This article was submitted by a contributing writer. To submit your own work for The Connector, email style@scadconnector.com.
“Dear fashion students: Google exists” by Naecia Dixon
Before we get into this, let me make one thing clear: I am no genius. But you would not believe the amount of times my fellow peers look at me like I’m some mystical being with unfathomable knowledge. My secret? Google. Don’t know the technical name of a garment? Google. Not sure what type of fabrication to use for a luxury hoodie? Google. Need to figure out what is the perfect lining to pair with wool suiting? Google! For whatever reason, us fashion students find ourselves running around like headless chickens searching for answers to some questions, but you would not believe how many of your problems could be solved with a simple five-minute Google search.
Allow me to introduce myself. I am Naecia Dixon, Brooklyn-born and Jamaican-raised Senior who has a love for storytelling but also enjoys solving problems. As a Fashion Design student, I get to do both. Right now, my fellow seniors and I are working endlessly trying to finish our collections. Naturally, one of our resources is the internet. While we have a plethora of resources here at SCAD, let’s be honest, most of our research comes from the internet. While I can’t speak for other seniors, I often find myself getting tunnel vision while working on a project and forget where to look for those resources. Since I having been working aside my new, beautiful soul sister Megan (senior fashion student and editor of Godet) we notice each other getting caught in those rabbit hole moments. I would watch her faff around with something for an hour, frustrated as can be, and eventually give up on the construction technique all together.
That’s when I asked her, “Well, did you Google it?”
”No” she said begrudgingly.
Eventually, this became a running joke between us. It was our way of saying “use your common sense,” which seems obvious, but when you get caught up in this kind of work, it feels like so much is coming at you all at once. The thought of reaching out for help, even just a Google search, usually doesn’t cross our minds. It’s like the gears that should be turning are just clogged with fabrications, lineups and deadlines. The frustration both Megan and I felt in these moments led me to think there could be an easier way to pull ourselves out of those moments.
I thought making myself a list of resources to reference when I find myself in that headspace could aid in this process. But it wasn’t until I noticed my fellow classmates asking me where I was finding this information that I realized I can’t harbor all this vital information for myself. So here is my gift to you. All the tips and tricks I’ve gained over the years for sourcing info related to fashion design:
The key is in keywords
Allow me to take you on a trip. Cue the gutters of the graphic novel of my life turning black and the once vibrant saturation of my panels of time are now low. Yes, this is a flashback. Little me at the age of seven or eight was sitting on the couch waiting for one of my new favorite anime to come on. In this episode, I learned something new. How to search something up on the internet, the proper way! I watched this character look up an event that happened and instead of searching for it in detail, they used keywords. What I was doing before was typing the entirety of my questions into the search bar. (Y’all remember AskJeeves?) I mean, I got results but it wasn’t really what I was looking for. Somehow, anime taught me a more efficient way of researching than my elementary computer class ever did.
Be patient with your sources
Have you ever found yourself looking for a tutorial online, quickly skimming the text or progress bar on Youtube, and if the answer isn’t found within 5 seconds, you just click off? Yeah, me too. This phenomenon has plagued many of us where the anxiety of getting our work done becomes so enlarged, that we often don’t realize the answers are right in front of us. It just takes a little patience to get there. Luckily, academic sources will tend to introduce the subject with a content table, making it easy for you to locate that sought-after information. But as we all know, a huge chunk of our construction tutorials are coming from some middle-aged woman with a crafting blog named “sew-cute” and includes a giant forward on how this specific technique came into her life. Thank you Barbara for the insightful background, but please, get to the point. Sometimes it takes reading through a couple of articles thoroughly and maybe even scrolling to page two of Google (insanity, I know) to find them, but I promise you it’s out there. This is also where those keywords in the search bar will help you out, rather than long drawn out questions.
Pinterest aka the Sherlock Holmes of visual research
I love Pinterest but not for the reason one may think. I don’t use Pinterest for visual inspiration per se, but rather to locate the source of my visual inspiration and research. One has to remember that everyone and their mom uses Pinterest, so the images found there may not be as unique as you may think. The algorithm is just going to give you the most relevant result to your search words, so if you need unique imagery, use specific wording. With that being said, once you find that perfect image and have pinned it to your ever growing senior collection board, don’t just stop there. Take the time to click on the source website and do a quick scroll. You’ll usually end up finding the original photographer, designer, website, or catalog behind the work. You might even stumble upon a clarifying fact about the technique you’re working on that fits your concept perfectly. This quick step will give you 10x more background than just the visual research alone. And after all, our aim should be to create collections that are saturated with research head to toe, not just surface level.
You(tube) are not alone
As this floating rock we all live on slowly makes its way towards its final resting place on the sun’s surface, the internet is a lovely reminder that we aren’t alone in this existential dread. Somewhere out there is another human being with the same interests as you. In our specific craft, there’s a whole plethora of people online taking the time to document their work, create tutorials and post them online for our curious minds to happen upon. It might seem like common sense, but Youtube is one of the best resources out there for sewing techniques and tutorials. There are a wide variety of creators in our field including fashion historians, illustrators, and sewing teachers that will walk you through the steps that we often don’t have time for in class. Some of you may just go to the first video in the results and get frustrated that it doesn’t immediately answer your question. That’s okay! Just find another video.
Free.99
Need to get information from an expensive book? Too broke to get said book? Now introducing free pdfs of books online! Did you know you can just google the title of the book and just put “free pdf” at the end? About 70% of the time this works and when it does, its chef’s kiss! Also, If you find a book online and you think it would be great in the SCAD library, you can suggest it to the librarians and they will purchase the book for the school.
Museums
That’s it. Use their catalogs. They are usually beautifully photographed and documented. Heaven knows there’s a museum for everything!
Office hours
At the very least, email your professors. I promise you they would rather have a million questions from you than have you show up to class empty handed because you couldn’t figure it out. If you are struggling to find specific information, just stop by their office, express your concerns and they will be happy to help. And worst case scenario, if you’re still struggling after that, at least it shows them that you are taking the time to put in the effort. It goes a long way, not just in your grade, but in growing your relationships with them throughout your time here.
Sources you may not have heard of
Creative Live – This website has free intense workshops from industry leaders. Once the free recording is over you can also watch the rerun for free or buy the workshop. They cover so many topics! You got to check them out.
Coursera – I have taken some of their fashion courses, and from my experience, I can say it really helped. You can take the course for free and get a certificate of completion at the end or you can pay for the course and get an accredited certificate. This is a great way to gain knowledge while simultaneously adding to your resume!
And there you go! Hopefully, this will inspire anyone whose taken the time to reach this point to embrace the internet for their fashion needs without feeling overwhelmed. All this information, as simple as it may be, is just a reminder that there are so many resources available to you at the touch of a keyboard. We don’t have to struggle guys. We got this!
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