Fashion is an industry built on fantasy, to a great degree. Those fantasies are constructed in glossy magazines oriented to professionals in general (Vanity Fair) and to women who follow the trends (Elle). The online experience is a multidimensional tool to expand on designer fashions and the yearly line of products.

One of the intriguing features of the Gucci site is its frame-by-frame layout of their current ad campaign. The value of the advertising in keeping Gucci "current" is made evident by its prominence as a website feature.

Some fashion websites that you wouldn't expect to see doing it are retailing to the public directly from their websites. There's a corporate area for promotional materials and haute couture, and a retail section for deals on the latest products. Companies that engage in online retail include Dior, Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein - not a great surprise - along with Versace; Armani; Giancarlo Ferre and Prada, companies that you wouldn't expect to see retailing on the web.

Visual tools can be used to rotate a dress, suit, jacket or pair of pants 360 degrees. Short video pieces can show a garment and provide voice-over describing its practicality, range of use, glamour or whatever factor the company wants to highlight.

Web searches on fashion turn up a large selection of generic fashion sites that gain their revenue from advertising. One of their principal content highlights is always a list of designer web sites. In one case, apparelsearch.com, the site lists fashion designers and design houses in three categories: website for corporate information, for retail opportunity, and for wholesale connections.

That is valuable, down-to-the-rack-sale advertising for even the most well established houses. The web also allows fashion houses to segment in other ways. Click on Donna Karen and you'll find a web site that offers her accessory line up. Designers use the web in many functional mixtures.

A. Home Fashion: The Fashion Of Modern Occupants
Home furnishing or soft furnishing is the latest trend in the business of fashion today. In the last 3-4 years, people have begun changing their home furniture like they change their wardrobe according to the changing fashions. Lifestyle furnishing has become a mix of aesthetics, comfort, colours and designs. For instance, brown sofas have become outdated and people now prefer lively colours like blue and red. Though brand awareness in this segment is low but at present the scenario is changing, a few years ago consumers never stressed on purchasing branded home furnishing products, but now they are aware about new products and brands.

The list of furnishings includes bed linen like bed sheets, pillow slips (pillow shams), bed skirts, duvet covers, quilts and cushions; for giving the complete look to the bedroom matching curtains, tie-backs and also mats can be included in this list. Towels and floor mats, shower curtains, same soap cases, toothbrush holders, soap dispensers, mugs and rugs can offer the attractiveness of a bathroom. Water in this room, evokes memories of sea and ocean, shells and fish, and hence these are major patterns in the design making of bathroom accessories. Bed-and-bath themes are also combined together by designers.

Cotton is the most favored fabric for bed sheets, particularly those with a greater thread count. Exporters have an increasing demand for cotton bed sheets, though some also demand silk made-ups. For new born babies soft basic colours are used, where as for grown up children complimentary colour schemes with cartoon like motifs are mostly used. The prints for curtains vary from animals, to soft toys, cartoons and candies; the same is applicable for rugs, bed sheets, duvet covers and cushions.

Adults chose from a wide range of colours and motifs including traditional Indian motifs to modern compositions. In fact, the selection of colour and design depends on the fashion trend of today.

One step out of the bedroom and you reach the most happening room of the house - the living room. A combination of huge variety of colours and its relevant coordinates are particularly made to cater to people's physical and psychological desires. Sheer curtains to bring in sunlight, heavy lined curtains to prevent it, embroidered curtains and valences with lace trimmings flaunting luxury and a taste for design, make the room look more appealing and beautiful. Curtains can surely make the room look more attractive.

Generally fabrics for sewing curtains are 54 inches wide or extra wide at 110 inches or 118 inches. Curtains with well-designed features like noise and light reduction are being particularly produced for exports. The options are many; curtains are available in every size, colour, fabric and designs like stripes, checks, floral, woven, printed, etc. One can chose the fabric from the cottons to linens, velvets, tapestries etc. This two-part curtain possesses a sheer fabric at the top and privacy panels below.

Tab-top curtains have fabric loops on the top to which a rod is fixed. Tie-top curtains possess fabric on the top of the panel that is fixed to the rod. And, grommet-top panels have metal eyelets on the top which is fixed with curtain rings. Tap-top curtains are a latest trend that is common in modern homes.

Many traditional Indian weaves and embroideries are being done all over India on the home furnishings products. Traditional Indian embroideries like 'kasida' from Kashmir, 'kantha' from Bengal and 'chikankari' from Uttar Pradesh are in demand for bed covers and curtains. Many home furnishing companies are making these products with handlooms. Normally, high quality silk and cotton are used for these products.

