When you think of a student in a fashion major, what comes to mind? Perhaps parading the streets of New York sporting a Gucci belt, sipping a nonfat chai, and reading the latest issue of Vogue? While that may be some people's reality, it's definitely not mine...yet, anyways. For the time being, as a current fashion student, my reality consists of countless hours of cutting, measuring, sewing, researching, etc. The life of a fashion student isn't always pretty, and it's definitely not easy.
Thinking that fashion major students lead a glamorous and hassle-free life couldn't be farther from the truth. Although the end results of some of our creations can look very glamorous and beautiful, I can tell you right now that the process leading to the end result is anything but. People don't typically realize the time, discipline, money, and attention to detail it takes to successfully construct a garment.
For each garment you see in a magazine or walking down the runway, you can guarantee there is a student who spent countless hours designing, sketching, cutting, measuring, constructing, sewing, and planning each and every last little detail for that garment. Nothing in the fashion industry happens by accident. Each detail is planned, thought out, measured, and strategically placed. You don't know true heartbreak until you've spent hours sewing a piece just to realize you missed one tiny step and need to seam rip the entire thing.
People tend to stereotypically think that fashion students are prissy and can't be bothered by hard work. News flash: designing and constructing a piece of clothing consists of a lot hard work. From creating mood boards to sketching tech flats to calculating how a piece is going to drape and fall on the body to physically constructing, a single garment can take anywhere from weeks to months in order to fully create the glamorous masterpiece you see walking down the runway.
Think we're nothing but rich girls afraid to break a nail? Try sewing through fingers (which has happened to me multiple times); sadly enough, the thing we're worried about the most is if we got a blood stain on a garment we just spent hours constructing.
Don't get me wrong—being a fashion student is an amazing journey that I wouldn't trade for the world, and it can be a very glamorous industry at times. All that I wanted to point out is that it is anything but easy. So next time, don't be so fast to discount us fashion majors and make stereotypes based off of what you've seen from "The Devil Wears Prada."
Have some respect. After all, without us you'd be naked.
