MDfin offers Students
the opportunity to gain 200 real life, practical skills
through TWELVE Experience Stations.
The physical plant being offered allows the students
The opportunity to learn every aspect of the fashion
design and light manufacturing business.
It is unique ‘Soup to Nuts’ business in the US.
Let’s look at those skills again…
They learn how to design efficiently.
They learn to sew, make samples, and source materials.
They learn to create line sheets and specification sheets.
They learn pattern making and manufacturing techniques.
They what manufacturers need to be paid to stay in business.
They learn how to price their garments.
They learn the ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ costs in running a business.
They learn to run a financially successful business.
As they learn skills through MDfin
we offer them access to our
MAKERSPACE INCUBATOR
We ease them into the real world.
They learn the basics of hand and machine sewing.
They create their own croque, dress form or body mold to work on.
They explore who they will be as designers including what market
or customers are they interested in creating for?
They design their own logo and create their brand images.
They make mood boards as an intuitive way to learn about what colors, silhouettes, textures and time periods appeal to them.
They learn how to identify and work with different fabrics.
They learn how to care for a full range of fabrics.
We teach the basics and then how to scale up their production.
They learn how to safely use the photo transfer press.
They learn to create their own screens, and select colors that layer. They learn what order to print in.
They design their own images on paper and on the computer.
They create their own screen-printing screens
They learn to create multi colored layered images using screen printing on their own tee shirts.
They learn who can produce large quantities of tee shirts for them, perhaps 1000 units on a range of background colors.
We teach students how to use the latest technology such as CLO3D.
What can designers do today with the latest technologies?
What skills do they want to learn?
How do those skills translate to better quality better production?
How do those skills translate to more sales and fewer returns?
We encourage personal expression.
They learn different dyeing techniques from around the world.
They learn hand quilting and embroidery.
They learn painting on fabric.
We prepare graduates to thrive in the broader International Fashion Industry.
They learn different dyeing techniques from around the world and painting on fabric. They learn to work with large scale manufacturers to create original fabrics for their own collections.
Students learn to use social media to grow their brand and their business.
Students learn current, onsite selling technology.
They learn the importance of flexible sizing for online sales.
They learn the causes and cost of returns in the digital age.
They learn the cost and the value of providing great customer service.
Students and the Community have
access to an amazing MAKERSPACE
We provide:
Industrial Sewing Machines
Industrial Cutting Knives
Storage for each member
Large Cutting Tables
Patterns graded to sizes
Mannequins & Dress Forms
Photography Studio
Pattern Making Paper
2800 Specialty Fabrics
Artisan Buttons
Interfacings
Trims…
STUDENTS PARTICIPATE IN AN INTENSE HAND-ON PROGRAM
A variety of types of programs are offered.
The school is independent and privately owned.
It is not seeking accreditation by the State of Maryland.
It operates at the speed of the current business,
and the age of small online business and social media.
The proof of its effectiveness is in the success of
fashion-related businesses the graduates start
and continue to run and grow over time.
Because the program is adapted to the skills and experience
the student already has they are encouraged to use their own
life experience, business and personal work to fulfill assignments.
Students are ENCOURAGED to start building a
social media following.
The public will follow their journey from beginning to end.
As their business is most likely to have an online presence
these social media followers will become fans
and become or lead to their customers.
Some students will already have a budding business.
They will be encouraged to continue that business, tweak it,
and apply their new knowledge and ‘daily learning’ to it.
How students earn money at MDfin:
Sell their stuff in the boutique.
Students can earn money by doing sewing piecework as soon as they are trained
on the industrial machines and passed the quality testing.
They are paid by the piece and encouraged to produce a quality garment,
not a fast one, until they gain experience and can do both.
This opportunity to earn money is recommended as it increases their skills
and gives them practice at efficient clean, sewing techniques and batch sewing.
It also reinforces their understanding of what order construction takes place and why.