While traditionally curtains were either produced with heavy jacquards or luxurious prints, at present a wide range of fabrics covering embroidered fabrics are being used. The attractive display of colours can also be seen in plain sofas with striped and spotted cushions or plush heavy pile carpets with designs varying from geometricals to florals and abstracts.
The showrooms for soft furnishings provide the customers with a collection of designs to select from.

The Indian home furnishings market is around Rs 15,000 crore, of which the organised market is about Rs 1,000 crore. The major carpet manufacturing areas (including all types of floor coverings and durries) are Agra-Bhadoi belt in Uttar Pradesh, Kashmir, Bikaner-Udaipur belt in Rajasthan, West Bengal, Haryana, Punjab and Andhra Pradesh. In India, there are 1215 carpet production units recorded and of that 190 are in the organized sector and the rest are in small scale industry sector.

Panipat has witnessed high growth in handlooms during the last two decades with the number of looms holding 50,000 are well known for producing acrylic blankets, bed sheets, bed covers, tapestry, upholstery, table mats and table covers. There are about 60 carpet woolen spinning units in Panipat with an annual turnover of Rs 175 crore making a variety of handloom products such as durries, mats, table covers, bed sheets, curtains and carpets exported to various countries, including Canada, Japan, Germany and Australia.

Benefiting from this booming market and the increasing new and young homemakers, department stores make their home furnishings space by creating well organized living spaces that sell the products very effectively. Many popular companies working with soft furnishings products in India are Welspun, Gujarat (which started first 'Spaces Home & Beyond' store in Mumbai); Handfab, Panipat; Highness Exports; In Vogue Buying, New Delhi; Indian Exporters, Kolkata; Shabari International, Kerala; Cannanore; Amber Textile; and Reliance Industries, and there are brands like the decades-old Bombay Dyeing and just stated like Spaces, Portico, Season's, Yamini etc.

Raymond provides the widest range of colours to satisfy the various colour requirements of interiors in Home furnishings. Home Solutions Retail (India), a 100% holding of retail leader Pantaloon Retail, intends to close its third year of function with about of Rs 1,000 crore. Home Solutions is establishing chain of home stores, committed to all things that would be required for setting up, decorating and furnishing a home. Each store, covering an expense about Rs 14 crore, will be allotted about 120,000 square feet.

To achieve its brand recognized in the big commoditised home furnishings market, Welspun is investing in retail stores and increasing its capacity to serve the domestic market. Besides its own brand the company recently received the marketing rights of Tommy Hilfiger home furnishing products.

Amongst the 125, 100 would be standalone Spaces stores. Recently, Portico, a premium Home Decor & furnishings brand introduced its premium and 'Sparkly' range. Because of huge demands, many fashion designers have also forayed in this segment. At present the home furnishings segment is considered a flourishing sector in the textile industry. Domestic and export markets are both booming for home furnishings.

According to experts, to make brand awareness home furnishing companies have to put more emphasis on the overall shopping experience. Retail ambience, coordinated product ranges; in-store display; point-of-purchase promotional literature on the product features as well as the company's lineage and superior in-store service are some of the primary actions that home furnishing companies must take.

While it could support in making fashion consciousness in India about home furnishings, as well as the designs, colours and prints are contemporary, and the packaging and labeling are as per the good quality standards, home furnishing companies need not be bothered about making more complication in their business by creating repeated changes in their product offering at this stage. We require building up more colour and design sensitive people to work in this segment. Cushion covers and curtains are the more demandable products.

For them lifestyle furnishing is turning out as a mix of aesthetics, comfort, colours and designs. Brown sofas are outdated; people need lively colours like blue and red. A few years ago consumers never demanded highly branded home furnishing products, but now they are very well aware about new products and brands in the market, though brand awareness in this segment is still low. Many companies are adding two to three products in their product lines every year and many are comings with innovative concepts in this segment.

B. Becoming A Fashion Designer
Being a fashion designer certainly does come with its benefits; but it is also a career that requires a balance between creativity and skill. The way we dress on a daily basis, the clothing we run to the stores to purchase, all depend on what’s popular on the runways. And what’s popular on the runways is created by fashion designers. A fashion designer creates a look and makes it happen. A fashion designer must not only be skilled in the manufacturing of clothing – including knowledge of textiles and expertise in sewing – but also in sketching and drawing their designs. The savvy fashion designer understands color and how to use it to capture the essence of their design.

Becoming a fashion designer means attending a reputable school that teaches design, sewing, textiles, and the like. Working alongside a fashion designer who can give you firsthand experiences and help you build your portfolio is incredibly important to becoming a fashion designer. A strong portfolio that demonstrates your talent and desire to work in the industry will go a long way to helping you realize your dream of becoming a fashion designer.

