Fashion Designer Self-Promotion My Name

Fashion Designer Self-Promotion

My name is John Smith. There are many factors that have motivated me to become a fashion designer and that are now beckoning me to apply my talents in the introduction of an exciting new brand in the fashion industry. I was born in Osaka, Japan in 1979. I believe that inherited my creative bent and interest in fashion from my parents; my father is a photographer and my mother is a tailor. As a child, one of my favorite pastimes was making detailed sketches of lots of plants and animals. I first became interested in fashion as a teen when I began to admire the fashion collections from the United States and Europe. I entered the Mode Design School in Tokyo when I was 18 years old where I focused on my keen interest in patterning. My dedication and focus led me to graduate with honors.

After graduation, I began working as a freelance costume designer, but found this too limiting. So, in 2004, I moved to New York to broaden my horizons. Shortly after moving to New York, I started my own brand which was tremendously successfully. A major fashion buyer bought my collection and sold it to major shops in New York and Tokyo.

After this, I returned to designing costumes and, in 2006, I won in the avant-garde section of the Gen Art International Design competition (http://www.genart.org/fashion.htm).This award was very important because Gen Art is noted for its discovery of new talent and is considered to be an important gateway to success. For instance, this organization has produced talents such as Zac Posn, Rebecca Taylor and Philip Lim, to name just a few of the emerging talents Gen Art has scouted. In 2007, I won yet another Gen Art award, this time in the Men's section. I am now working as a main pattern maker for Jen Kao, an up-and-upcoming New York-based fashion brand that is heavily rumored to become the next Philip Lim or Alexander Wang. I am also the designer of my own brand called 'a degree'.

My brand 'a degree', pronounced as 'aid' in Japanese, represents a very unique conceptual design. I chose this name because it stands for a dimension or point-of-view which I believe will appeal to consumers who are seeking fashion that denotes their own personalities and lifestyles. The cloth I will use is three dimensional and is intended to appeal to many people without making the brand seem like a mass-produced commodity. The 'a degree" brand also capitalizes on the corporate social responsibility movement and it intended to help support people and the global environment by using environmentally friendly techniques for manufacturing, implementing fair labor practices and by donating certain proceeds to charitable organizations.

The 'a degree' brand places particular emphasis on pattern making. Designs are simple, but complex and avant-garde, but classic. The convergence of these apparent dichotomies is intended to symbolize the balance and harmony the brand represents and to reinforce the brand's image as a socially responsible product. The brand targets both male and female consumers across the globe. This is now possible because globalization of the fashion industry has allowed consumers to gain easier access to in-vogue styles at increasingly inexpensive prices,

The brand will be manufactured in Japan to take advantage of this country's tremendous expertise in fashion manufacturing and its access to affordable fabrics. However, in the past, the Japanese fashion industry has had trouble generating substantial business opportunities because it has not been able to attract foreign media and foreign buyers and because it has been perceived as favoring mass production over manufacturing high quality goods that meet the requirements of fashion buyers who have high demands and a discerning eye for detail. I will use the connections that I have established in New York to help overcome obstacles for generating new business. I will also work closely with the Council of Fashion Designers Tokyo, an organization that has had great success in strengthening the power of Japanese fashion designers. To change the perception of the Japanese as mass producers, I will emphasize the unique Japanese creativity in my fashion designs.

In conclusion, the 'a degree' brand has tremendous potential. It has a unique three- dimensional design concept that can be applied to a broad global consumer audience.