FIDM International Students

FIDM Graduation Sparkles @ Staples

Graduation day is the DAY we all dream of and cherish as a very special event in our lives. Little did we realize during our preschool days that this DAY would ever be a reality! That one day we would walk down these aisles, feeling so proud and inspired.

The DREAM has finally come true. FIDM’s graduation ceremony took place at the Staples Center, home of the LA Lakers. Thousands of students, 1000 guests, grand arrangements, families visiting and meeting; it was the best feeling ever. My hard work had paid off. I was chosen as one of the valedictorians and got a chance to participate in the opening ceremony. It was a moment to be very proud of—especially with my family present.

I have so many people to thank for who I am today!

Here at FIDM, we have received the highest quality education, thanks to the high standards set by our Administrators, Teachers, Department Heads, and Deans. FIDM has designed a unique curriculum matched by adequate resources and guidance. FIDM Library services are par excellence, supported by inspiring infrastructure. The Library staff happily helped us and was always there for us as the clock ticked 7 in the morning. I thank Ms. Peters and Mr. Podway from all of us for arranging amazing cruises and visits to Industry giants.

FIDM constantly networked with the industry for our benefit, be it Industry Expo, or companies coming to hire interns or full-time employees. Every member of the faculty was just an email or a phone call away responding to our constant queries. They went out of their way to support us in every way possible.

A very special thanks goes to the Career Center and my Career Advisor Mr. Gregg Archambault.

As International Students it was a big challenge to establish a niche in this country, in view of the many restrictions to our activities. It was extremely difficult for us to find jobs here compared to our American friends. But Gregg was one person who believed in me and all the other International Students and motivated us in our quest for jobs. I will forever remain grateful to him for restoring my belief in myself especially when I was going through self-doubts.

Thanks also to Mr. Ben Wienberg, FIDM’s International Student Director for walking us through the legal stuff. And thank you FIDM for making us feel at home, far away from home.

Finally, I thank my fellow classmates. The friendships that we have made here will last a lifetime.

We have learned from our mistakes, and sure enough, we have grown. In the same ways we have helped each other survive these 2 years at FIDM, we will find other ways to help each other succeed in the years to come.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Five Favorite Places While @FIDM

FIDM’s location in the heart of downtown LA provides an immense opportunity to explore right around the fashion school. Downtown has several booming industries—from production to wholesalers selling a wide variety of items. If you plan to start your own business, downtown is a good place to start educating yourself and gaining some valuable experience.

My favorite 5 places are:

1)     Fashion District: From buying fabrics, trims, sewing, dyeing, printing, embroidery, pattern making, designing—anything related to the garment industry is here. You get a whole feeling for the apparel industry and good exposure to where to get things done at the right price. And, of course, speaking Spanish is a BIG plus.

 
2)     Jewelry District: Silver, gold ornaments to costume jewelry—you can get it all wholesale.

 

3)     Flower District: Be it a wedding, birthday, or any other celebration, I have seen people buying exotic varieties of flowers at wholesale. Really good prices and great quality, the flowers here would normally cost 3 times more in a store.

 

4)     Toy District: The destination for wholesale toys. Good variety for a good price.

 

5)     LA LIVE: Last but not least, food and entertainment are really important and LA LIVE is HOT in that area. From catching a game or a concert event to watching a movie, this place is really lively throughout the week. Eating joints, bars, lounges offer a variety of cuisines and styles. Also, there are nice hotels for visiting guests.

 

Energize Your Job Search with an Internship

We all are super anxious and excited post-graduation, since we don’t know where we will land up and what the future holds for us after fashion college. Finding a job is way exhausting and frustrating at times. Since sitting at home looking for jobs was not my thing, I decided to intern while job hunting. It’s a great way to stay in touch with the industry, improve my networking and gain some valuable experience. I was very lucky to get an internship at a growing kidswear company in Downtown LA, called Lunchbox.