Fashion design is not an abstract thing, it needs appropriate training and necessary acquaintance with the work required from a fashion design school. A fashion design school can be understood as an institution where people become skilled at creating exclusive designs with fabrics.

Choosing the right place.
There are several factors associated in choosing your future career institute. Same holds in case of a fashion design school. Before joining a fashion design school, one needs to take care of the following things. Firstly, think on your area of specialism in the fashion world.

After deciding, look for the fashion design school offering it. Secondly, find out the facts like location, course offered, fee structure, degree level, placements and the total cost associated.

Fashion being a practical thing, inculcates huge cost of accessories and fabrics. Thirdly, collect all information and make a list of all the fashion design schools. There can be different criteria for admission to different fashion design schools.

Getting into a fashion design school requires as much work as would been have been for an engineering college. Many people might wonder that art and fashion are two different things. Without the drawing, fashion is an abstract thing. You will also need a basic knowledge of the use of computers for using several fashion design software's. You might also need references of your mentors in order to find work in large fashion houses.

As we know that a fashion design school is just like a normal school, so getting good grades is also very important. And then you finally see yourself at a fashion design school, you will gain knowledge of many innovative things new marketing tools and fashion design software's.

A. Becoming A Fashion Designer
Being a fashion designer certainly does come with its benefits; but it is also a career that requires a balance between creativity and skill.

The way we dress on a daily basis, the clothing we run to the stores to purchase, all depend on what's popular on the runways. And what's popular on the runways is created by fashion designers. A fashion designer creates a look and makes it happen. A fashion designer must not only be skilled in the manufacturing of clothing - including knowledge of textiles and expertise in sewing - but also in sketching and drawing their designs. The savvy fashion designer understands color and how to use it to capture the essence of their design.

Becoming a fashion designer means attending a reputable school that teaches design, sewing, textiles, and the like. Working alongside a fashion designer who can give you firsthand experiences and help you build your portfolio is incredibly important to becoming a fashion designer. A strong portfolio that demonstrates your talent and desire to work in the industry will go a long way to helping you realize your dream of becoming a fashion designer.

B. The New Age of Breaking Into Fashion Design
Which celebrity does not have their own fashion line? In other instances the designer brand is bought out by bigger corporations looking to cash in on the already established client base. These big name designers who are so often worn at movie premiers and award shows might continue to reign but the question lies in whether or not the public and the celebrity elite will see any new big names and faces associated with fashion, as we have seen in the past.

David A. Wolf, a fashion trend forecaster and creative director of the Doneger Group believes that the era of massive empires built upon a single name or face are probably over. The task for new young designers on the scene has been made doubly difficult by the number of celebrities who already have face and name recognition coming out with their own designer fashion lines.

These celebs have used the already existing economic infrastructure of big names like Topshop and Tesco to market and sell their designs, or in many cases someone else's design that they have attached their name and face to. This strategy is what can give many new designers a ray of hope, using mega stores and recognisable brands to get their designs out there to be seen, purchased and worn.

The time may soon come when young budding designer's dreams are not their first catwalk show during London's Fashion Week, but a job with a big name high street store like Marks and Spencer, Debenhams or Kate Moss's choice of Topshop. The benefits of designing for big stores has even been highlighted on shows such as Project Catwalk, a reality show where young designers compete to win a job working as one of the designers at Debenhams.

This new building ground for designers just starting to get their feet wet has potential to benefit all parties involved.

