Joe Vecchiarelli, the founder and president of Fashion Supplies Inc., has worked in the fashion industry for over 40 years.

He remembers going into design rooms with his dad as a child and being enamored as they took garments from nothing and magically created something great. “I always knew,” Mr. Vecchiarelli said, when asked at what exact point he realized the world of fashion was calling his name. “I was diapered in this industry.”

During his college years, Mr. Vecchiarelli worked in the family business, sharpening scissors for the industry’s top designers. He later graduated from USC’s Business program and began to realize that opportunities in the apparel business were unlimited.

To begin transforming the family business into a successful international company, he started building design rooms and getting involved with various college fashion departments throughout the country. He acquired Global Dress Forms, a company that manufactures dress forms in New York. He worked with Dolly Parton and created all her mannequins throughout the country. “We still work together!” he says, laughing. Mr. Vecchiarelli’s career took another fascinating turn when he made a foray into the entertainment business, working in production with showslike Dancing with the Stars and Th e X Factor. Two years ago, he wasapproached by NBC to help produce the competitive design talent show, Fashion Star. He accepted, with the challenge to create a successful show more professional than even Project Runway.

Presently, Mr. Vecchiarelli is ever busy maintaining his business and helping college fashion students grasp their dreams. Th e biggest perk to the multi-talented industry alum’s job? Watching driven students become successful designers in the industry. Along with this joy, though, he also carries the responsibility. “Th ere is only one of me and millions of people out there that I need to help,” he says. “It’s really hard to recreate what I do.” What is the secret to success in this fast-paced, heel bites heel industry?
According to Mr. Vecchiarelli, it’s “taking care of the customers, and taking them to different levels that they thought they could not achieve.”

A word to the students, waiting for the show (and their careers) to finally start—“You can achieve anything you want to, you just need to reach for it. No matter how hard it is, (and it will be diffi cult!) keep at it, and you will get to where you want to be.”

~Interview and Biography by Sara Nimori

ZANDRA RHODES Internationally know Fashion Designer, Innovator

Palomar College Fashion Merchandise and Design program is honored to recognize one of our past Special Guest, Zandra Rhodes. http://www.zandrarhodes.com/

Zandra Rhodes was born in Kent in the 1940s and was introduced to the world of fashion by her mother, who was a fitter in a Paris fashion house and a teacher at Medway College of Art. Zandra studied first at Medway and then at the Royal College of Art in London. Her major area of study was textile design.

Her early textile fashion designs were considered too outrageous by the traditional British manufacturers, so in 1969, she established her own retail outlet in the fashionable Fulham Road in West London. Zandra’s own lifestyle has proved to be as dramatic, glamorous and extroverted as her designs. With her bright green hair (later changed to a spectacular pink and sometimes a radiant red), theatrical makeup and art jewelry, she has stamped her identity on the international world of fashion.

She was one of the new wave of British designers who put London at the forefront of the international fashion scene in the 1970s. Her designs have always been clear, creative statements, dramatic but graceful, bold but feminine and her garments have a a timeless quality that makes them unmistakably a Rhodes creation. Zandra’s inspiration has always been from organic material and nature. Her innovative approach to the construction of garments can be seen in her use of reversed exposed seams and in the stylistic use of jewelled safety pins and tears during the punk era.

Zandra designed for the late Diana, Princess of Wales, and continues to design for the royal and the rich and famous around the world. She has a loyal cult following in the USA. Over the years, she has had many academic and professional honours bestowed upon her and was made a Commander of the British Empire by the Queen in 1997.

http://www.zandrarhodes.com/

2015 Palomar College Fashion Show “MODA”
will be Friday, May 8, 2015 at 7pm.
This years speaker is Zhandra Rhodes.

Our students and faculty are happy to present this years Fashion show booklet for a taste of the show, designers and faculty.
Check back soon.

California Center for the Arts
340 North Escondido Boulevard
Escondido, CA 92025