Lunchbox designs children’s clothing. Boys and girls clothing including graphic tees, dresses, skirts, hoodies, boys pants, shorts, and button down shirts sold in boutiques in the US, Canada, England, France, Italy, and Japan. Made in the USA.

It was a great experience since the owners were very friendly and helpful. Their clothing was super adorable and cute. As an intern I got to work on many things like production, quality check, contacting vendors, updating the website, inventory checking, and dealing with pattern makers and sewing contractors. It gave me an overall feel of how things work in the fashion industry. As a first time experience with kidswear, I was grateful that I landed up in a great company like Lunchbox.

Since I interned 2-3 days a week, I had enough time to apply for jobs and do interviews. Also, since Lunchbox was downtown, I could explore the fashion district during lunch and catch up with my friends who were still at school.

Overall, the company is a great place, with great people, creating a great line of clothing for kids. Feel free to visit their website at www.shoplunchbox.com

Obsession Du Jour: Fringe Fashion

Currently if there is anything that is taking all my attention, it is fringe. Whether for work or personal style, I am doing fringe all the time. Love it!!! It is the biggest trend right now for spring 2011. Inspired by the 70s era, the best part about fringe is that it’s quite feminine with a touch of bohemian—it is simply irresistible! It transitions really well from clothing to accessories and can be seen everywhere currently. It is not only an effortless style but makes a statement wherever you go. Works stunningly well whether day or night!

The easy/best way to shop fringe is shopping junior brands like free people, Self Esteem, Billabong, etc. Below are a few brands and styles showcasing fringe that I love. Fringe is not going anywhere for a while. So enjoy!!

Namita Seksaria is an Apparel Industry Management major at FIDM.

Internship Tips for International Students

Being an international student on US soil is not so easy. From the beginning at FIDM, I knew I needed to find a place for myself in this big, not so glamorous industry. But the question was how?? With zero professional contacts, no friends in the industry, and only a couple of people to bank on, it was hard. But, it was definitely not as bad as it sounds. My first aim was to get to know as many people as possible in the industry, starting with FIDM students, faculty, and staff. I had to work harder networking than citizens. I worked hard for all my classes, made sure I had perfect grades, and stayed in touch with all my teachers.  FIDM provides its students with lots of resources, so basically I took everything that FIDM could offer. Over time I realized it is very important to have industry experience in order to crack the right job, so internships come into play here.

There are two options when it comes to internships either paid or non-paid. Usually everybody suggests unpaid ones are better, but there is no rule to it, trust me! Been there, done that. I looked for companies that offered great learning experiences irrespective of whether it was paid or unpaid.  I was in touch with my Career Advisor all the time to get the internship leads and searched for more on craigslist. Yes, I said “craigslist.” Believe it or not, most companies post their job leads there. I was lucky to easily get an unpaid internship at Perry Ellis International. I interned there for six months, learning what goes on in the Design Room and experiencing how fast-paced the industry is. It was a great learning experience. 

Also, if you feel your internship is not the right place to learn for any reason, feel free to switch, as you are not committed. You can take advantage of being a student and use the time to get trained, not exploited. Yes! Don’t be surprised if you are asked to do clerical work, and other non-challenging tasks at internships. My advice is to switch immediately since this is a time when you can learn as much possible and build up your resume. Also, if there are any companies you want to work for, feel free to email them. Most of them will respond.  

So here are my tips to students looking for internships:

* Keep your options open for paid or unpaid internships—either can be good.

* Start looking at least 3-4 weeks ahead of when you plan to start.

* Visit craigslist, company career websites, and other job posting sites and stay in touch with your career advisor for job leads.

* Even though it is an internship, please don’t get exploited. Do meaningful work and learn as much as possible. Remember you can’t put on your resume that you had to photocopy, pulled printouts, etc. as your only job responsibilities.

* SWITCH your internship immediately if it is not worthwhile. Always look for a great mentor in the company who can teach and not use you.

* Make friends at work and network as much possible—you never know, this could be your potential full time job.

* Finally, being on an F1 visa makes it harder, so allow the time you need to find a job. It is quite a process but worth it in the end!

