By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
Danene Lunn, a graduate of HCC's fashion program, owns Manuheali'i, which manufactures Hawaiian apparel.
On the mend HCC's fashion program is back, to the relief of its nontraditional students
By Nadine Kam
Assistant Features EditorTwo years ago it seemed the Fashion Technology program at Honolulu Community College was in need of mending. Like any good designer, program head Lillian Zane went back to the drafting table. The result: A one-size-fits-all program was altered to fit the varied needs of students, the garment industry and the school's budgeters.
After a two-year stop-out in which no classes were offered, the fashion technology program is ready to reveal its new look, enrolling students for the first day of classes, Jan. 12.
The new program has flexibility stitched in to accommodate students' needs as they grow into their professions, addressing concerns that although the old program attracted large numbers of students, it wasn't graduating enough of them. The graduate figures - in the lowest 25 percent of all the community college's programs - seemed to indicate failure.
Professor Karen Hastings, said, "We took in a lot of students but most of them are secondary breadwinners for their families, so when they got a job offer, they took it. Getting a degree wasn't as important to them as paying the rent."
To provide a more tangible measure of success, the school has introduced short-term certificates of competence that can be earned in a single semester, and flexible curriculum that breaks the two-year degree program into specialty areas of manufacturing, entrepreneurship or custom dressmaking.
"We were finding that we get a lot of students coming back to school to upgrade their skills," Zane said. "If they'd been sewing, they needed retraining to move upward, into design or manufacturing. They didn't need a full two-year program.
"We made it easier for students to get short-term certificates. If they feel good about their accomplishment, they might be encouraged to come back and finish their degree."
In addition, the school has leeway to offer special topics courses - such as beading, quilting or garment embellishment - based on market demands.
Nontraditional students
By the old method of accounting, Linda Salz-Goto's success at running her own garment manufacturing business, Bevlin, was secondary to the fact that she never earned her degree.Salz-Goto found herself in the fashion business almost by accident. Her degree was in psychology and she was working as a flight attendant when a woman she knew came to her with dresses she had sewn and asked for advice in selling them.
Women seemed to like the trapeze-style dress with its wide, floral-appliqued bertha collar. They just wanted it in different color combinations.
"She would combine colors like orange, black and turquoise, which was fine in Panama, where the woman was from, but no one in Hawaii would wear it," Salz-Goto said.
The seamstress then stitched up 20 dresses using Salz-Goto's color advice and sold each one. The next time, 40 pieces sold, and pretty soon, Bevlin was born.
Five years into the business, Salz-Goto decided she wanted to learn how to mark fabric properly to eliminate waste in the cutting process.
She spent a year in school taking prerequisites until she could get to the course she wanted.
"It's great to go back to school and get a specific skill. Now if I have to cut on my own, I have the skill to do it. It's just a small thing, but in this economic climate it makes a difference as to whether you're going to make it or not."
By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
Former HCC student Joy Graham's Angelwear designs sell at Barney's New York and in Beverly Hills shops.
Joy Graham had a 23-year career as a librarian before returning to school at age 47, and eventually starting her company, French Curves."My mother was a librarian and when I showed an interest in fashion, she said, 'Oh dear, that's a very competitive field, why don't you try something nice ... like the library.'
"That's how people thought back then, hedge your bets, be safe. It was a fine career for her, but it was not fulfilling my creative urges," she said.
Graham was living in Oregon, and was considering going to school there or at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in San Francisco, when a trip to Hawaii in 1992 convinced her to stay here and attend HCC.
Like Salz-Goto, Graham never earned a degree.
"I was one class short and the class I didn't take had to do with aesthetics. I thought, 'Boy, if you have to learn aesthetics, forget it.' I think in this business it has to be instinctive."
She said the decision whether to follow through on education depends on an individual's stage in life. For her first career, she was prepared to greet employers with her B.A. in liberal arts and master's degree in library sciences.
"This time, I didn't want to work for anybody else, I had a lot of life experience, and I just knew what I wanted to do.
"That's probably true for a lot of non-traditional students, and I think the fashion industry tends to attract right-brainers like me, who aren't necessarily going by the book.
"Of course young people have to look at all their options. What I did wouldn't make sense for anyone coming out of high school. It would be just plain dumb. I still don't know if it was smart for me."
Yet, Graham has pulled off a coup or two, introducing her high-end Angelwear line of "heavenly" Swiss cotton lingerie and sleepwear to Barney's New York and stores in Beverly Hills. A few pieces are carried by local retailers Paradizzio in Kahala Mall, Peony Arts in the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center and Holiday & Co. in Makawao, Maui.
Back to school
Danene Lunn got her degree in Fashion Technology from HCC in 1988, but like many in the industry, she panicked when she heard the school was going to stop offering classes in 1996.Lunn, too, had her business to run. Her company, Manuheali'i, manufactures Hawaiian-themed apparel, selling it out of a retail store in Kailua. She considers HCC one of her best resources.
"I always call them for advice, little things, like, 'Which way does the dart go?' We would laugh about it because they would say, 'See, you didn't study.'
"I always wanted to go back for more classes," Lunn said, "but when I found out they were going to stop offering classes, it came down to taking the course I needed the most, a refresher course in pattern grading."
She's relieved that the program is restarting. "If I have questions, if I need a seamstress in a hurry, I can always call and ask for their best student."
It's important that the school is turning out designers, not knock-off artists, Lunn said.
The program's existence is important for the fashion industry, and ultimately, Hawaii's economy, she added. "HCC offers hands-on experience. If there's no place people can learn this, they'll go to the mainland, and they won't come back here because the cost of doing business is high."
And it's not just the garment industry that would have lost. Zane said, "Many of our students have started businesses of their own. They're in high-end design, swimwear, pattern-making, marketing, in the theater and film industries. They cover a wide range of occupations, so I know we're doing good for the community."
Sewing it up
To register for HCC's fashion technology classes, call the admissions office at 845-9129 for an application.
