> [!cite]- Metadata > 2025-08-17 18:06 > Status: #secondary #course > Tags: `Read Time:` > [!Tip] [Class Guide Book](https://drive.google.com/file/d/14Qobq6Qc4xwrpDak7exLWHFfyrx5sMMN/view?usp=sharing) > [!Abstract]- 1. Introduction > This MasterClass is for you. You who is interested in fashion for a career and life in fashion or a career in fashion or just because, like me, fashion is something that interests you and inspires you, delights you. This MasterClass is for anybody who's ever wondered about what the process of putting a show together is, what putting a collection together is, what the life of a designer is like, what the daily ins and outs of making things, creating things, transmitting ideas through fashion is about. > > The goal of this class is for me to share with you my experiences, to stimulate you, to have your own experiences through my experiences or through sharing my experiences with you. By outlining how my process is, how my thought process is, how my actual processes are in terms of making a collection, putting a collection together or designing clothes, having a show. I think the goal is to enlighten you and to inspire you and to encourage you. > > I will also be discussing in this class how to work with fabrics, the properties of different fibers and different fabrics, conceptualizing an idea construction techniques. I will be discussing contrasting thoughts and ideas, inspirations, collaborations. I will communicate those ideas by showing you garments on the figure and explaining my thought process, pointing out seams and details, construction. > > I'll share with you some of my background in terms of education, how I learned about certain things. I will share with you my references to art, to music, to style and culture. And I'll do a lot more talking. There are things that I will discuss that I wish I knew starting out. I couldn't get enough information. There wasn't enough information in the world for me when I was starting out. I would have loved to have hours of my favorite designer or a designer speaking to me about their process, about what they went through, how they learned about fabric, how they learned about pattern making, how they built a collection, how they put on a show, how they collaborated with others to create and transmit a message and a story. I would have loved that. > > [!Abstract]- 2. Getting Started: Teach Yourself Design > I learned to sew when I was younger, I took a home ec class and I was at Parsons, and so we had sewing classes and I mean, I learned to sew pretty well. I think I was pretty good at it. It took me forever. I mean, I'm certainly not fast, but I think it's important to have an understanding of those skills. I mean, it may not, you know to me it felt important that I had an understanding of knitting and sewing because those it seemed impossible to be a designer in my mind without a fundamental knowledge of those things. > > I also had an interest in like the construction of clothing, and I also like the craft of making things. So craft to me is very important and I do like making things. So sewing, knitting a small knowledge of embroidery, of how textiles are created. I find it very important. And I certainly don't think it hurts to know these things. It doesn't mean one had to, because there are designers who started out as architects and don't know the first thing, couldn't sew a garment if their life depended on it and probably can't sketch either. But they still make beautiful clothes. > > So I don't think it's an absolute but it certainly has helped me, and I would recommend that if you really are interested in clothes and how they're made that you've learned a little bit about sewing and, you know, run some fabric through a sewing machine, change the stitch, change the tension of the stitch and see what it does. Because again, it's experience that is the best teacher. > > I learned a little bit about draping and pattern making in school and sewing in school when I was at Parsons. I also had a home and economics class when I was in sixth grade, which I learned. I think the first thing I ever made was a boiler suit or what you called a jumpsuit which I was very proud of. That was the first thing I ever made for myself. I learned a little bit about pattern making even before I actually studied pattern making by trial and error. Again, I laid pieces of fabric out on the floor and I cut a jacket out of these dish towels, et cetera. And it was terrible. It was the most awful fitting garment in the world because I didn't know anything about pattern making. > > But again, I did learn through the experience of trying to be able to cut a pattern, to make a garment, to try to make a garment. I don't know that it's absolutely necessary in terms of becoming a designer or being a designer, but I am a big believer in the experience. So again, if you can get your hand on a sewing machine or a needle and thread or anything where you start to understand what it is like to construct a garment. > > I mean, making a garment by hand is probably a bit overwhelming. But a sewing machine is usually accessible, I think, and I think it's a good experience to have. I would certainly recommend sitting down with a piece of fabric and just experimenting a little bit, you know, and again, if one foresees their future as a