WHY LEARN ABOUT DESIGNING?

It's smart — for many reasons — to learn something about the fashion bug and that means dress designing.

Even if there are no serious ambitions to break into the field of dress designing and dress making, knowledge in these matters helps to cul­tivate better taste and appreciation of the background of each creation — it enables you to judge good design and good construction in the clothes you buy.

TO LEARN IS TO KNOW-TO KNOW IS TO APPRECIATE

No matter what we look at, listen to, eat, or use — if we have some experience in the related field — the end products immediately become more satisfying and more enjoyable. For instance: have you been for­tunate enough to have had music lessons ? Isn't listening to it more en­joyable for that? If you have any knowledge of how to play some instrument yourself — don't you get an extra thrill from another's excellent rendition of something familiar to you? Isn't it more exciting when you know something of the technical difficulties being overcome?

THERE'S GOLD IN THE FIELDS OF FASHION

From the first fig leaf — to the burgeoning closets of today — nothing except food, lodging, the destruction and parallel stimulation of periodic wars — and love, of course — has engrossed Mr. and Mrs. Homo Sapiens more than the everlasting problem of what to wear - and that is the fashion bug!

Don't think this preoccupation with appearance and adornment is con­fined to the weaker sex alone — however in male fashions the style changes are more subtle (sportswear excepted) and therefore not as comment-provoking as female fashions. Probably too, the more subdued spotlighting of male fashions may be due to the fact that, being more severely and exactly tailored, they are not so easily reproduced by the individual in the home or in a small shop and consequently the more exacting details of such style changes are of particular interest only to the specialists in this phase of fashion.

But fashions for my lady fair! — No such subdued gentility attends these! The closely guarded secrets of each fashion house are a natural temptation to the style pirates. During the making and showing of the big collections of important designers an air of excitement, of mystery, moments of despair — and elation — fill the air. The "cloak-and-dagger" atmosphere at times even surpasses the deviations of interna­tional political espionage. Everyone concerned with the designing and manufacturing of fashions wants to be the first in presenting a new style trend. And such has been the fashion industry ever since Charles Frederick Worth organized his fashion dictatorship thereby develop­ing the beginnings of the present day system.

In all phases of fashion design and manufacturing billions of dollars are spent yearly — an extremely large percentage of our population is employed in the field itself or in some allied aspect of it.

Darling —I have nothing to wear! The little bird who hears everything must have run out of numbers for counting the times that fashion bug phrase has been cried out through the length and breadth of this land. No wonder the designing, reporting, and making of fashions occupy so many of us — and what sweet music it is to the designer, as it is to Paris, Rome, London, and cities in California, Texas, Illinois, and to Seventh Avenue in New York, and to all the other places and people who are concerned with the designing and making of clothes.

The individual with flair, with good ideas, and with courage can create a small fortune with fashions.

THE POWER OF KNOWLEDGE

Your most useful tool in making full use of your ideas is knowledge. To make full use of these ideas the importance of background knowl­edge cannot be stressed too often.

LEARN YOUR CRAFT

KNOW ALL YOU CAN LEARN ABOUT SEWING.

KNOW ALL YOU CAN LEARN ABOUT PATTERN DRAFTING — ABOUT DRAPING AND WORKING WITH MATERIALS.

KNOW ALL YOU CAN LEARN ABOUT THE ARTS —ABOUT HAR­MONY OF LINE, FORM AND SILHOUETTE, ABOUT COLOR AND DESIGN.

AND KEEP ON LEARNING.

Learn to appreciate the feeling of the material with which you intend to work. Observe how it falls into folds or how it stands out crisp, or how it clings. Practice draping different types of materials on your dress form.

Get to know your materials and how to work with them to bring out their best and most distinctive qualities.

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