Local fashion schools are preparing students for a digitized world, but some of the software may still be out of reach for indie designers

There’s sewing—that’s a given. And there’s patternmaking, sketching, and drafting, which are all part of what you’d expect from a typical fashion-design school curriculum.

But classes that teach students how to navigate Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Suite, QuickBooks, and even technical software such as AccuMark and TUKAdesign? In an increasingly digitized world, the fashion industry is keeping up—and so are the schools.

In this city, the Art Institute of Vancouver, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, and Vancouver Community College are leaders of the pack in terms of integrating computers into their fashion programs.

According to Judy Ho, VCC’s fashion-arts program coordinator, “From day one, we drive it home that students need the tech knowledge, regardless of if they plan to go mass or independent.” Adds Anne Morris, academic director of the fashion programs at AIV, “We’re driven by what employers in our local market request of graduates.”

What they want, according to Melissa McMahon—a VCC faculty member who teaches Adobe Illustrator and technical fashion—is an understanding of how to draw a design by hand, and how to do the same thing using a computer. “If it’s not on your résumé that you’re familiar with these programs, you won’t even get a callback,” she says.

In addition to Illustrator, each of these schools teaches students how to enhance their designs (and, in AIV’s fashion marketing and management program, create store layouts and merchandising plans) using Photoshop.

At VCC and Kwantlen, students also learn how to create lookbooks, catalogues, hangtags, and press kits using InDesign. AIV grads are equipped with a basic knowledge of QuickBooks accounting software and Adobe Dreamweaver, which is used to design Web sites and establish an on-line presence for fashion designers.

Training in industry-specific software is also part of the curriculum. According to faculty member Mary Boni, who was the fashion design and technology program coordinator there for 19 years, Kwantlen was, in 1989, the first in Western Canada to introduce Gerber’s AccuMark patternmaking software. Today, all three schools require students to complete training in this and similar software as part of their education.

Sitting in a computer lab at VCC’s downtown campus, McMahon demonstrates fashion-design software. Used to draft patterns, TUKAdesign graphics look like an intimidating jumble of seemingly random shapes. These represent the separate parts (a sleeve here, a collar there) that make up each garment. McMahon calls the finished product “the recipe” needed to construct a piece.

TUKAdesign also enables students to create “flats”—flat back and front diagrams of a garment. TUKAmark allows the pattern to be laid out—“marked”—onto a piece of fabric in the most cost-effective way. Once it’s printed on a three-foot-wide roll of paper, the markup is laid over the fabric to be manually or laser cut.

Sound complex? It is. “When students first see the programs, even the Adobe ones, a lot of them are intimidated,” says McMahon. “But even after just a few classes, they’re much more comfortable using them.”

At Kwantlen, the benefits of learning AccuMark are almost immediately evident, because students are frequently given internships or recruited to work for local companies such as Lululemon, Aritzia, Arc’teryx, Sugoi, and Mountain Equipment Co-op. In fact, says Boni, “Over 100 Kwantlen grads work amongst them, in their design, marketing, and production departments.”

VCC grads are similarly successful. Off the top of her head, McMahon lists several of these companies, plus Mavi Jeans, Lotuswear, and Obakki, as places students have ended up.

For those who haven’t gone through one of these fashion-design programs recently, the schools provide opportunities. Says Ho, “A lot of people are self-taught in computer programs, so they come here to supplement their skills.”

Tabitha Savoie, who graduated from VCC in 2001, considers herself a good candidate for the upgrade. She designs for her own line of edgy, colourful streetwear with funky screenprints, Togs, and for Two of Hearts, a 1970s-inspired collection of 14 tops, dresses, and bottoms she recently launched with Jenny Yen of Cici.

“I switched from using Photoshop to Illustrator for my catalogues in the last year,” she says, attributing her new skill to “one of those ‘teach yourself how to’ books”. While Savoie acknowledges that hand- and Photoshop-rendered patterns and flats are sufficient, Illustrator made hers look “cleaner, more perfect”, with greater capacity for including details such as colour, ruching, and button and seam specifications.

And although buyers were pleased enough with the result to place orders, “I don’t really know how to use Illustrator—it’s so different from Photoshop, even though they’re both Adobe. I need to take the 10-week program to fully learn it.” Savoie plans to enroll in VCC’s continuing education program to brush up on her Illustrator skills.

But for designers like Savoie, software like TUKAdesign or AccuMark is virtually unaffordable. Designer Dace Moore uses Illustrator and Microsoft Excel to create manufacturing specification sheets for her Dace line of clothing. Recently, though, company representatives came to her studio to demonstrate how her business could be improved by using TUKAdesign.

Her reaction? “Even though we’ve been around for a while, we still couldn’t afford it.” Estimates peg the program at $10,000 or more—a cost that isn’t easily absorbed by independent designers.

Moore says that TUKAdesign “had a lot of Excel-like formats, and offered a lot of things we were already doing, except in one program”. In addition, she says, “We have our own templates that have been working for so long for us already.” Nevertheless, she acknowledges that though costly, the program “could probably make things easier”.

The bottom line? While programs such as TUKAdesign and AccuMark are still too expensive for local designers, like most high-tech innovations, they will likely become more affordable in coming years. In the meantime, there’s no harm in learning how to use them at school.