LIM College offers bachelor’s degree programs in four different majors. The one I am pursuing, Fashion Merchandising, is probably the broadest of all of the disciplines. Visual Merchandising, Management, and Marketing are all a little more specialized to those specific areas. I chose Fashion Merchandising because I wanted the freedom to change what I wanted to do after I graduate and still have my degree apply anywhere in the fashion industry.
One thing that sets this degree apart though, is a class called CAD for Merchandising. When I saw that I had to take CAD, I was a little confused, to say the least. All I knew about CAD was that they use it to draw out plans and models of buildings and big ships. What I didn’t know was that this required class was going to become one of my favorites of the semester. Everyone told me horror stories from the class saying that it was so hard and really boring, but honestly I haven’t experienced any of that at all.
In the class we get to draw all different kinds of clothing, and don’t be scared when I say draw. I came to this college because it DOESN’T emphasize design. This means I can’t draw on paper to save my life, but apparently when it comes to Microsoft Illustrator I am a drawing whiz. You use the mouse to draw different articles of clothing such as shirts, shorts, pants, jackets - anything you can think of really. These designs are then sent to manufacturing facilities where the garment makers use the CAD design as a template for the clothes they are making. The designs have to be precise and exactly how you would want the garment to look in real life.
Taking this CAD class has taught me to not have preconceived notions of classes before I actually take them. I already like this class a lot and I have no doubt that the rest of the semester will be just as fun.