"Successful screen design is based on how well the developer knows both the user and the data." Unfortunately, the resulting screen designs were essentially no different than the forms. Designing a computer screen is essentially no different than designing a paper form. But since most of today's developers have little experience in forms design perhaps it is time to review some of the basic elements of good design. As to senses, there is little point in devising an elaborate color scheme if the user may be colorblind. Again, know thy intended user. The objective, therefore, in good screen design (and forms design) is to make something that is easy to use (intuitive; requiring little interpretation and confusion) and effective for collecting data and displaying information. Although the following discussion can be applied to screens as used in some character based operating systems, it is primarily concerned with Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) as used in today's popular operating systems. The only problem was that it lacked standards, whereby one GUI implemented program did not behave in the same manner as another GUI program. Fortunately, standards started to appear in the late 1980's with IBM's CUA standards (Common User Access) which provided a detailed list of design standards for developing a GUI based program. (NOTE: CUA was an important part of IBM's System Application Architecture standards - SAA). DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS Today there are some pretty slick tools to quickly build screens. Regardless of their capabilities, a developer should be cognizant of three basic design considerations: Layout, Data Entry, and Support: The objective here is to make the screen "clean" and consistent. Too much detail makes the screen cluttered and abrasive to the end-user. When designing your screen, consider eye movement, eye strain and, where appropriate, add magnification. Alignment - there should be some simple symmetry to the screen. Disjointed alignment of fields, text, and images tends to alienate users. There should be a comfortable amount of spacing not only around the edge of the screen, but between sections of the screen. Because GUI windows can be resized (either maximum or to a height and width devised by the user), consider how the screen will look in either form. Borders are useful for defining sections on the screen, but be careful they do not become overbearing and distracting. Zoning - this refers to the establishment of sections within the screen. This is useful if different types of users are going to be accessing the same screen, or if different sections serve distinctly separate purposes (thereby not confusing one with another). In a GUI window, notebook tabs can be useful. Flow - there should be an obvious flow to the screen that will naturally catch the user's eye and prompt him/her in the proper direction. Also understand that the tab order of the keyboard provides direction for the user. Type Fonts - use common fonts familiar to users. Commonly accepted fonts include Arial, Courier, Sans Serif, and Times Roman. Colors - can be helpful for highlighting sections, accenting required field entries, or for general appearance. Be sensitive to color contrasts so the user can adequately read the screen. Headings - screen headings should be placed in a standard position for easy identification by the user. A formal name and, where appropriate, a screen number should be clearly visible to the user. Keyboard/mouse relationship - if in the event a computer mouse either breaks down or is simply not available, the user should still be able to execute the screen using simple keyboard commands. CUA standards are particularly useful in this regard. Data Entry The proper entry of data is just as important as the physical layout of the screen. Regrettably, many designers take a superficial approach to data collection and, consequently, a lot of time is spent later on cleaning up data in the data base. Considerable time can be saved with a little effort here in screen design. Your objective, therefore, is to produce a screen that will collect "clean" data (as opposed to "dirty" data that will have to be corrected later on). Before embarking on screen design, the developer should be intimate with the data specifications. This can be obtained either from a good data dictionary/repository, or from the physical data base design. Basically, the developer is looking for the data element's: Length - the maximum number of characters which may be assigned to a data element. Fill Character - the character to be used to complete a field when the data item to be placed in the field is shorter than the maximum length, e.g., blank, zero, X, etc. Void Character - the character to be used when a data item's value is unknown or nonexistent, e.g., blank, zero, X, etc. Unit of Measure - the representation of numeric data, e.g., area, volume, weight, length, time, energy rate, money, etc. Precision - for numeric data, the number of significant digits in a number. Scale - for numeric data, the placement of the decimal point. Validation Rules - the specific values which the data element may assume, including default values. Generated data - quite often it is necessary to show computations based on primary values being inputted by the user. Program Label - although this will not be visible to the user inputting the data, the developer must understand how the data element is referenced in the data base. Mandate certain field entries be completed before allowing processing to continue. This can be done by: forcing the focus of the window to the field(s) requiring entry; attaching a "hot" color to required field entries (red) and; pop-up messages to prompt the user of problem entries. Automatically enter default values into field entries; this saves time for the user (as well as forcing proper entries). Check characters entered and automatically adjust accordingly. For example, automatically upshift or downshift characters - this is particularly useful when entering State Postal Codes (upshift), and entering e-mail addresses (downshift). Also, reject certain character entries and check formats. Make active use of selection lists, thereby forcing the user to select a choice from a prescribed list as opposed to typing an entry. This "personalizes" the screen for the user. Where applicable, provide for data entry using voice/speech-type dictation. Finally, format the collected data to suit the targeted physical data base. By making data entry "foolproof" you will be saving a lot of time and effort for the end-user, the DBA, and yourself. To minimize user confusion, be sure to include sufficient Help text and messaging facilities into the screen. Too often I have seen screens with little support in this regards. Again, CUA standards should be observed whenever possible. The various sections of the screen sections (if multiple sections). Field entries - showing the name of the field entry, input specifications, along with some sample and suggested entries. If a generated value is displayed, explain how it is computed (from other field entries). "Help" push buttons on the screen are helpful, but everything should be related to the F1 Help key, particularly field entries. Messages Good screen design requires a developer in tune with his intended audience and who can create a simple and effective solution that is easy for the user to execute, yet promotes the collection of "clean" data. No. 03 - "Creating Universal Systems" - Dec 20, 2004. http://www.phmainstreet.com/mba/ss041220.pdf Above all else, the developer should observe all pertinent design standards when creating screens. REFERENCES For vendor CUA (Common User Access) Standards, see: IBM http://www-306.ibm.com/ibm/easy/eou_ext.nsf/publish/558 Microsoft http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?URL=/library/books/winguide/fore.htm Apple http://developer.apple.com/documentation/index.html Sun http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/802-6490 For a description of the "Playscript" procedure language, see: No. 38 - "The Language of Systems" - Aug 22, 2005 http://www.phmainstreet.com/mba/ss050822.pdf