Material Gains : Downtown’s Fashion Institute Places 2,000 Students a Year in Jobs

MICHAEL LEW IS AN UP-AND-COMING fashion designer who has won accolades for his contemporary men’s and women’s clothing lines, which are sold at specialty stores nationwide.

But he likes to emphasize that he is a California designer, born and raised in Southern California, trained in Los Angeles and committed to staying here.

“People need to know California has a (fashion) identity,” said Lew, 27, a graduate of the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, based Downtown. “For some reason, we don’t get the credit.”

In fact, Los Angeles is now the top apparel market in the country, having surpassed New York in terms of annual retail sales, said Tonian Hohberg, founder and president of the institute, an accredited private college with an annual enrollment of 3,000. Hohberg points to the success of such major California-based manufacturers as Levi Strauss and Guess? and cites an April, 1993, article in Apparel Industry Magazine that reported that the state’s fashion-apparel industry has seen employment increase by more than 22,000 jobs since 1978, even as national apparel employment figures have declined.

Hohberg said that the institute--which is celebrating its 25th anniversary--and graduates such as Lew and his wife, Doris Tong, are integral parts of the L.A. fashion industry’s past and future economic successes.

“Every year, we’re placing close to 2,000 students in full-time jobs” in the fashion industry, Hohberg said. “We’re a big part of L.A.’s future. There’s a magic to the city. It’s certainly a city of tomorrow, and not of the past.”

The large number of ethnic minorities and international students at the institute may also be key to the institute and the fashion industry’s future success. The school has been a magnet for Asian students and, to a lesser extent, Latino students, even though Hohberg said the school does not actively recruit in foreign countries or in local minority communities.

A third of the students are minorities, Hohberg said, with more than 400 students coming from 39 countries, a fact she attributes in part to Asia’s reverence of the California fashion industry and closer ties being forged among Pacific Rim countries. Despite Los Angeles’ image problems triggered by reports of crime, “Asia is still so excited about California,” Hohberg said.

AND HOHBERG HERSELF REMAINS EXCITED AND optimistic about Los Angeles as a place to do business and run a school. The fact that the institute finally moved out of rented buildings three years ago and into a new $35-million building at Grand Avenue and 9th Street is a symbol of her commitment to and faith in Downtown Los Angeles.

“Our industry is growing like crazy, and I really believe in Downtown L.A.,” she said.

From the beginning, Hohberg saw promise in Los Angeles.

As a 26-year-old graduate of a merchandising college in her home state of Ohio, Hohberg in 1969 sought to open a fashion and merchandising college that truly prepared students for the apparel industry. She considered several locations--New York, Dallas, Chicago and Atlanta as well as Los Angeles--but was won over by the interest, support and commitment of industry leaders here.

Born in two Downtown classrooms with a handful of merchandising students, the institute today has three other campuses--in San Francisco, Costa Mesa and San Diego--in addition to the main campus at 919 S. Grand Ave., near the garment district and close to manufacturing firms. Students from all over the world work toward two-year associate of arts degrees in fashion design, interior design, apparel manufacturing management, cosmetics and fragrance merchandising, merchandise marketing, textile design, and visual presentation-space design.

A few students are selected each year from the graduating class for a third-year, advanced-study program in fashion design, interior design and theater costume.

The school is run like any other college, with general studies, night classes and even English as a Second Language courses. Tuition is comparable to that of other local private schools, and scholarships are available.

But what makes the institute different is the emphasis on hands-on vocational training in addition to academics. Students are encouraged from their first day of study to find part-time jobs in the industry. The school’s placement office works diligently to help undergraduates, graduates and alumni find industry work, Hohberg said.

School officials estimate that 96% of their 18,000 alumni work in the industry, most of them in Los Angeles and other parts of California.

Besides Lew and Tong, who run their business, Imaginary Concepts, out of a studio near Little Tokyo, the school boasts a number of major alumni success stories. For example, Karen Kane’s 14-year-old namesake clothing firm, based in the city of Vernon, today grosses $80 million annually. Marlene Stewart designed costumes for “Falling Down,” “JFK,” “Terminator II” and other movies. And Joyce Johnson designed Levi’s Dockers for Men.

Hohberg also hires working industry professionals--designers, pattern makers and the like--to teach and keep students updated on trends and information.

Said Lew: “You’re not being taught by a dinosaur. We always had young, exciting teachers . . . in touch with current times. They taught me to be . . . way out there, very avant garde.

“During one project, one teacher told me, ‘Mike, this looks like so-and-so. Pull into yourself and delve into your own identity.’ ”

The faculty also stresses learning the industry’s technical aspects like no other fashion school, said Lew, who looked into several East Coast fashion colleges before deciding on the institute. “Someone has to teach you how to pattern. . . . They taught us to be business people and creative people.”

Creativity is epitomized in the works of third-year students, who show off their creations to industry professionals and school supporters at an annual debut fashion show.

This year’s 16 third-year stars, whose debut show was part of the institute’s April 14 silver anniversary celebration, included Patricia Chan, a 21-year-old native of Hong Kong who lives in Chino Hills; Huyentran Pham, a 36-year-old native of Vietnam who resides in Orange with her three daughters; Karen Lee, a 30-year-old native of Korea who lives in Irvine, and Yeng Thao, a 21-year-old Laotian who grew up in Fresno and now lives in Los Angeles.

Chan won a scholarship from Bischoff, a Swiss company renowned for its rich lace. She incorporated the lace appliques in formal and wedding gowns of black and white that provide two looks--and personalities--in a single outfit through detachable full skirts that can be worn over shorter cocktail dresses and camisoles.

Lee, winner of a scholarship from designer Bob Mackie, also exhibited a split personality of sorts with her designs: plush, almost floppy overcoats and trousers in herringbone and dark hues, and sexy miniskirts and form-fitting vests in brown leather with zipper details.

Thao’s evening-wear creations, almost dreamlike, evoke images of the Middle East. Using metallic trims, silk chiffon and other flowing fabrics in bright orange, green and purple, Thao fashioned halters and billowing skirts and jackets with long, flared sleeves, which were influenced, he said, by the costumes of traditional Chinese opera.

And Pham took the traditional clothing of her native country--the ubiquitous ao dais worn by Vietnamese women--and gussied them up with rich silk fabrics, lining and French lace at the neck and on the sleeves.

Fashioned as formal wear, Pham’s ao dais are also much more comfortable than the traditional versions because of raglan sleeves.

“I tried to make the ao dai more high fashion,” she said.