Okay so you know I have 2 adult kids...and I totally forgot to mention that yes, I am married too! Hahaha! I have been happily married for 23 years to such a giving and loving man...such a gift!
Anyway, I knew way back in 2nd grade that fashion would be in my future. I wallpapered fashion pics from every magazine imaginable all over my walls, overlapping them like a huge collage and changing them every few months. I took sewing classes in my early teens, for which I had zero patience and could not understand how anyone,( including my mother who only allowed me to wear the ugly frocks she made for me), could possibly find this rewarding. I would latter find that I would need and want to learn this tedious, yet self gratifying task, more on that later!
I would strategically and methodically plan an entire months wardrobe on my calendar without ever wearing the same thing twice. I could NEVER be seen with the same outfit on, at least not with in a 5 month period. I t was exhausting, but it my fashion expression, it meant more to me than learning what the square root of 36 was, unless you could relate it somehow to fashion I could not grasps it relevance in my life.
So of course, I went to FIDM way back when it was in a Barker Brother's furniture building in Los Angeles. It is quiet the majestic, awe factor today that is for sure and the Institution is well recognized in the industry by Top designers! I loved my tenure at the college, and graduated with a degree in Fashion Merchandising. I had NO idea what I was going to do with that degree, what direction I wanted to go so I got a job working for Zuma Industries. Yep! not fashion...nope. Now why would I do that? I mean I did have student loans to pay and I loved fashion but hey lets work for a Sign Manufacturing Company that makes Olympic Signs!
Jumping waaaaaaayyyyy forward in time... I had jobs as managing for retail stores, Store Manager for an outlet store, a Sales Rep for a line in the SF clothing Mart, a Personal Shopper at Nordstrom's etc. I then stayed home and raised our two kids until they got into High School and out of the blue applied for a job for a teaching position at Carmel High School, in Carmel, CA. I figured, all they can say is "No" right? Well they said "Yes" and I was ecstatic beyond words. Then the shit hit the fan! Okay, wait...what are lesson plans? How do I do the grading? What do you mean it is all on line grading? What happened to writing in a book? Oh, its ROP! What's that? I have to get a credential in this? Oh...every Friday night and Saturday for almost 3 yrs? Oh, I need to learn how to sew? Yes... I know how to do that , but its been 30 years, no problem! An industrial machine? Aren't all sewing machines the same? The list goes on and on. I so have a greater appreciation for teacher than I ever had! Kudos to you!
Well, I spent 12-14 hour days over that summer prepping for 2 separate level courses for this job. It was the hardest but most rewarding job I had ever had! I took sewing lessons at the local Junior College, as well as a CAD class for designing. I took the classes necessary for my credentialing and was the Tech Grant Writer for our ROP program, I had to have an Advisory Board and have meetings twice a year to be reviewed on my curriculum and what is expected out in the workforce. In the end I developed a Level 3 course that would do community service projects and design 6+ garments based on themes I gave them, choreograph their own segment and do a pre-segment interview to be shown before 400 people in a brand new state of the arts high tech theater. In the end the designers created one of a kind pieces for over 80 students on campus, I even got a 7th season project runway contestant to do a cameo before the show! It was AMAZING!!!! I had never been so proud of the girls and of myself for pulling this off on my own and it was truly an A+ show, FIDM would be so proud!
I was also honored to be on the Advisory Board for FIDM for their 'Just For Educators' web site for 5 years! They are all one fantastic group of people and I was so fortunate to have been able to be a part of something so rewarding.
Unfortunately the Fashion Program was cancelled in 2011, and truly a blow that sent me spiraling wondering, what am I supposed to do now? I was so complete... this is what I worked do hard for so that I would have something rewarding for ME when the kids left the nest. Well, haha to me! So to keep busy while I figured out what I wanted to do next when I grew up, took a job at Anthropolgie for which I am currently still at. This blog site, came to be because I am once again in the throes of re-inventing myself and looking to fulfill my passion within the industry in other ways that would be creatively satisfying, soooooo here I am!!!!
This week I will be starting my fashion blog and share fashion tid- bits. I will share what's in, what you need in your closet, what's happenin around the world. How to be beautiful and fit for the 40 something group! So stay tuned! xoxo Mari
