Fashion Design

Posts Tagged ‘Creativity’

For some people the term ‘fashion’ conjures up the idea of slavishly following the trends. But great fashion design has always gone at least a little against the grain – sometimes a lot. Comme des Garcons, became famous for putting the seams on the outside of garments. Turkish-British designer, Hussein Chalayan, was catapulted to fame with his final year fashion show at Saint Martins College, London. Chalayan had buried his entire collection, along with iron fillings, digging it up a little later on, after the iron had rusted all over the garments, transforming them completely. The next year Chalayan made garments from a washable, wearable type of paper. One of the more controversial creations of Alexander McQueen was his ultra low-cut pants or “bumsters,” as he liked to call them

But new technology can also be important in taking fashion into new areas, especially when it comes to fabric. It’s hard to believe now, but the invention of synthetic fabrics, such as nylon and polyester, revolutionized clothing. Today you can find synthetic suede (sometimes with patterns cut into it by the use of lasers), and fabric that is billed as ‘self ironing.’ And, let’s not forget all of the treatments and embellishments that we see on jeans these days. If you want to keep up to date with fabric technology, as well as fashion design, go to startingaclothingline.com, because innovation in the fashion industry is a constant theme.

At the moment you can find a lot of extravagantly embellished garments, such as tops covered in sequins, as well as dresses that are entirely pleated. One interesting new theme for Vera Wang is her mixing of different fabrics. Large fabric panels give her garments an edgy, almost futuristic uniform-look. And she is also cutting garments in an unexpected way, such as one organza dress, that appears almost ‘puffball’ because of its countless large folds, running the length of the dress, and held in by a plain corset.

This season London design company, Meadham Kirchhoff, has taken lots of these elements to a whole new dimension, combining modern fabrics with intentionally frayed seams and darts, visible on the outside, and accented white on an otherwise black dress. The company is also using appliqué – which, if done wrong, can look contrived and twee. But with white and gold, irregular-cut patches of overlapping fabric, climbing up a pair of pants, for example, Meadham Kirchhoff’s creations hint at camouflage. Fabric appears organic. One shirt, for example, cut in a white, see-through fabric, has seams running across it at diagonals, with the fabric appearing almost to drip onto the body. A tight fitting, knitted sweater, is created so that it appears to have two layers. The top is entirely black, and knitted irregularly, giving the impression of being ripped. This exposes the bottom layer of the sweater – robust, perfectly knotted black and white stripes.

Perhaps the most striking statement of Meadham Kirchhoff’s 2010 collection, though, is their new take on pants. Tight, with a slit across the knees, and a zipper running vertically below, these are meant to resemble knee-length boots. Another pair, cut in leather, comes with diamond cut knee patches (still with a horizontal slit exposing the skin), and with a zipper right above. For more information on the fashion industry visit www.startingaclothingline.com.

Jay Arrington is Co-owner of Harper Arrington Media Group, the parent company of www.StartingaClothingLine.com, and www.DigitalFashionPro.com. He along with his business partner Michael J. Harper has authored several books on fashion designing and on how to start a clothing line, with The Official Step by Step Guide to Starting a Clothing Line being one of their titles. They have also introduced the world to Digital Fashion Pro a fantastic fashion designing software, that allows the user to create lifelike fashion design sketches! In addition, the two are also the proud owners of Harper-Arrington Publishing www.HApub.com home of The Little Entrepreneur book series for kids and young adults, www.thelittleE.com. As entrepreneurs and educators it is very important to Jay and Michael that they provide fellow future and present business owners with the very best information possible!

GirlSense is this cool fashion design games website. You can create your own virtual designs, and buy designs from other users for virtual money. Playing online fashion games is so cool, I just love it. I can’t get enough of it. You know my big hero is Kate Moss. I just love her. She’s a fashion icon and now she is designing clothes for several fashion brands in Britain. Anyway, one day I want to be a fashion designer. So playing online fashion games is a way for me to practice, and to create new styles that I think will be cool next season.

The first thing you have to do when you create a fashion eBoutique is to think about the styling of the boutique itself. GirlSense lets you design everything: wallpaper, flooring, accessories, and structures. I’ll explain exactly why each of these items is important, but first, you need to think in terms of the whole eBoutique, and what kind of image or vision you are trying to convey: Do you want your eBoutique to be fun? Do you want your fashion design game to be classy and sophisticated? Maybe you want it to have a laid back feel to it? Think about it for a while, and play around with the designs. Think about what clothes you are going to display in your eBoutique, and create it accordingly.

I want to talk a little bit about floors. Floors are really cool and super important for eBoutiques. I know it’s just fashion designer games, but try to think like it’s the real thing. You’ll soon learn that different types of floors create a different feel. Think about the floor you have at home, compared with the floor that you have at school, and the floor in the lobby of a hotel that you visited during a recent vacation. It’s interesting but each one has its own feel. For example, a tiled floor makes you think of the Mediterranean – places like Greece and the South of Spain. With online fashion games, certain shades of tiles can also make you think of sand and the beach. A wooden floor, on the other hand, might make you think about a house in the mountains, a ski chalet, or a loft apartment. Wood has more warmth than stone, and lends itself to winter designs.

So you see, the small details are really important, and have a powerful effect on the final impression. Fashion design games can really teach you about styling, and who knows, if you’re good at it, maybe one day you’ll want to study interior or fashion design.

JohnM is a writer for Compucall. For more information about online fashion games, visit GirlSense.com