Day to day in fashion

Sales sample comments have been made and sent, glad to have that done.  Now the fun really begins.  While I collect and think about new designs all the time, it’s my favorite time of the season when I get to sit down and start putting these ideas onto paper (digital paper that is…I work on the computer, think it has something to do with my training as well as my personality and the way I work).  That time has come as we begin design for spring 2011 (SP11), yes you read right, we are working 1 year in advance – ahead of some companies/industries/regions, and behind others.  Here’s how the design process all begins…

COLOR
The first thing that is decided on is color palettes.  Inspiration comes from many areas – plaids, stripes, prints, magazine tears, photos, and beyond.  I always spend time shopping before deciding on color palettes, as well as browsing select sites online to get an idea of what is out there.  I think about many things when picking out my color palettes – what colors have we done in the past (specifically the few most recent seasons), what season I’m working in, and what the exact ship date of that collection is.  SP11 has 3 ship dates – 11/15, 1/15, 2/15.  So while we are designing for spring, our first collection can have a somewhat darker palette since it ships 11/15, while the next 2 shipments should definitely feel “lighter”.  My 6 color palettes for SP11 have come from the following inspirations:

2 – plaids
1 – stripe from a polo
1 – magazine tear – a photo of 6 solid polos
1 – print from a pair of swim trunks
1 – based off of what pallete seems prevalent in Europe

A color story based off of a plaid

Here is how we start to put our “boards” together, in a particular order:

ROAD MAPS
Plaids and “fancies” or “road map pieces” are often decided first.  A “fancy” or “road map” is a piece that ties the whole collection together (as well as the plaid) – it usually incorporates all of the colors in the collection and can act as the “center piece” of the collection.  We often design our plaid (we always have at least 1 plaid per collection) first, which will set the tone for the group.  In our industry, fancies are often argyle printed polos and argyle sweaters.  The plaid often goes in the bottom right or left corner of the board layout.

SOLIDS
We have our signature basics that are carried over from one season to the next, but we do try and update these every other season, which equals once a year.  They are solid polos that run in selected colors for each group.  Fabrications vary, as do details.  This is the most important place for details – interesting buttons, coverstitching, under collar or placket contrast, and on.  You must remember that it is a “solid basic polo” but at the same time you need some “flair”.  As the boards start to come together, our solids line up at the top.

STRIPES
We next move on to stripes, and we create many different color combinations (using the colors in our palletes of course) and many different stripe types: feed stripes, engineered stripes, club stripes, and more.  We need different sizes, different textures in the stripes, different constructions, and on.  Stripes are layed out by size on the board, smaller stripes go at the top, larger towards the bottom.

COLOR BLOCKS & MAPPING POLOS
In our industry, color blocks and mapping polos are a must.  If you are unsure what these are, Google them.  I’m sure there will be a blog post on this later…  We work hard to come up with new designs, use new textures, and be creative to put something new out there.  We often will design 10 or more different colorblocks and only 1 out of those 10 will go into production. These designs get distributed throughout the board.

There is the recipe for our industries design process.  Other industries may proceed differently, but this is what I know.

BOARDS
They start out like this – we use CADs with push pins on cork boards:

Board Layout - Phase 1

Once designs are complete, they are compiled on the computer like this (also serves as an example of how we lay the garments out on the boards – normally style #s, color codes and fabrications are labeled under each garment):

Board Layout - Phase 2