The Influences of Fashion Designers

When we go shopping for clothes, we see a variety of products that are totally different. The products are that different because they are designed to have different impressions on different people but essentially, the passion employed in the creation of each of these products is the same. Fashion design is a field that entails a lot of activities ranging from creation of designs to the marketing of the finished fashion products. Fashion designers are creative artists who have a lot of passion in their job and hence they get contentment in the creation of new masterpieces of design. The designers know the dynamics of fashion and thus develop designs that have a commendable impression on their customers (Jones 4 6). The period between the fourth decade of the twentieth century and the seventh decade of the same century saw substantial revolution in the field of fashion design. This revolution brought a lot of ideas and players in fashion design. A commendable part of this revolution is the introduction of private boutiques selling their owners original designs (Jones 12). Let us have a look at some examples of these fashion designers.

Marilyn Brooks
Biography
Marilyn Brooks was born in Binghamton, New York on 13th November 1932. She grew up in Detroit and acquired her education in its environs. She had a passion for design since she was a child and could sew her own designs at a tender age of eight years. After developing her skills for a couple of years, she got a job in the early 1960s as a display director with John Northway and Sons in Canada (Marilyn 4). After an approximate three years in Canada, she started her own clothes line and opened her first boutique, Unicorn that was based in Toronto Canada. Here she was one of the first players to operate the clothes business by selling her own designs. From the passion she had, her business grew to become multinational with boutiques in Toronto and San Francisco and with retailers all over the U.S and Canada. She has seen a lot of success in her life stemming from her success in fashion design. She has thus received a lot of awards related to her achievement in the fashion design industry. An example of these is the Judy ME (Merchandising Excellence) Award she received both in 1966 and 1986, she founded the Toronto Ontario Designers and she is a member of CMG (Color Marketing Group) for many years. Despite her age she is now the president of Ontario Designers in Canada (Marilyn 7).

Background Influence
The life Marilyn Brooks lived as a child had a lot of contribution to her passion for fashion design. As a child Marilyn received home sewing lessons and by the age of eight she was sewing her own designs. This passion that she developed at this tender age is the one that drove her to work for John Northway and Sons which was a clothes store in Canada. In this store she worked as a display director and therefore she could interact with various designs and thus she continued developing passion for fashion design. This long-developed and nurtured passion coupled by the experience she had attained after working for John Northway and Sons led her to come up with her own boutique. She thus secured for herself the opportunity to continue developing her talent in fashion design since she was selling her own design. The design industry then was not as flooded as it is today and thus, there were a limited number of designs in the market. This gave her an upper hand in the creation of original masterpieces of designs which contributed to the success that she achieved. The fact that clothes stores were limited then also to the continual progress that was seen by the fashion design industry in those days. This is because competition for product markets was very minimal and designers could make a lot of profits from the clearing their stocks of designs within a short time. The designers could also use the advantage of ready markets and availability of finance from their profits to expand their businesses. The level of technology then was also limited. With the rise of new technology related to the processing of in the fashion industry, designs could be converted into finished garments with increased efficiency. This removed the necessity of a large number of workers when starting a boutique. This ease of start-up and operation backed up by her skills in design was a key motivator in the starting of her own boutique and the expansion of the same (Marilyn 9).

Prominent styles
Most of Brooks designs are feminine with variations in design ranging from romantic wear to cultural attire. She however creates designs for men too. Her designs are characterized by pronounced variety especially the feminine designs. This has helped her to capture diverse customer bases and expand her business. Her designs have attracted celebrities an example being the king of popular music: Elvis Presley. Since the start of her business, Marilyn has created hundreds of thousands of designs each with a success story (Cox 1). An example of her designs is shown below

Jean Claude Jitrois
Biography
Jean Claude Jitrois, born Narbonne in 1944, to a French Air Force Army officer left for Paris to Psychology in Salpetriere Hospital. He discovered his passion for fashion while creating playing costumes for the disabled children he used to take care of in the hospital. He was afterwards motivated by his fathers aviator jacket after which he made one for Stephanie after he had the opportunity of meeting her. Seeing the quality of his work and considering his passion for fashion design, he left his psychology career to become a fashion designer. In 1976, after making the necessary preparations he opened a boutique in Nice, France. He grew with time opening one boutique after another in different locations in France. He later continued his design relationship with the royal family of Monaco, designing for Stephanie and Caroline and in four years after opening his first boutique, he made the famous design for Brigitte Bardot. In 1981, he indulged in leather business which came with mens wear opening his first line of this kind, J3. This led to much success and fame for his clothes business that subsequently led to the opening of the Rue Faubourg in Paris. His contribution to the fashion industry is massive having revolutionized the leather industry with his idea of stretch leather designs. Jitrois has made continuous contribution to the refinement of leather for use in the fashion industry making leather garments of unbelievable comfort and design. Jitrois has also expanded the scope of the use of leather to include python leather. In 1998, Jitrois opened additional stores in London, Paris and Spain in a bid to expand their market. Presently, Jitrois is stocked in world class stores around the world (Davis 1).