Holly Henderson is a creative professional and a leading industry design technologies expert with over 25 years experience in fashion and textiles design, product development, retail marketing, corporate management and education.   Holly is a Fashion Design graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology, NYC in 1981. She began her career as a fashion illustrator for Simplicity Pattern Co., a leading home sewing pattern company. Her love for creating artistic textiles, led her to become a knitwear designer. She designed knits and sweaters for companies such as Kitty Hawk Industries, Skiva International and Counterparts Sportswear. She has traveled throughout Europe and Asia to source design inspiration and produce her products. In 1984, she began to pioneer in technology and was among the first design professionals to use a computer as a design tool to program her designs. She "became addicted to using the computer" and in 1987, opened Deerwood Designs, Inc., the first independent Computer Aided Design and Product Development studio in NYC. It was there, where she consulted with major companies such as Liz Claiborne, Macy's, Leslie Fay, Jones Apparel Group, helped to launch Tommy Hilfiger, NFL kids and many others to first introduce them to design technology. In 1992, she went to work with Federated Merchandising Group as a knit Designer for private label goods and later became the Design Manager for FMG Creative services.   Ms. Henderson has taught at the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC since 1997 where she is currently an Assistant Adjunct Professor, teaching various Computer Aided Design (CAD) applications such as Lectra’s U4ia, Nedgraphic’s Fashion Studio, Colour Matters, Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. Also, since 1997, she has been a top industry consultant who has helped many companies to implement various types of design technology into their businesses and to streamline their design processes.   Holly currently lives in Clarence, New York where she raises her four children, is involved in community service and is an assistant coach of a local girl's softball team.   Professional Memberships:
§          AATCC (American Assoc. Textile Chemists and Colorists) §          CITDA (Computer Integrated Textile Design Association) §          CEPA Gallery   §          Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo New York     Professional Presentations: §          Coordinator of all technology seminars for the Larkin Group /Advanstar group, 1993-2003 §          Made presentations in CAD technology at the International Fashion Fabric Exhibition (IFFE) held at the Jacob Javits Convention Center-NYC 1993-2003, Knitting Arts Expo (KAE) 1993, CADEXPO 1999, SURTEX 2000, and INTERNET WORLD exhibitions in New York City 2001, SUNY Conference in Instructional Technologies (CIT ) 2003, panelist at the AATCC convention, Charlotte S.C. 2003, Directions Textile show,- Aug. 2005 & Jan 2006 §          Wrote articles for The Knitting Times, Women's Wear Daily, Apparel Industry Magazine, Fairchild’s Executive Technology, BFIA Magazine, A.R.T.T. Network Newsletter §          Featured in two books; ”Textiles”, by Carol Joyce & “CAD for Fashion” by Renee Chase     Awards:
§          Office of Professional Training @ FIT Award for Special Programs: May, 2001 §          Recipient of the first CITDA Professional Achievement award: March, 2000 §          Dale Carnegie Junior Achievement Award in Public Speaking: June, 1978