SOCCCD Collaborative 2008-2009
CTE Grant Funded Externship
by Malia Hill
Fashion Department
Saddleback College
Fashion Business Incubator
is located in the center of Los
Angeles’ fashion district.
The center includes a
co-op showroom, computer
lab, seminar room and
general office space. FBI
started in 1999 the FBI and
recently moved from the
New Mart to the California
Market Center.
Frances Harder is the
President & Founder of
the Fashion Business
Incorporated (FBI). The
company provides
important business
development and job
training and retraining to
the workers in the fashion
industry.
 FBI
has become a key resource for
apparel companies. All training at the FBI
has been recognized by the state of
California’s ETP program, which allows
manufactures and employees to attend
training and receive state sponsorship.
 Frances
has also selfpublished a book
called Fashion for
Profit which
discusses the nitty
gritty aspects of
starting your own
apparel company.
Employment Training Panel
(ETP) is a business and labor
supported state agency that assists
California employers in
strengthening their competitive
edge and employability.
FBI has a contract with EMP and
offers training courses for
employees of qualified companies
on the latest versions of software
such as Photoshop, CAD, Retail
Pro, Gerber and AIMS as well as
a variety of sales, management,
and marketing courses.
Members benefit from the FBI
resources in the area of product
development, sales and marketing,
promotion, discount market space
and co-op showroom opportunity.
Members have access to the FBI’s
consultants, attorneys, professional
photographers and models at a
major discount.
They are also able to be shown in a
co-op showroom, take advantage of
marketing opportunities, such as a
link on FBI’s website to the
company’s website and other
promotional events. Members also
get discounts to workshops offered
by FBI.
As part of my Externship, I worked on contacting
companies that had memberships with FBI. Here
are a list of different memberships:
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Business Member/Annual California $250.00
Business Member/Annual Out of State $150.00
Student Membership - $35.00
Non-profit Organization Member $250.00
Industry Partner $750.00
College Chapter $750.00
Corporate Membership $1,200.00 which would
allow their employees to get member benefits
and take classes at the FBI with discounted rates
FBI has helped me network with
many companies in the industry as
well as see how a non-profit
fashion business operates.
They work closely with companies to
find out what skills are lacking in
the apparel industry and offer
classes to meet those needs.
Many of the classes offered
brought light to what students
need to learn to be successful in
the industry.
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FASH 130 – FLAT PATTERN: FBI teaches a computerized flat pattern program.
Saddleback College needs to add a class that involves designing patterns
digitally, such as PAD, Gerber, Lectra, or Tukatech.
FASH 145 – INTERNSHIP: Companies networked with can work into internships
for students. Students can attend seminars.
FASH 150 – FASHION APPAREL AND PROFESSIONAL TECHNIQUES:
Curriculum has been added to include a digital Efolio.
FASH 154 – FASHION ILLUSTRATION:
FASH 260 – COMPUTER APPLICATIONS IN FASHION: Many skills are
needed now in Photoshop and Illustrator.
FASH 289 – DIGITAL PORTFOLIO: FBI offers a similar class but only several
days and for 5 times the cost.
FASH 289 – TECHNICAL/SPEC SHEETS: Saddleback Fashion department has
just added a special topic course that provides students with information on how
to build a technical sheet, something FBI also offers.
FASH 289 – AIMS: Saddleback has a partnership with FBI and AIMS to provide a
AIMS software training to Saddleback an apparel information data system.

To complete my hours I worked in the research and
development area of Oakley located in Foothill Ranch,
CA. Oakley is known for their high-tech eyewear,
however I assisted in the textile and fabric division
under Textile Engineer Tony Fella.
•Tony started his career in the
military working on textiles of
parachutes.
•He has been working for the
Oakley company for 8 years.
•He works with the fabric
coordinator to test fabric to see if
it is suitable for it’s design. There
is a lot of performance fabric
used at Oakley.
•Oakley has very high standards
they keep by testing the textile
and apparel goods.
Oakley is set in Foothill
Ranch CA and looks very
much like movie set from a
Sci-Fi movie.
All of Oakley’s sunglasses
are made here and are
produced 24 hours a day, 7
days a week.
The apparel, on the other
hand, is outsourced to
China to be produced.
Oakley has a fully
equipped textile lab to do
all of their apparel testing
to meet their high
standards.
Pill Testing Equipment
Color Fastness
Testing
Abrasion Resistance
Testing
Oakley has equipment similar to the pieces of equipment above to test their fabric. The pill
testing equipment tests fabric for how much pilling will occur on the fabric after snagging. One
box is lined with Velcro to reproduce the effect of a Velcro closure. The color fastness testing
machine tests fabric for how much the color may wear off on other surfaces or fabric (such as
indigo jeans on white underwear). There was one issue with red swim shorts that rubbed off on
a customer’s tan leather seats in his boat. Testing for this prevents issues such as these. The
abrasion resistance machine tests fabric for how much a material can hold up against rubbing
and normal wear and tear. If the fabric has poor abrasion resistance, Oakley will not use the
fabric in their apparel line.
Water-resistance
Testing
Laundry Machine Simulates
1 Year of Wear
Eyeglass Testing
Equipment
Oakley also tests their ski and snow jackets with the water-resistance machine. This machine can simulate water
pushing against the fabric Oakley chooses for their snow line with the force that mocks someone standing in
Hurricane Katrina and not getting wet. The laundry machines that they have in their lab can simulate 1 year of
customer washing in six hours. Oakley uses the laundry machine to test fully made garments to see what the
appearance of the garment will look like after 1 year (hopefully still really good!) Also in the Oakley lab, is the
eyeglass testing machine. A BB gun is shot at their sunglasses to make sure they do not shatter. Indeed, when a
BB is shot at a pair of Oakley sunglasses, only a small dent is made. Other competitor’s sunglasses, however,
shatter when a BB is shot at it.
Competitor Wear-Testing
Oakley will soon be adding a
yoga-wear line to their apparel.
Part of my externship experience
at Oakley was wear testing
competitor’s yoga apparel. I
spent one month working out in
garments from Lululemon,
Adidas, and Nike and wrote
reports like the example to the
right. I rated the garment on
pilling, shrinkage, appearance
after wear, snagging, color
fading, etc. Oakley will use these
sheets to determine what textiles
may be successful in their yoga
line. The bonus to this
assignment was I got to keep
every garment I tested!
Oakley has been kind enough to host
several class trips to their testing lab for
classes such as FASH 31 Textiles and
FASH 254 Fashion in Southern
California.
Application: The students see how the
industry tests textiles that will be made
into apparel products.
-Malia Hill