When I first took up art, I never dreamed that I would one day get a fashion design degree. Fashion design colleges, you see, were not for me. I was into art for art's sake. I didn't want to get involved in fashion design and merchandising because I wasn't interested in the commercial elements of it. I was vaguely aware that I would have to earn money with my degree somehow or another, but I always figured that I would be discovered and then be able to sell my art.
Going to fashion design college was furthest from my mind because it was so focused on applying your skills to make money. Fashion isn't really very expressive. People try to express themselves through their clothes, but I didn't think much of it at the time. Then I took a few fashion design courses and it changed the way I felt about it. It isn't that my perspective is much different, but I realized how much I enjoyed designing clothing. I found out that I could go to a fashion design college, spend my life doing what I loved, and make a killing at the same time. Fashion design colleges just makes sense after that.
When I first got into the fashion design New York school, I was surprised at how different it was from my previous experience. The fashion design course I took was very free and very expressive, but the fashion design colleges are actually very rigorous and rigid. You do get to express yourself, but most of what you do it is pretty routine and methodical. There is a lot to be learned, and a lot of it is not very interesting. Basically, it is half art degree, half business degree. Fashion design colleges are all about sensing trends and trying to capitalize on them, not about finding ways to say what is in your heart. Still, once I started, I had to finish the program. I couldn't very well leave it half completed. After all, my student loans were killing me!
Now that I have a fashion design career, I guess I am glad that I went to the fashion school after all. In some ways, I think my fashion design colleges experience really stifled me artistically. I don't do my own original work anymore, and instead spend all of my time designing clothes. Nonetheless, my fashion design college has allowed me to have an art career. Fashion designing is somewhat creative, if not very.
