Chelsea Goldman is the Founder and Creative Director of the emerging designer RTW brand, CF. Goldman, which launched in Spring 2015. She interned at Celine, Narcisco Rodriguez and Proenza Schouler. She went to London College of Fashion and Central St. Martins.    Chelsea grew up in NYC. Growing up here causes one to grow up quickly, but you get such great access to multiple cultures and people. It gave her the opportunity to take classes at Parsons and FIT from a young age. She was able to sneak into fashion week and went to her first show, Lela Rose, at 13.    Chelsea's mom was a fashion designer and her dad is in the jewelry business, so she comes from a design-oriented family.    London is a more creative place in terms of fashion and they are willing to take risks in a different way than New York since NY is very business focused. She wanted to meld the design and spirit of London to NYC.     Chelsea emailed people on LinkedIN, especially alumni in order to land her incredible internships. She was there the latest, worked the hardest and she always said yes. This work ethic and mindset allowed her the opportunity to go to Paris and work at Celine. She was Phoebe Philo's second assistant a year in. Because of this, she was able to go into the atelier with Phoebe and watch her work. Celine was her longest internship. She would spend 2 days a week at school and 3 days a week at Celine. A month before fashion week, she would go to Paris and work in the studio.    In choosing the name, CF. Goldman, she wanted to make sure it was a unisex name so she could later branch into other categories.    The corset is an interesting item for women because it is such a historic item that has been worn as undergarments, although sometimes restrictive. She likes the thought of taking that back and also loves that it is something that is really crafted. You have to really make it well. There are so many layers, there is a stretch to it and it is made in such a beautiful way. The brand is all about craft, you can't cheap out on a corset.    She started working on the collection 4 or 5 months before it came out. It was the longest lead time she had and since you don't have production, there is such a luxury of time where you can hone the vision. You don't have to worry about sales or production.    When designing a collection, she starts in fabrics and research. She and her team go to libraries, Tumbler, Pinterest, artists she likes, etc. They compile everything they've seen for the last six months that has interested them. They go to different mills in the city to look at fabrics. After, they start sketching as well as look at old shapes they like that they want to re-use and redo. They give the sketches to the factory who makes the first sample, they will have fittings, it takes three fittings to make a garment, then the factory makes the final sample.    Chelsea gets inspiration from art, vintage clothing and 18th century paintings for corsetry.    A fabric mill is someone that creates the fabrics. They are generally based in Italy, China, Peru, English, Japan for denim etc. They usually have representatives in the US that will have the collection there for designers to come and see. You pull headers (larger swatches of fabric) from them and they send them to you.    Fittings - they generally create a muslin which is a mockup of what the garment will look like - it doesn't have the exact finishings. Depending on the fabrication, it will usually be made out of muslin. There is a fit model there and they see how it looks and feels, what needs to be altered and they will cut up the garment. Chelsea likes the garment to be destroyed by the end of the fitting, although some people are really precious with their garments.    Pricing was something she had to learn, but wished she had learned during college. CF. Goldman tries to keep the price points really sharp, retailing between $350-$1,000.    The idea was always to go into other classifications. The team is small, so they do what they can in the best way possible. She doesn't want to expand in ways that would make them loose sight of the collection. She is thinking about sunglasses, shoes or handbags next.    A day in the life of a designer consists of spending time in the factory, making sure all the goods look right and they have all the pieces they need and she tries to have design meetings each week.    In terms of adding pre collections, you have to know you are ready for it. Once you have the accounts (retail and boutique stores) that need those extra seasons from you is when to look to adding these additional collections.    Framis is her technical design term, which is when the seams are combined together. It is a tape that you press down and make the finish.   Chelsea designs for real women based on women she knows and who inspires her. She tries not to have a fantasy woman in her head because that can get dangerous. She is a woman who dresses for herself and is empowered by dressing.    Advice for someone looking to land their first job in the fashion industry is to be the hardest worker. This is not an easy industry to break into. It is a time of real stress for the industry as well. You have to work really hard and you shouldn't be above any task, because people take notice. Do what is asked of you (if ethical of course!) because you will learn something from it even if you think it is a silly or small task, it will lead to something else.    Is the fashion industry as glamorous as it seems? Yes and no. A smaller part of her job is glamorous and most of it isn't so glamorous, but of course it is all worth it. It is important to know this industry is a lot of work, but extremely rewarding at the same time.    Chelsea is the Creative Director of CF. Goldman. Being a Creative Director can look different depending on which company you work for and the size of the company. Your role could be to direct the vision of the entire house: what the store fronts/brand/logo look like, it's more of the feeling of the brand, you aren't necessarily designing, but sitting in the fittings or the creative director could be very involved with the design. For Chelsea, she works with the finances, taxes, going to the factory, designing. You have to wear a lot of hats. It is hard to switch your brain from creative to analytical. Designing is very tiring because you have to be all present and focusing on the design. It can be hard to do both.    When she is designing, she starts with sketching and drapes when on the body once they have the sample.    One of the hardest parts of being a designer is switching your brain from being creative to analytical. There are different challenges at different stages of being a designer. For example, getting your foot in the door, honing your vision, how do I access stores and customers? and many more.    In order to get into stores, it is important to be persistent and also to keep a consistent vision. If someone isn't answering you, don't give up.   Working with a showroom is great for designers because they bring a different perspective coming from a sales background rather than design. It is important to not be pushed over. You're given a lot of feedback, so remember your original vision and what makes sense for you, but showrooms give you access to the major retailers that you're thankful are getting to see your collection.    Starting a brand takes a lot of time and money. You have to test out different things and see what makes sense for your price point. Retailers may wait a couple seasons before picking a designer up because they want to ensure you are delivering consistent product and evolving in a way that makes sense.     London College of Fashion is more about pattern making and making the product, so you learn a lot about craft. Central St. Martins is about pushing your creativity.    It is important to stay humble when interning and do whatever they need you to do.   Fashion school is where you are taught to be cool. What is your personality? What's your brand? How are we going to recognize you?   Internships are more real world experience. You learn how a design house works and how a collection is produced.    Working at a company owned by LVMH was interesting because they had such unlimited resources, so they were able to try to make everything in the most beautiful way possible. They explored and developed a lot. She had free reign during her Celine internship. They work a lot more communally whereas in New York the design director is telling everyone the vision and everyone else is more in production than design.   Phoebe Philo has a great understanding of how women want to dress. There were a lot of people from Chloe and Stella McCartney at Celine who had previously worked with Phoebe. It was a female-focused environment. When designing a collection, Phoebe would think "How do I feel this season? Do I want to be cozy?" That was the season when they did fur slippers. When she was pregnant, it was all about soft materials and lots of emotions. Chelsea's other two internships were with male designers which is interesting because it is a different starting point from them because it is more about a fantasy of how a woman wants to dress.    Atelier is where they physically make the garments. RTW team makes the garments and atelier executes on the garments. The RTW team sketches, takes notes from fittings, changes them, does tons of research, etc.    To determine trends and colors for the season, there is a designer mindset and also the fabrics determine the trends because they know what is coming up and a lot of the brands use the same factories and mills. She wants to balance out each season to make sure it is exciting and new, so she takes the pervious season into consideration. If the last season was dark, maybe the next season she will want to be light and colorful.