Between The Sheets Blog

Between the Sheets Blog - life's little luxuries, like BTS lingerie & loungewear, play in style

  • Back to Shop
  • Blog Home
  • About
  • building BTS Studio
  • Categories
    • Meet the Maker
    • behind the scenes
    • press
    • lookbook
    • in the garden
    • among the flowers
    • in the kitchen
You are here: Home / ask L / Ask L – Wanna be a lingerie designer? Get schooled!

Ask L – Wanna be a lingerie designer? Get schooled!

06.07.2011 by btslingerie // Leave a Comment

Layla L'obatti class of 2007 intimate apparel

FLASHBACK! me in 2006 presenting a garment I made while I was getting my BFA in intimate apparel. It took me 3 days to bead this corset… 3 long days.

 


Long hours lead to some crazy moments in the sewing lab… I remember days and NIGHTS like these.

I can’t explain the odd combination of excitement and exhaustion that goes along with pursuing a degree in fashion design. I look back on my days at FIT and I miss the many late night hours in the sewing lab, the 4 hour long classes, the aching fingers and back, and the many heavy bags of lace and underwires. Well, maybe not SO much! Those were some tough days, but I think anyone who has moved on from that experience to the corporate fashion world as I did will say that there is a nostalgia there. You don’t remember how rough it was as much as you remember the many delirous laughs and jokes with classmates as you feverishly sewed your term garments, or maybe the field trips to designer studios and showrooms, or the feeling of wonder at being in the center of it all in the middle of New York City, the fashion capital of the USA.

So often as a designer you will get questioned on aesthetic, market, fit, and most frustrating of all price. Trust me, you’ll want those hours in the lab behind you so you can confidently say: It is not easy to make a panty, have you ever sewed a 1/2 wide zig zag stitch within a 5/8″ elastic? That’s a 1/8 inch tolerance, that means you can only waver about 1/4 the width of a pencil, the thickness of a quarter, while an industrial machine is charging ahead… not so easy. Knowing this you can say: It takes highly specialized sewing skills in addition to the patterning and grading and sizing specialties of intimates in order to be able to produce these garments. And just because your thong is “yay” big does not mean it doesn’t require as much sewing work as a t-shirt. Your first taste of this will be during your presentation:

Take whatever you think school costs and DOUBLE it… fabric and supplies are expensive. The costs of learning your craft $$$, your experience as a lingerie design student = priceless!!

The final review is the day when the critic, and a group of professors choose which pieces they feel should be put into the final show. A nerve wracking moment because for a lot of students this is the payoff, because parents will often be sitting in the audience seeing the culmination of your work in a professional setting for the first time.

Just because the garments walking down that runway are smaller does not mean they are any less work. Don’t take my word for it! I discovered that FIT has also taken the amazing step of having students from each class blog about the semester leading up to their final presentations. Including some really great behind the scenes videos of what it takes to be a lingerie design student. Read more about this year’s intimate apparel class through the eyes of Amy, the student chosen to blog their journey: click here

Congrats to the class of 2011! I know we have yet to see what you can do, bright futures in fashion lie ahead.

Share this:

  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • More
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit

Categories // ask L, designers Tags // design, designer, fashion design, fashion institute of technology, layla l'obatti, lingerie designer

More from Between the Sheets Blog

In the Garden – Growing Ginger and Turmeric

I got my very modest first ginger harvest from a small plant plug purchased from an online supplier. The experiment gave me a taste of what was possible and although I skipped a year of growing it I knew I would try again. This first batch of ginger was frozen before going into our first […]

a hand lifting a citrus branch with two green limes in front of white gravel background

In the Garden – Citrus Trees in Pots

Overwintering Citrus Our first year here I tried and failed with citrus, it took me years to get the nerve to try again. Things I learned as a gardener and houseplant enthusiast that helped me successfully overwinter these two trees. New Citrus Additions With the garage addition giving me a space to move these trees […]

a conical wicker hanging basket with purple and white flowers hanging from black cast iron hook on white wood post

DIY – installing hooks for hanging baskets

It took a long time to find a spot for hanging baskets somewhere in the garden and the new patio area felt like the perfect spot. I debated adding them to the shed but wanted something bigger and felt they would dwarf a smaller structure. In general I’m not a big annual flower person beyond […]

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Follow BTS

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Search BTS Blog

Homespice Vintage

Shop Homespice Vintage

RSS get Blog Posts In Your Inbox

RSS feed

Archives

  • November 2024
  • October 2024
  • July 2024
  • May 2024
  • April 2024
  • March 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • December 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • August 2021
  • June 2021
  • December 2020
  • August 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • August 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • November 2015
  • September 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • November 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • June 2007

About

Between the Sheets Inc – purveyors of luxury lingerie, designer loungewear, and luxurious lifestyle products brings you a blog about our brands, collections, and life’s simple luxuries.

Press

Archives

Categories

Copyright © 2025 · Between the Sheets Inc. Log in