My name is Mattie Di Giovanni, and I am a Fashion Design major at Parsons. I moved here for school from Illinois and I really love New York. I have been working on fashion through different ways. I find that I really like unique ready-to-wear. This year I was able to land a job doing design development for ready to wear clothes. Between my job and Parsons I have been able to form serious goals for my next few years at the school and for my future. I really like working with printmaking and I liked being able to learn proper sewing techniques. Overall, I have a strong idea of where I’m headed but I am open to learning much more.
Throughout my first year I was able to experiment across many different mediums, which was great for me because I had never taken an art class before coming here. So I learned ample amount of skills. I learned how to draw from the human figure better, sculpture, video/sound/image editing. I learned to think conceptually and put it into a physical form. I was able to practice and create things in ways I never had before. While not all of these skills were connected to fashion in the traditional way, I was able too make connections that helped me better understand my perspective field. Pictured below, A time map tattoo I had made for seminar 1, a 6 piece collection of abstract pieces based on melancholy, a print I had made for studio 2, and a sculpture I had made for Seminar 2.
I was able to use skills that I had learned in my Time, Drawing, and Space class the most for my Seminar and Studio classes. I felt that I had gained things I never knew I would use in various different ways. I think that my Studio and Academic classes are usually connected by a theme or idea, so I feel that it’s easy to identify a cross over especially with bridge projects. The pprojects that were related to fashion were most enjoyable for me because I felt like I understood them more. However, it was really exciting to see myself improving with drawing the figure because I will need to be using that for my fashion sketches.
Something I felt was a highlight for me was constructing a zero waste garment for soft structures. The project was to make a garment using an entire yard of fabric for a garment. I started thinking of ways to drape, pleat, and fold fabric so that it could be more fitted in various places. This was my first time draping on a form and making the garment in muslin first.
This is how it came out. I felt ready to finish my garment using my nice fabric. Some skills I used were folds, pleats, interfacing, and a hand sewing a hem. My final garment came out nicely on the form.
Finally I tired on the dress to see how it fit and I felt great!
It fit great, and it was good for the environment. I did a french seam on the garment and a lot of hand stitching. While it came out slightly different than I imagined, it was hard to sew using the chiffon. I felt like I had improved with technique, and with making a nice ready to wear piece. I feel like this was a good base project for me so next year I will be able to use easier fabrics and make something more difficult. After making this I have plenty of time to practice over the summer to use my skills for next semester.
For my Second highlight, I picked a project from Drawing and Imaging. This project was my first experience with using Photoshop, watercolors, and sketching on top of a found image. This was the basis for my skill sets that I use very often now. I feel happy that I was able to learn these because I now use them at my job and in my other classes.
I felt really proud of myself, but looking back I now see I have improved a lot, but still have a long way to go. I have used my Photoshop and illustrator skills to do graphic design for the company I currently work for, and they like what I have made so much they are using it. So my Parsons skills have directly applied to my industry job and have helped prepare me to do a wide range of tasks which I feel very confident in.
So, I feel like my first year has given me the skills to work in the field and has already helped me with design development. I hope to be working for a brand that does high fashion ready to wear that is a very high quality product, but something that looks amazing out and about. I know my goals will and future will probably change a 100 times before I graduate but this is what I feel I like the most. I’m hoping to make more projects with good quality and improve with every project so I can excel here. I want to learn everything there is to learn about fashion and improve my techniques everyday. I know I have a lot to learn and I am very excited to do so. I plan on continuing to work in the industry to gain experience from that and to get technique from school.
