We recently connected with Manami Moriyama and have shared our conversation below.

Manami, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I first learned technical design in my fashion design class. Learning technical design made me think of more realistic aspect of garment making such as production friendly and cost effective construction, maximizing fabric utilization, and most importantly how to communicate with factories to make sure the final products carries all design intentions while keeping the functionality.

There is no short cut to learn design faster. However, more hands-on you are more clearer and familiar you get with concept of garments. I was very lucky to work at a company where I was surrounded with experienced people and massive archive. I wish I kept more record of what I saw and learned. I realized after leaving the company that I don’t get that much of abundant materials anywhere else!

I believe the most important skill to this job is to stay open minded. I have to make sure all garments are functional in any size while maintaining the design and fit intention before going in to actual production. I review so many samples and make multiple adjustments to achieve that. Some times the garment doesn’t come out as I imagined, construction doesn’t work, or some materials are not available. I have to be flexible to search and accept alternatives, and make sure the final products still carries all the quality we intended from the beginning.

Manami, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I was born and raised in a small town of Japan. Growing up, I was surrounded by many different types of clothings so fashion very naturally became my biggest interest. My grandma prepared kimonos, while my aunt also made me dresses. I had so many options for special occasion which made me feel like a princess every time. My dad took me to shopping every season and taught me the importance of dressing for myself. My mom passed me some vintage clothes she used to wear when she was younger and talked about what was trend back in her days.

When I decided to pursue my career in fashion, my parents suggested to move to fashion capital, New York. During my time at FIT, I decided to switch my career slightly to move on with technical design. Outside of school I visited variety of clothing stores – vintage, thrift, independent pop-up, high-end as part of my study, but also just for fun. I also worked with my friends to shoot look books.

I started design and technical design interns while I was in FIT, then I decide to continue working as technical designer at a major NY based brand after graduation. I had a pleasure working on different project and seasons. I’ve leaned to work with professional atelier setting and the process of design with cross functional team. Then I moved on to a brand with a smaller team where I manage RTW categories from woven dresses to cardigans to leather jacket.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

There has been a lot of surprises since I moved to NY. I moved alone to a foreign country, so I was very worried. After experiencing some errors and mistakes, I started not only figuring it out on my own but also to ask for help. I think my resilience comes from not giving up. I was late to start looking for internship compared to my friends, and I wasn’t able to get a full time job after graduation because I had to take a summer course. However, I kept looking and asking around, at the end I was able to get a wonderful job at Marc Jacobs.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

More open communities and gathering! Not just within artists and creatives but I love when people connect and find or create something new. We never know what we are capable of. I think meeting new group of people makes me realize the aspect of me that I didn’t even know about. Connecting people and making community open to more non creative people will also be a good opportunity for customers / consumers to understand the creative process and challenges we face, and hopefully more people will appreciates small little arts scattered in this world.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: mm__manami
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/manami-moriyama/

Image Credits

Manami Moriyama