Design Development...First year uni.
Aim: to teach the budding want-to-be designer to push past the first little sketch in her notebook, to push past that dress design she saw in that amazing shop, to push past the ideas of her favourite designer and to draw and draw and draw, making slight changes each time…sometimes 30, sometimes 100…. to create an idea that will become a design that will rock your socks off.
The design phase is such a wonderful, exciting, energising, fun time in the process of creating a new range. You’ve already spent hours pouring over fabrics & narrowing down your choices.
You’ve gone backwards & forwards, balancing colours & designs, and next comes the glorious time when walking past a shop window makes you say “oooohhhh” and go scrambling in your handbag for your notebook only to get distracted by the beautiful trim on the side of your bag and “oooohhhhh” comes forth again and your heart starts to beat a little faster as you jot down ideas and little thumbnails (tiny little idea sketches). Armed with your overflowing notebook full of fabric swatches & sketches & cutouts, you hunt for the perfect trims. More “ooooohhh”s and “ahhhh”s are heard as ideas come passionately & excitedly to your head.
Sitting ankle deep in fabrics & trims, sketches and little mock-ups, laptop beside you, sketch program open, your favourite music playing, pins in your mouth as you do the original style of “pinning” (omgosh I have a whole blog on this later) – the art of pinning fabrics to your stand (mannequin) as you try different fabrics & trims together in the endeavour of creating a combination that sings in harmony.This is the phase I’m in now and all I can say is “omgosh omgosh omgosh!!!”
