3 WAYS TO LEARN FASHION WITHOUT ENTERING A CLASSROOM

Whether you are studying astrophysics but you have also a keen for fashion or maybe you are still in school but can’t wait to go to college to learn all the a’s to the z’s of the industry or maybe you are just curious on how this is all built up: What exactly is couture? Why there’s only one photo of that guy named Margiela? Is it true that models are fairies born from a magical tree in a NYC building? Suffer no longer, Here’s a list on three ways you can get knowledge and valuable information without going to class or leaving your couch (seriously)

 

 

Documentaries and Books:

Get yourself some popcorn, grab your notebook and press play. Documentaries are an important and different way to gain insights on the history of fashion, you see, with internet you can follow cool people that are already working in that position you want one day to get but rarely (but it can still sometimes happen) they will give out tips or their point of view on the hard parts of their work. In documentaries like The September Issue, In Vogue: The Editor’s Eye, The First Monday in May and Dior & I, you get valuable information on how the dinamic between every part and department is like, where do ideas come from and how they manage day to day struggles and how these very important characters deal and get through to show us what it takes to be in the big game.

My personal favorite is The Eye Has To Travel, simply because I truly believe in that Diana Vreeland pushed so many boundaries in fashion, transformed and even created positions, pages and raised the bar so high for any magazines at her time, after all she created the MET Gala. A visionary and a colorful, enthusiastic woman that at her time made a bold statement not only in how she dressed, spoke or her maneuver was, but in that she believed on what a persons greatest strength lays on is in their uniqueness, whether it’s in their physical feautures or on their creativity.

If you are a ‘’reading on a cozy couch’’ type of person then Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, The Little Dictionary of Fashion: A Guide to Dress Sense for Every Woman by Christian Dior, Women in Clothes, The End of Fashion: How Marketing Changed the Clothing Business Forever, Elsa Schiaparelli: A Biography and Grace: A Memoir are great books to start from.

 

Fashion Courses:

Investments are important and a lot more if you are gaining career value in doing so. Where you get said certificates it’s so important but more important it’s what you do with said knowledge. Even while studying Fashion Merchandising I felt like I was missing out on information and that the classes sometimes are left with just how the teacher and the students of that class want to get out of it, I was hungry for more so I found the Parsons Fashion Essentials program, what I loved about it was that you can do it on your own time and schedule, you have a whole year to finish it and you can consult with your own personal counselor anytime you need to plus you can interact with other students that are also doing the program.

You can also get certificates from Business of Fashion under their education programs or from prestige universities like Central Saint Martins. The good thing about programs and courses is that it’s not the same price as studying a career, not saying that you should not get a degree but if you feel like you just want to learn more and you feel comfortable with just getting a certificate then you should totally go for it.

 

Freebies:

Now you can totally get everything you need to know for free too, you just have to ask the perfect questions or in this case, search for the correct words and the magic content will appear. On YouTube you can learn more about Chanel on their Inside Chanel series or you can also watch a playlist I’ve made with some videos I’ve found that can answer some of your doubts and fill in your curiosity gaps. From Alexa Chung’s Vogue serie to blogger Aimee Song asking fashion insiders How To Work In Fashion, why Raf Simons it’s the best, what’s Haute Couture and how you correctly critique a runway show, all gathered up by clicking here. If you still think you need more then you will happy to know that the MET and Google partnered up to create We Wear Culture which it’s the coolest thing ever and I wish that it would existed when I was in high school. You can learn in detail about what we wear in more than 400 stories by curators from leading institutions across the world. From fashion icons to the relationship between fashion and art, street movements and how they have an effect in the industry.

 

Would love to know if you end up watching any of the documentaries, reading the books or taking that program to get a certificate or if maybe you also have a cool recommendation. I’ve never ended any of my articles with questions but here’s a shot at it: When did you discovered you wanted to study or work in fashion? Or that you just were curious about it? Let me know in the comments!

 

Viviana Pina.

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