For me the two are inextricably linked. But then for me almost everything relates to fashion because it is what I love.
I spend part of my work week teaching at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising San Francisco campus. This keeps me on my toes fashion-wise, and gives me time to interact with college-age people. This is always a learning experience for me as well as for them. We’re just finishing the first full week of the new quarter (10 or 11 week classes) and I’m tired. Lots of students and paperwork to be sorted out, nervous students, classroom changes, you name it.
I took two of my classes to our lovely library for an introduction to the trend forecasting services that the library has available for student use. Some of the services are physical: books of drawings, photos, fabric and trim samples, and color palettes on yarn. There are also electronic services. Needless to say, the electronic versions are more appealing to students because they don’t require going to the library, but they can be difficult to navigate. We learned about a lot of cool resources and tools available in the electronic versions, but I love seeing how quickly everyone becomes engaged in the physical tools once they understand how they work, and what they can expect to find, and most importantly, how that relates to the work they do in their classes.
My work as a knitwear designer and my work as a fashion product development teacher are largely about helping people explore their passion. Whatever your passion, I think what we do is always enhanced when we allow ourselves to explore and discover new things–a technique we’ve never done, or a new way to do something we’ve done before, or even an entirely new way of looking at things we know. Whether you are creating a portfolio or knitting a baby hat, it is all an expression of your personal passion.
As students were devouring the books, the librarians and I were talking and they mentioned wanting to do a knitting related event (movies and knitting!) and asked if I’d do it. Two students piped up saying that they wanted to learn to knit. So time allowing, I’ll do a learn-to-knit in the library.
Today’s photo is a photo of the young knitters in Montisi modeling a hat sample for me.
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