15.03.2024
It was a great honour to have Lewis Heath, a NTU alumni working as pattern cutter of Simone Rocha to have a sharing with us. Before working as a pattern cutter, Lewis was majoring general fashion. As a pattern cutting student, it was impressive to see him successfully majoring pattern cutting from fashion. From the sharing, Lewis mentioned his feeling of excitement and amazement every time he stands behind the runway shows with the garments and models. It was nice to see he is doing what he genuinely enjoy as his proper job. I wish in my future career I can become a part of fashion or costume industries like Lewis.
Lewis's attitude and passion reminded me of the way to stay in the industry with continuous improvements. He didn't afraid of having mistakes and trying something which is not his major. At the same time he could still keep his passion on fashion and not giving up on it. From his sharing I could feel that he is doing the job with an attitude of not only doing for the pay. Not a lot of people have this nerve. Like what Maria mentioned in the seminar after, everyone is a normal human. You are okay to make mistakes and correct them from what you learnt.
And speaking of 'Digital vs Manual' pattern cutting, I have the same view as Simone which 'everything is all about hand feel and visual'. Lewis also expressed his perspectives about AI can't show him what he wants from garments at least for now. There would always be happy accidents by manual but when it comes to digital accidents usually nobody would be happy about that. However, it is not a bad thing which the production of Simone Rocha does have a nice balance between manual craftsmanship and digital technologies. They are mixing both of the ways and collaborating with each other perfectly. Digital technologies do help a lot on mass production. I agreed with Lewis's said of 'one can't work out without each other'. Not only applying on the ways of fashion production, but also it works on networking and maintaining relationships with people around us. Lewis specifically kept reminding us about the management of networking. His words reminded me of the cultural difference between the place where I came from and th UK. I feel like the importance of networking in the UK is a lot higher. Communities here are more genuinely wishing to build up friendly relationships with people around. They would not be stingy on helping each other and sharing which I really appreciate their habit and attitude.
Fashion is not a job, it is a vocation.
Tips from Lewis:
Remembering people around you
Remembering importance of maintaining relationship around
Mainting healthy relationship to your network and team members
Maximising your time and tools
Asking people who related to your career and who can give you advice
Agency of freelance is a good startingpoint
Don't afriad to network and asking questions
Don't afraid to get more experiences from different jobs before you find the right one
Suggested Digital Programs:
Gerber Accumark 3D
LECTRA
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