1. Kennith Everett
Tillery
British Literature
10 March 2012
Fashion Design and Photo-shoot Management
The fashion world is full of bright lights and captivating beauty. It has branded itself on
the world, a sign for everyone to see that it is here to stay. Ever since I was little, I was
astonished by the beautiful people, clothes, and crazy hair that I would see in magazines. It was
my goal to dive into this magical land of perfection head first and not look back. Hello, my name
is Kennith Everett and fashion has been my passion since little. I craved to recreate the beautiful
images circulating my brain. I have been in front of the camera as a model, wearing the clothes
of a designer, but it was my goal to be the one in charge. The greatest part is that I have
succeeded.
Earlier this school year, I did some research on a few select of my fashion predecessors,
the late Louis Vuitton, Alexander McQueen, and CoCo Chanel. Now some may not know of the
names I mention and that is perfectly acceptable. To me though these world renowned fashion
designers, as well as icons are legendary. See they weren’t all rich and had things provided to
them when they were starting off. All of them were told that they would never make it, that the
fashion industry was an almost impossible industry to be successful if you were not in the elite of
the world. They are inspirations to me because of their hard work and dedication they became
some of the best in the world. If I had to say I learned anything from my research done on

2. Vuitton, McQueen, and Chanel it would be that possibilities for success are endless it is just up
to me to keep my mind focused until I get to where I want to go.
For my Senior Project, I created clothing from my college portfolio and coordinated two
photo-shoots, in which I: styled clothes, cut, dye, and style hair, took the pictures, and edited the
pictures all independently. I chose this topic because I have designed clothes, on paper, for a
very long time, but have never gotten the opportunity to physically create them. In concerning
the other half of my project, the majority of the public does not realize how much more goes into
fashion then just the clothes. I extended the project by actually planning and coordinating two
photo shoots by myself. I was the single man photo crew, which consists of: makeup artist, hair
stylist, wardrobe stylist, photographer, lighting management, photo editor, and photo publisher.
All of these skills are those of which I prepossessed.
Fashion design is a complicated field for the novice of design. The hard work and
dedication that goes into it taught me a few things along the way. To start off clothing, the
designer must first have a fashion design. Now the actual design is way more complicated than
just a pretty drawing. Fashion Designs must be drawn to industry standards in order to be
constructed. The industry standard for the mannequin, or croquis, which is the usually faceless
body in the drawing, is a 9 or 10 figure head. The average human is usually only seven and a half
figure heads tall. Which means, from head to toe you can only fit seven and a half heads,
including the head, lengthwise tall on the body. Now some may ask, what is the practicality of
making clothes that will obviously not fit the average human? The clothes are not meant to fit the
average human at this point they are made to fit the average model. The average female model is
5’7” or taller, and expected to be under a size 8. The average male model is 6’0” to 6’3” and
usually has under a 34” waist. Each designer has their own personal croquis made after the start a

3. business. This is why a size 4 in Calvin Kline may not fit the same as a size four in Dolce &
Gabbana. After the Fashion design is made, the designer usually then makes a technical drawing
and pattern layout of the clothing. Now I say usually because that process is used the majority of
the time for mass produced ready-to-wear clothes. Ready-to-wear means the average person can
go in the store and pick out a size and the clothes will fit. I design couture clothing, or high
fashion, the process of technicality isn’t utilized in my process because couture clothes are made
to resemble the croquis drawing. That means that the final output will usually fit specialized
measurements. After all drawing is done with I label any seams that I will need to notice during
pinning and draping. I begin pinning and draping fabric, cutting nothing until everything is
measured out. I measure distance between the seam and the fabric pattern and begin to cut.
Everything is charted out before I sew to get sizing down correctly. I sew on the zipper to only
one side of the clothing to reposition in order for perfect fit. Once everything is placed and
pinned I remove the swatches from the mannequin still pinned and sew everything on my pre-
marked seams.
Photo shoot management was the hardest thing about this whole project. I was my own
Photographers help, makeup artist, wardrobe stylist, hair stylist, photographer, lighting
management, and photo editor. I had to plan the dates for two different models, and pick out a
location for the shoot. Preparation for the shoot was actually more difficult than the day of shoot.
I had to figure out coloring for the models, foundation, and concealer colors, Hair styles, clothing
choices, and hair dye. The day of each shoot went flawlessly, except, one model was late. The
actual day of each shoot the models were required to meet me with freshly washed hair and face.
Each model had their hair, makeup, and clothing styled by me. Time and location are key to
running a successful photo-shoot. My first photo-shoot was supposed be during sun down but by

4. the time hair and makeup were over it was already night. So all of the pictures were taken in
complete darkness.
My project facilitator was Nicole Carnes; she is a teacher at Creekview. I chose her
because she has a vast knowledge of sewing technic complementing some of the skills I lack.
Ms. Carnes was very much my go to person whenever something went wrong. She never did
anything for me though she showed me how to do it and let me be which is how I work best.
Problems varied depending on my task. During sewing I had numerous sewing machine
needles break and they are very expensive after the 16th one. Like I stated previously timing was
a problem with shoots. That was about it though, like all problems I got through these minor
things if not gracefully, successfully.
Through this whole process I learned that I love this field. It is something I am good at
and love which is a double plus. I also discovered that I am very tedious when it comes to minor
details, which I assume to be great. I would most defiantly pursue this topic further for I plan to
major in Fashion and/or cosmetology. I have been accepted to a number of top arts colleges so
Fashion is most defiantly in my future.
I have learned the just of the fashion industry. The majority of the time on my own but I
am great at working independently. I think I grew just as much as a person as I did a designer
during this whole process. I would like to thank my judges and my facilator at this time for all of
your time and patience. Thank you.