Remember: If you are determined to make your career here and live your dreams, you’ve got to follow some rules! 

 

FIDM Student's Top 5 Places to Shop in Los Angeles

One of the biggest attractions in Los Angeles is shopping—something I really love to do. With the weather perfect almost all year-round, many shopping centers are located outdoors making shopping an unforgettable experience for combining sun, good food, and entertainment. I am so glad to share my top 5 shopping destinations in Los Angeles, where shopping is an experience to remember.

Third Street Promenade & Santa Monica Place: Very close to the Pacific Ocean, this is my favorite. Running for almost 3 blocks, the car-free outdoor shopping zone is filled with funky street performers, beautiful fountains, and fashion kiosks. Restaurants, bars, and cafés line both sides of the street. There are loads of big brands and boutiques to shop from, and sitting by the roadside you can see upcoming artists performing all day and night. Getting here from downtown can be an all day event.

Hollywood & Highland Center: This is a favorite tourist destination, right next to the Kodak Theatre and historic Grauman Chinese. It houses over 70 stores and is surrounded by famous clubs, restaurants, and museums. Along with shopping your favorite stores, you can also have fun walking the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and clicking pictures with street artists dressed as characters like Batman, Spiderman, The Joker, etc. This destination is full of life, colors, and glamour; everything Hollywood is all about.  

The Grove:  Last year I visited The Grove for the first time. This destination has its own charm and is a reminiscent of old French architecture. A double-decker trolley runs down the length of the outdoor shopping center, taking visitors to a great mix of brand name retailers and local boutiques. A fountain show with lasers lights up every half hour to keep kids and visitors entertained. An added attraction at The Grove is the historic, original Farmers Market, and a couple of French restaurants, including a favorite of mine. Unlike the first two shopping destinations, the atmosphere is not chaotic, but very romantic and inspiring even if it is always crowded.

City Walk: This destination ranks high on entertainment relative to shopping, even though it does have a few great brands to shop. But the experience here is unforgettable. Full of life, people, and action, it is located near the tourist destination of Universal City. Along with stores like Bubba Gump, Hard Rock Café, and loads of kiosks, there is a movie theatre, performing artists, dancing fountains, Zen Zone Oxygen and Water Massage bar, iFly, and more.                                                                                                                            

Oxygen Bar is a fun venue for nighttime entertainment.

Rodeo Drive:  I am writing this with a big smile on my face. This famous Beverly Hills destination is one of the best in the world. All the luxury brands are represented straight from the runway. Although prices may be unreachable for most of us, it is a great experience just to window shop. As you walk down the palm tree-lined streets, luxury cars drive past—and you may even have a celebrity sighting. And yes, there are a few cute, very affordable cafes for great food and people watching.

Namita Seksaria is an Apparel Industry Management major at FIDM.

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                  

 

 

Namita Seksaria and Team Present Brand Ideas

On a morning in October, I was glad to see many of my friends in my Market Analysis and Presentation class. Our teacher Mr. Grayson arrived and he announced that the entire class was going to be a team/company with the assignment of launching a fictitious line. We were supposed to apply all we had learned so far at FIDM.

It was very interesting to see different people with different aesthetics come together to launch an imagined line. We all knew we had little time and lots to finish, so we started right away. After lots of brain storming and discussions we finally decided to name our line "Lady Like"— a sister brand of Tory Burch for the budget market.

In no time we decided who was going to handle what department based on people's interests. Since we had 11 departments and only 9 team members, a few of us had to take up dual responsibilities.  So here are the team members with their jobs: Carla Buchanan/ Promotions; Shirin Arjomand/Color & Fabrication; Marvin Gordon/Product Development; Lauren Treece/ Merchandising; Namita Seksaria/Designer-Sales Analyst; Alicia Relich, Alice (Seunghee) Noh/Designer and Mr. Mel Grayson was owner.

