Fashion Careers International (FCI) The Fashion School is at the heart of L.A. Fashion Week, and at the forefront of West Coast fashion. We decided to find out why.
We discovered that you can spend anywhere from two to a massive six years to get a degree in fashion. There are two-year Associate, four-year Bachelors, and post-graduate Masters, fashion programs in major cities like Chicago, New York and Los Angeles. One four year school in L.A. costs just about thirty thousand a year; another in Chicago is closer to forty thousand; wow!

If two to six years sounds like a long time and a lot of debt, well let’s be real – it is. However if you want to get into a new career right away, there is FCI. FCI seems to us to be the only fast-track training program we have found, which prepares students for real fashion careers and even helps with internships and job placement, in the entertainment capital of the world. FCI (Fashion Careers International) The Fashion School in Los Angeles is the only fashion school we have discovered specializing in short-term fashion training, at a fraction of the cost of some other programs.
Located in the heart of downtown L.A.’s fashion district at 112 W. 9th Street, Suite 1030, in Los Angeles, California,
( www.FCIFASHION.com) The Fashion School offers ‘hands-on’ training in the Los Angeles Fashion District on a quarterly basis. Founded in 2001 by Ms. Helen Farrell, a Paris native known world wide for her class, the instructors include alumni of prestigious schools, universities and colleges including Los Angles based UCLA and USC, Tish School of the Arts at New York University, the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Antwerp, Belgium), and FIT New York, among more. Ms. Farrell, who passed in 2011 at the age of 86, started her first boutique in Greenwich Village in 1967, and then followed up that success with retail stores across the country. Her son, Joseph Farrell, is Fashion Merchandising Chair at The Fashion School, and holds a J.D. from the California Western School of Law. Joseph continues her legacy with conviction and unwavering strength, as embodied by his mother.
Instructors at FCI have worked for some of the biggest names in fashion, including Calvin Klein, Giorgio Armani, DKNY Jeans, Pepe Jeans, and Birkenstock, among more. Sought after programs include Fashion, Menswear, Handbag Design, Fashion Merchandising and others.
The FCI Fashion Design Program teaches all from patterndrafting, draping, apparel construction, fashion drawing, and fashion illustration. Students emulate the workings of a fashion designer in a professional design studio, creating a collection through research, concept and design, and completing their design work on the same seasonal schedule as the fashion industry. Students present their collections at a professionally produced fashion show attended by true fashion industry professionals.
Menswear students create a collection of three looks as well as learning new construction and finishing techniques. Handbag design students are lucky, because FCI The Fashion School is the first fashion school offering a program in Handbag Design!
Merchandising students learn about the role of fashion buyer, all aspects of private label and branding, the duties and tasks of a fashion showroom representative, entrepreneurship, wholesale and retail. As part of the Fashion Buyer and Fashion Showroom Representative training, students are happily required to intern in wholesale fashion companies assigned by FCI.
Classes are held in the middle of the bustling Los Angeles Fashion District, known as a design, warehouse, and distribution nexus of the clothing, accessories and fabric industry. This area spans 90 blocks and is the considered the primary West Coast hub of the American apparel industry.
The District is known to be one of the best places to shop for clothing, accessories, cosmetics and shoes. Approximately 80% of the L.A. Fashion District is devoted to Women’s wear. Companies which manufacture their clothing in the Fashion District include American Apparel and Andrew Christian. For designers, it is also a great place to find any and every conceivable type of fabric, from natural materials such as silk and cotton to synthetics like rayon. Additionally, a designer can find trimmings, beads, feathers, yarns, leather, buttons, buckles, bolts of lace, mannequins, sewing machines, and just about any other resource needed to create a handbag or apparel line, just steps from FCI, The Fashion School.
Los Angeles, and particularly downtown L.A. is also now world renowned for L.A. Fashion Week, bringing in such legendary designers as Betsy Johnson, Donna Karan, and many more. Now on the world map of fashion beyond just the red carpet and world famous stars’ couture, L.A. is an undisputed heavyweight on the fashion scene, with Fashion Careers International (FCI) The Fashion School, at its heart and core.
FCI also seems to us to be lacking the pretentiousness that others seem to carry. It is the real deal for the serious players, not a place to waste years and rack up major debt. If you are ready to be an expert in fashion, in the shortest amount of time possible, and want to learn how to make a living at your craft, FCI seems to be the only logical place to do it.
FCI The Fashion School is located at 112 W. 9th Street, Suite 1030, Los Angeles, California, 90015. Contact FCI at 213-688-4936
and visit the official website at www.FCIFASHION.com.