Student-facilitated course at UCLA explores fashion history

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UCLA is moving in forward fashion with the addition of a student-facilitated fashion history and design course this quarter.

The seminar course, Theater 88S: “Designing Century: Fashion Design Introductory Course,” was created by fourth-year computational and systems biology student and self-taught designer Jennifer Lee, who said it was the first of its kind. Lee will teach a weekly seminar on the history of 20th-century fashion by analyzing design techniques of distinguished fashion designers like Coco Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent. Today will be the class’s first session.

“Because it is only one unit, it’ll be a mixture of teaching and discussion,” Lee said. “It is very concept-based and introductory, so there will be no need for actual sewing, but (instead), sketching, which makes it great for all majors.”

As a co-president of the club Fashion and Student Trends, Lee has pursued her passion for fashion throughout her career at UCLA – she has designed more than three collections with four to six pieces in each for FAST’s annual fashion shows. And since the age of 14, she has immersed herself in fashion documentaries and magazines.

“I’ve always been interested in fashion and have been sewing since an early age,” Lee said. “But my parents wanted me to attend a four-year university rather than a trade school.”

While UCLA offers several opportunities, Lee said it is not uncommon among UCLA students to feel inhibited by the lack of creative courses offered to non-art students.

“I know so many people who are interested in fashion but can’t study it simply because they’re not art students,” Lee said. “As a bio student myself, I’ve never had the opportunity to venture out of my curriculum due to both financial and academic reasons.”

Lee said the desire to explore courses separate from one’s curriculum was evident during the seminar’s enrollment, as spaces filled up within two hours.

Although spaces were quickly occupied, Lee said the process of creating the class was rather slow. Lee proposed the class in the beginning of fall quarter through an application process submitted through the Undergraduate Education Initiatives program.

Once accepted into the program, she immediately contacted UCLA costume design professor Deborah Landis and asked her to be the course’s faculty adviser.

“(Lee) and I worked closely together on creating a curriculum that would be broad enough to fit within a time span of a quarter yet highlight several important topics of fashion,” Landis said.

Landis said the course’s curriculum covers a brief history of dress and then an in-depth analysis of the works of specific, iconic designers from the 1900s to present day.

Each session will aid in the students’ final project, which requires them to create a portfolio of six finished designs.

“Fashion as a scholarly pursuit doesn’t exist at UCLA, so learning about the foundation of what makes fashion, like the changes in silhouettes and the impacts of World War I and World War II, will be an entirely new and engaging experience for all students, ” Landis said.

Second-year molecular, cell and developmental biology student Rojan Kavosh, who is currently enrolled in the seminar, said the class appealed to her because of the sole fact that she could enroll in it.

“I’ve had no art experience or any real fashion knowledge prior to this,” Kavosh said. “I’m ultimately going in blind, but that’s really why this course is an awesome and broadening opportunity for students like me.”

Arman Ghorbani, a fourth-year neuroscience student, who has had no technical experience in fashion, said he is interested in the fashion design course because of what it can help him achieve in his family’s business, a wholesale company that primarily distributes men’s clothing.

“I’ll be doing research in regards to my major,” Ghorbani said. “But I think this class will really familiarize myself with the fashion industry and allow me to help my family’s business in the future, while simultaneously doing research.”

While many of her students come from various backgrounds and studies, Lee said she hopes to cultivate one common creative-thinking process among them through this course.

“Although it’s important to have technical skills, I think most of the time with fashion these skills can be self-taught. It’s the thinking process that really needs to be aided,” Lee said. “People just need to really understand the creative process and how to think analytically in terms of design.”

Lee said her greatest goal, however, is to essentially connect people through one common passion and encourage them to continue their pursuits in fashion.

“We go to school in one of the largest fashion capitals in the world and (this class) is the perfect chance to really take advantage of that,” Lee said. “You can be (studying) any major or come from any background – the true idea of this class is just to bring anyone passionate about fashion together.”

Correction: The second half of the story was not posted online.