While working on our line we created 3 great collections, a Lady Like blog, a Facebook page, a virtual online showroom, plans for sales and distribution channels, production, quality control, tech packs, etc. To finish all of these we needed each other’s cooperation and support as none of the tasks could be done by one person. We would work all week long on the assigned tasks and meet on Monday mornings to follow up on everything and plan the next steps. Being a very eager and enthusiastic team we planned and achieved more than expected. 

For our final presentation on December 13, 2010 we had a guest list of more than 60 people including industry professionals and our close friends. We all wanted this presentation to have impact for a long time. Carla, who was in charge of promotions, prepared the best invitations ever and goodie bags for all our guests. We had everything set before the guests arrived. We did a couple of rehearsals with the power point and were all set to take charge. As confident as we all looked, we all were nervous to present in front of such a large audience. We composed ourselves, welcomed everyone, and started the presentation anyway. It was a big hit and liked by everybody! After the presentation we celebrated our success, clicked lots of pictures, and headed to lunch together. At the end it was a great learning experience and I made lots of good friends.

Namita Seksaria is an Apparel Industry Management major.                                                                                  

FIDM Student Seksaria Explores LA Fashion Sources

Classes at FIDM are all about going out there, exploring the industry, networking, and much more. In my final quarter at FIDM as an Apparel Industry Management major, my class in Production Control and Planning had it all. In this class we made a “Source Book” to hold the business cards, contact information, website addresses, and other details of everyone who could be helpful in our careers including: fabric vendors, designers, manufacturers, print houses, finishing houses, etc.  A typical Source Book consists of 19 categories filled with over 300 pages of detailed information. Does it sound like a nightmare to collect all that data in just 10 weeks? Yes!

I had to get going from day one. I started by making a list of the companies and vendors to visit near FIDM’s downtown campus, in and around the LA Fashion District. I knew the area was humongous, but had never really experienced it resource-wise.

Monday, October 18, at 9:30 a.m., I put on my sneakers and explored the Fashion District.  I started sourcing the fabric suppliers since they were the easiest to find. Then I moved on to looking for sewing contractors. My confidence was diminished when I found out that most of them don’t communicate in English. To make it worse, most of them don’t have business cards, or were not willing to give me one. But by going door-to-door in every building in the district, by 6.30 p.m I had collected hundreds of business cards that day. After meeting several interesting, weird people and making great contacts, all that was left to do was pull out the website information, and compile everything together into one big fat Source Book!

FIDM Student Namita Seksaria Lands Design Internship at Laundry by Shelli Segal

My first day at Laundry by Shelli Segal in July 2010 was exciting. A huge office, hundreds of people working, multiple brands, a fast-paced fashion environment, and a very friendly team—all under one roof! Such a huge corporate environment was different and intimidating all at once. My supervisor, the Designer for Day and Cocktail Dresses, was a great mentor from day one. My first assignment was to organize the trims department. Next came lots of fun projects like doing beading layouts, making fabric swatch cards for the next line, organizing the samples for market week, other market week preparations, beading patterns for dresses, tagging the garments, and more.

At the internship I also got to interact with the fabric department, the Design Director for Laundry, and the Merchandiser as well. The entire team was friendly, always guiding me in the right direction. I enjoyed every bit of being there, including getting lunch with the group at Starbucks, El Pollo Loco (for our favorite tostada salad), and Subway. In fact, I enjoyed my internship so much I decided to continue it for another quarter of great fun, great people, great work, great lunches and an awesome learning experience—including the real life experience of juggling work with the very demanding graduating quarter in fashion college for fall 2010. It took dedication and perseverance, but I was able to successfully complete my internship, making great friends while networking, and graduating with a 4.0 GPA.

Namita is an Apparel Industry Management major at FIDM.