designer and has other people who they work with to achieve these various responsibilities, then it's a very different thing. I no longer have to sit at a sewing machine, but I'm 30 years in business, so I think you have to explore the people you need, the machines you need, the things you need to express what you want to say, and that is for you to discover and to decide. > > **Look at the Classic Resources** > > There are a number of books that one can look at, depending on what type of construction you want, I know even at our office we have lots of these craft books, things, you know, it's so funny because I find some of the best information is again in terms of what we like to achieve are these old sort of craft books or old knitting magazines, old sewing books and sewing magazines. Where they'll show you step by step like how to do a flat filled seam, how to do a boned bodice. I mean, they're old fashioned but they kind of work. > > I mean, there's a naive kind of step by step instruction and we have a lot of those old books. Sometimes we find them online. You can probably also find a lot of this information online without buying the books about how to knit a classic jumper or sweater or how to sew a flat filled seam like I said, or how to do quilting, how to do bias binding or any of those things. I'm sure that information exists online. > > We have a small section of our library at the office with all of these kind of out of date, out of print books, and I find them really charming and wonderful. It's sometimes, you know, again inspiring to go back and look at things that are a little bit like for us, naive and kind of outdated. They become like details in a way of something that I don't know seems like kind of humble and sweet. They do appear in a lot of the garments we make from time to time. > > **Be Open to New Ways to Construct and Design** > > There's a lot of new ways to construct garments, and they have a lot to do with technology, and they have a lot to do with, you know, fusing or gluing or bonding seams, or taping seams. And I have to say that that's not my first love. I've been in conferences before where I've heard other designers talk about how they transmit, how patterns are sent by computer to factories where they work with synthetic fibers and/or fabrics. And they're sort of melted or merged together. And I mean, that's a whole world that I don't understand, but it does exist. > > And again, I don't know how one explores that, but certainly we live in a time where you can make a garment without stitching. I don't know how to do it and it doesn't interest me, but it can be done and people are doing it and printing fabric through, you know, inkjet and all sorts of different things. And there's just a world to discover and I do the best I can to keep on top of what it is that I love, but there's so much out there and I guess, you know, the sky's the limit in some way. > > Who knows, maybe you'll invent a form of construction that no one's thought of. I mean, that's part of what I think modern thinking is about is, you know, thinking outside of the box. So I've always looked at the box and tried to reconfigure the box, but maybe thinking outside the box is also an alternative thinking, you know? > > **Study Designers Who Resonate With You** > > As long as I can remember, Yves Saint Laurent was my biggest influence, I'd say, and still probably is one of my biggest influences, if not the biggest influence. I was really amazed and I was always like, sort of inspired and in awe of the creativity of Saint Laurent and not only the clothing he made, but just the whole sort of World and the people around him. And again, I remember from an early age like sort of seeing him and his group or his entourage out socially. > > You know, I would read magazines like Interview Magazine and all the nightclub magazines back in the late 70s. And it was just so glamorous. But I also felt like the references of selling this idea of taking from the street, making it haute couture. You know, he elevated the idea of a motorcycle jacket by making it in crocodile, and he borrowed from the sort of flea market look and created this kind of scandalous collection. I mean, what is now considered a scandalous collection, but he was very inspired by things that were a sort of high and low, and I always thought his aesthetic was really amazing. The execution also in his personal life, the things he looked at and he collected, his art collection, the furniture, the way he lived, his interior design of his home, his drawings, everything. Everything about the world of Yves Saint Laurent was inspiring to me and continues to be. > > Designers who I think are essential to know. I think certainly Coco Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, I think Ralph Lauren, Halston, Ray Kawakubo of Comme Des Garcon, I think Vivienne Westwood, Martin Margiela, Elsa Schiaparelli. These are some of the designers for very different reasons who I feel are hugely important or they've been hugely important to me and each of them very, very different. But there's something I've learned from each of them and continue to learn from each of them. And I think, you know, the list that one has is one that you have to create yourself. So the best thing to do is, again, look and learn and see what resonates