. Much of what is of value to designers gets loss in translation.

The media and advertisement are integral parts of the industry. But custody must be granted to designers.

Let the custody battle begin with the following question:

What are (or should/could be) the duties of a fashion designer?