Meet Apparel Industry Management Major Namita Seksria from India

Name: Namita Seksria

Country of origin: India

Previous college experience: B.com from H.R. College of Commerce and Economics in Mumbai, India. Thereafter I acquired my three years diploma in Dress Designing and Garment Manufacturing from Sophia Polytechnic in Mumbai, India

Major: Apparel Industry Management

Campus:  Los Angeles

Tell us a little about yourself:  I have always been a fashion lover. Since I was a kid I liked dressing the way I liked. Before I took fashion as a serious profession, I wanted a bachelors degree in commerce so that I would have a basic knowledge of how everything works, and what’s going around, and also it would give me time to mature enough before I got into professional studies. So I did B.com from H.R. College of Commerce and Economics in Mumbai, India. Thereafter I acquired my three years diploma in Dress Designing and Garment Manufacturing from Sophia Polytechnic in Mumbai, India. Along with my school I assisted a couple of renowned fashion stylists and worked on various projects. After I finished school I worked for a year as a Designer and a Production Manager for a company.  So that I could gain more experience in the field I also started my label called “Flambe” along with my friend. We exhibited our clothes and had our own clientele. Soon I realized that I need to know more about the industry in terms of fashion, trade, and how to manage the whole company. And here I am in FIDM Los Angeles Majoring in Apparel Manufacturing Management.

Describe your previous employment:  My previous workplace was Asia’s largest  textile digital printing company called Krishna Alkali (Bom) Pvt Ltd. It had a label named “Masala Works” which produced digital printed garments for high end stores all over India. I had the responsibility to create the whole line of collection for “Masala Works”  from concept building, creating prints on Photoshop, print sampling, garment sampling, and finally to the entire production for all the stores.

How did you find out about FIDM? I wanted to live in Los Angeles as my fiancé then and now husband lives here. I researched online all the schools offering courses in fashion. It was then I came across FIDM.

What made you decide to apply to FIDM? Researching more from various sources I was convinced FIDM is the best fashion school in the west coast of the U.S.A. Also, it offered variety of majors to choose from. After I took the entire tour to school, I knew this is where I wanted to study. It looked like a fashion school-- Amazing interiors, updated infrastructure, massive library, and fashionable students. I felt yes I have arrived at the right place.

How did you choose your major? Well choosing the major was not very difficult. Since I was familiar with the creative side of the fashion, I wanted to learn more about running my own company, and having my own clothing line. My Admissions Advisor was of a great help here. Knowing my interests, she suggested that I should take up Apparel Industry Management as my major; it exactly offers what I am looking for.

What was the hardest thing about moving to L.A.? Honestly, before this I had not studied anywhere outside my own country or for that matter away from my parents. For me the hardest thing was being away from my parents. Thanks to my husband and warm and helpful Californians, I feel so comfortable out here.

What has been the best thing about moving to L.A.? The best thing about L.A. is its weather and the people. Weather never gets too extreme. It is nice and sunny all round the year. Also, in L.A. you can find people from all around the world which gives a great opportunity to know people from different origins. It is in a real sense a cosmopolitan city and somehow I get the feeling of belonging here.

Have you made friends at FIDM? As other students even I was very nervous on the first day of school worrying about tons of things. Whether I’ll be able to make good friends out here or no? Will there be any common interests between the students from here and me? Will I have to face racism? Etc. But all went good.  The first day itself, I made couple of friends and gradually with various group activities given in the class it was not very difficult to make more friends. Also, I met many Indian students here which definitely comforted me.

What are your short term career goals? While in school I want to excel in all my classes, do great networking, work on the campus, and also gain as much knowledge as possible through various resources available.

What is your ultimate dream after graduating from FIDM? My ultimate dream is definitely to start my own company of contemporary clothing for women but before that for few years I would like to work for renowned fashion houses to gain expertise in my field.

What inspires you? Fabrics and colors inspire me.

What's one tip you would give an international student thinking about applying to FIDM?  One tip I would definitely like to give to a prospective student is that it’s very important to move out of one’s own country and witness fashion in another country. It not only broadens the horizon but also changes our perspective towards fashion, and helps us better understand of the term “ fashion” in itself. Also being an international student, it takes double the effort than the rest of the students here to create a niche for ourselves. So for students who are focused, and determined, and want a place in the fashion industry, FIDM is the place which offers the best of its resources to help you achieve your dreams.