Department Chair Roni Miller Start Discusses The Business of Fashion in Evening Lecture on LA Campus
People interested in the business side of fashion traveled to the Los Angeles campus last week to attend our 6:30pm lecture, “Your Creative Future in the Business of Fashion,” as part of our free evening lecture series.
Apparel Industry Management Department Chair Roni Miller Start and Assistant Department Chair Kenneth Chang presented an overview of the direction of the industry in relation to sustainability, corporate social responsibility (CSR), wearable tech, and circular supply management. Roni’s presentation covered the ins and outs of what it takes to get a garment produced, starting with an original concept and design, then product development, supply chain management, and the logistics of delivery.
Technology is leading the way in apparel industry management: creative technology, operational technology, and managerial technology such Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). Roni stressed the importance of 3-D design and covered the innovative ways in which brands are utilizing it. Under Armour, for example, no longer makes patterns—it’s all 3-D design. Roni said that Ikea’s catalog is all 3-D and no photography.
Kenneth Chang gave a demo on CLO, a software that’s revolutionizing the design process with true-to-life 3-D garment simulation. Brands are disrupting fashion by dressing an avatar to “walk” a virtual runway in their designs before they even make a single sample.
The half-hour lecture was followed by two hands-on workshops, where participants broke off into rotating groups. The Technical Design Sketching Workshop was led by FIDM Instructors Isaac Walker and Dat Tran, while Jan Ardell and Cindy Gotts headed up the Sustainable Creative Design Workshop.
Join us at our flagship Downtown Los Angeles campus for our next lecture, "Your Creative Future in Product Development,” on Thursday, March 19, 2020. Our evening lectures are free and open to the public and feature cutting-edge, expert FIDM Faculty illuminating various aspects of the fashion, beauty, and design industries. For more information and to RSVP, click here.
Categories: Apparel Industry Management
