Alright as many of you know, 90% of the fashion students at Marymount shop a G Street fabric s to get everything that we need. G Street seems to have all the nice fashionable fabric versus Jo-Ann’s. Jo-Ann’s is too arts&crafty. I mean they have like an entire kids fleece section that takes up half the store. You don’t see Vera Wand shopping around Jo-Ann’s for inspiration.
G Street is huge and usually has what I’m looking for. Even though their customer service is horrible, I still go there for all my fashion needs. At the beginning of the semester as always, we receive 1million different projects and all of them you need something from G Street. I usually try not to look at prices when shopping in there. My Max price per yard is $20. Why was it that everything that I thought was perfect was $25 and up per yard? Where did these prices come from? Why must I find a cheap substitute?! Don’t understand my despair? Let me break it down:
Ok here’s Beyonce at 2009 VMA (yes the night Kanye made an ass of himself) but look at her lovely red dress by Roberto Cavalli. Ok this looks like a silk kind of fabric, maybe poly….possibly could be a blend. It probably cost about hmmm $150 a yard if not more but for example sake lets say Cavalli was shopping at G Street. So make it $ 45 a yard, you need at least 5 yards = $225 (5 yards because you have ruffles and the pouf in the front, the belt…it all adds up) Thread = $2. Is there a Zipper or other closure? = $6
Total = $233 for one dress. If I was selling this I would add an additional $300 for laborJ. So on a student budget, $233 is out of control for one class. Half of the students here don’t work and if they do, they aren’t pulling in $200 on a student work paycheck!
Buying the appropriate fabric is half the battle when designing. A design could be so fabulous but if you use the wrong fabric, it can ruin the whole look. That fabric can make of break the garment. The last thing you want is for all your hard work to look cheap and ugly! At Portfolio in Motion I’ve heard some of the guests ask if the fabrics were donated! If it looks cheap then it probably is because it was because we are students and can’t afford (maybe some of the ppl here can) the nice expensive luxurious fabrics.
We designers have a little thing up our sleeve though. If you fall in love with a fabric at the store that is just perfect for your design, we will go back and forth in our heads, thinking about what to do. Then we say: “For the sake of the design”, I have to get this fabric. And just like that you have someone cut your yard! We have to. It’s rare that what we envision in our heads can be replicated perfectly. G Street doesn’t have the fabric that we dream about! So when you come across something so suitable you have to jump on it. This is how: a.) people our age get in debt b.) spend a million dollars in 1 semester as an art student. Its funny because on our tuition there’s a lab fee and stuff like that for the materials the we might use but art students have to purchase everything for their classes…..including books! And all Marymount can do is give us coupons and 20%off at G Street which cannot be combined with any other offer.
I feel bad for people doing their senior line (will that ever be me?) They have to do 3 looks, a 4th is optional. Can you imagine $233 x 3 = $699!
This recession is hitting everyone hard. Fashion houses are just letting employees go verses letting the brand suffer by opting for the lower priced materials. If only we had that option.
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