Career Focus - Fitting into Fashion
Updated: Jul 19, 2020
If you've been reading this blog, you know I'm in the midst of the Fashion Essentials Certificate Program at Parsons. We've been given an assignment aimed at helping us develop our fashion industry goals: Look for someone in a role that interests you and investigate their career path.
After much research, I identified Mary Ruth Sheilds of United Sewing & Design. I found her background and diverse creative professional trajectory to have some similarities with mine, which was a natural attraction for me. Ms. Sheilds is in her own words, a Sewing Contractor/Social Entrepreneur/Author/Designer in the Greater Hartford Area, CT, fairly near where I live. She is the author of "Industry Clothing Production Methods" and has had a significant career in Academia, as have I. Her Masters degree from Goddard College is in Interdisciplinary Art . My artistic practice has similarly been interdisciplinary (music, design, fine & digital art and writing).
My interest in Ms. Sheilds and her work led me to hire her to create a sample of one of my designs. That project is in process (see illustration). More info to come.
Do I think my path in this industry lies with clothing construction/sample making? I don't. Although I would love to intern with Ms. Sheilds and learn more about clothing construction - I always like to know how things are made. But physically making things isn't my passion. I'm much more suited to and interested in writing and designing. As a published author, I feel Ms. Sheilds could teach me about that as well.
