Sixth workshop and a "fashionable" weekend

This weekend I took a class at the Fashion Institute of Technology called “How to think like your CFO“. It was taught by the former SVP of Finance/CFO at Calvin Klein, and we got to analyze financial statements of fashion companies and tell the story behind the numbers. It was very interesting - we analyzed a company that was changing its business model from just being a cashmere wholesaler to opening retail stores and establishing a private label business. We even saw a spreadsheet of a merchandise planner, and learned how finance people use sales data to make decisions on which segment of business to invest in and expand. In the past few weeks I have been listening to the earnings call of Tapestry and ASOS and was reading their equity research reports in my free time, but I was frustrated in picking up what’s important among a sea of numbers. After the class, I feel like I now finally understand how to analyze the KPIs in fashion.

It’s a very refreshing experience, as it recently occurred to me that I want to do corporate finance at a fashion company. I’ve been reading Business of Fashion and visiting the clothing stores I read about in my free time since this summer, but this weekend signifies the first step I took to do something about it and actually evaluate this interest as a potential career path. I am so glad I did it, despite having second thoughts and fierce debate in my mind about whether I should go the week prior. I’ve always loved fashion - it’s been a source for me to express myself emotionally, and sometimes a great piece of clothing/accessory would really make my day and make me feel different. I really hope to contribute my efforts to running a successful fashion brand that speaks to the customers and give them the joy of expression that they need in their day-to-day life. Anyhow, though, I still haven’t applied for a job in the retail industry yet, part of it is because I think it’s too soon to leave my current job, and also part of it is because I now do more and more data analytics in my current job that I think would be pretty transferable to my future job in retail/finance. So no rush, but hopefully I can keep this going and if I haven’t changed my mind, make the switch - perhaps after 2 years?

Ok, now back to ballet! Today we did tendu/plie in the first position, second position and third position, and we also did a lot of plie - releve.

Heels sticking together

The heels should always stick together, no matter when you are doing a plié or releve. Our teacher asked us to put a dollar bill between our heels, and the goal is to not have it fall off when doing a plie then releve. Naturally, it is hard to stick your heels together when you do an releve, but if you use your glute strength to push your legs/knees/thighs together, it seems easier to stick your heels together. Hard, right? You never imagine what the ballet dancers are going through when they do all these seemingly effortless moves.

Weighting

You should place your weight evenly when you stand, so the end result should feel like your foot is expanding into the ground. This means the ball of your feet and your heels should both have weights on it, which is again, unnatural, because normally I stand on my heels.

Tendu to the side

It is a natural tendency to move your pelvis sideways when you tendu to the side, but the trick here is to expand your upper back upwards - using the muscle right outside your rib cage below your arm pit - to pull yourself upward like a tree. Again, hard right?

Bending to the left/turning your head ballet style

We also did some head turning and bending to the side. The trick is also to keep everything aligned and only bend down. It should feel like you are stretching your left back when you bend to the right, for example.

Port de bras

You should always do a port de bras as if someone is lifting you up from your arms - there should be a force in your arm to actively push down, otherwise your arms will raise to the sky and slip from the person lifting you. Which should be the imagery you aim for when doing a port de bras.

Et voila! Our teacher told us there won’t be class the entire week of Thanksgiving. And then we will meet in December. What?! We have already done this for 3 weeks?! Time just flew by.

For the picture of today, I’d like to share one I took when I was doing a walking tour in the garment district. It was something I saw from the fashion walk of fame.

This lady basically invented the professional style for women - she was the most popular fashion brand at that time when women were entering the workforce.

The whole walking tour is a bit sad, as the tour guide used to be a garment worker himself, and his grandmother migrated here from Europe in the 1920s and became a garment factory worker. He led us around 39 - 34th street and broadway and showed us what the old buildings used to be. Back in the day, the buildings were all garment factories, full of immigrant workers like his grandmother, who, despite not being able to speak English, worked very hard and made all of the clothes people wear in America. It was quite a booming time. Then, the garment industry moved out of Manhattan to China, and the factories are now mostly closed, except for a few that provide sample garments for fashion designers in New York. The tour guide also showed us a factory - which just newly announced they are closing, which is sad. There were also fabric retailers everywhere, but the clothing they displayed through the window are all gawky and outdated. They are mostly soon to diminish.

Interestingly, I used to work in this area and always passed by these fabric retailers. I never knew this was the garment district back in the day, and was always confused why there were so many outdated fabric shops around my area. Nowadays the area was replaced by firms like mine, which are all unrelated to fashion. However, there are still traces of the old times here and there, with all the fabric shops and dirty windows from the old factories, waiting to be washed away by the new era. Such is the urban history of the garment district.