with you and what speaks to you and try to understand the essence of what that is. > > **Find Your Path In Fashion Design** > > In fashion, I guess there's so many possibilities because there are so many different categories of fashion, I mean, there's women's wear, there's menswear, of course, but within women's wear there's people who do evening dresses. There are people who are sportswear designers, people who concentrate on children's wear, their casual dresses. I mean there's so many sort of segments or categories within male, female, unisex dressing, active sportswear. And I think, again, design is a series of creative choices, and so if there's an area in which you have a specific interest, you know, to pursue interest in that area first. It might evolve into something else, but it's good, I think to pick something that's the thing that you're most interested in. I know that's what worked for me. > > I picked womenswear. Menswear, childrenswear, all those things came as a result of the popularity of the women's wear. But I had one focus originally and that was to make women's clothes. I think if one doesn't know what their focus is, perhaps the best way to find it is to explore different things and see what you really love, what really sticks, what resonates with you, what you feel you have some kind of primitive connection to. In my case, I was fortunate enough to pursue the thing that I knew I wanted to do and loved it. > > But if it hadn't worked out that way, what I would have done or what I think I would have done was I would try different things until there was that moment that feeling where, gee, this is really what I want to pursue. And of course, you know, if something, if you try something and you find that it isn't for you and you've given it your all, there's nothing to say that you can't try something else afterwards. But I do think experiencing something and getting involved and giving it an effort to see how you feel within your choice is the best way to discover if it's the right one for you. > > **Find Your Creative Voice** > > Still finding my voice, I mean, I don't know when I look back, when I look at some of the clothes that we've made and when we talk about some of the shows that we've had or collection we've done. You know, I realized that there is these reoccurring things or reoccurring themes. And again, sometimes at the moment I'm very aware of it. More apparent that there are constantly these things that I go back to, they're memories, they're experiences, they're images, they're all of the above things that in some way I constantly revisit, and I think those are the things that make up my voice, my vision. > > I've always been attracted to the things that take my eye, often the things that I am most interested and most curious about are often like off, a bit odd, a bit awkward. I find there's more charm in them. I have a natural attraction to things that are just left of center, and that's me. I mean again, that's just what has always piqued my curiosity and what has inspired me to learn more. When there's something that I am attracted to or drawn to, but I don't quite understand or it doesn't seem quite right, those are the things that always, I guess, inspire me to learn more and look at something a little bit deeper. > > I love opposites. I love paradox. I like irony and perversity. And again, I like when putting two things together that don't belong together. And then ironically, I also like when things are completely right, but in the wrong situation. Marcel DuChamp, who put who questioned what art was and put a urinal in a museum and called it art or painted a pencil moustache on the Mona Lisa, and by defacing it, he created something new. And I guess it was that sort of attitude of Marcel Duchamp of like anything can be art and we can change something about it to create something new. That approach that attitude has always resonated with me. It's resonated with many different contemporary artists and with fashion designers. > > When Chanel looked at what fishermen were wearing and she saw them comfortable in their tweed sweaters and then decided that suit should have the comfort of a cardigan and was inspired by these fishermen tweeds. It's just all of that kind of mentality has always made sense to me. It's about looking at things and transforming them into something else. That approach in music and art, fashion has always inspired me, and I think not tying yourself down or locking yourself down right away, but allowing for evolution and growth. > > That's what a process is and that's what growth is and things don't have to be finite. One doesn't have to decide who they are, what they are, what they do. It can be something much more fluid and much more free and organic. Again, while it's good to have a focus, it's always good to allow for change and for growth. > > [!Abstract]- 3. Finding Inspiration > **The Importance of Inspiration** > > Inspiration, finding inspiration is probably the most important part of the process, or I would say it's the most important catalyst in the process. Because my team and I work on a schedule and a deadline, we very often don't have the time to actually like, well, the inspiration doesn't necessarily come first in the process. It comes at some point within the process, but it is when it comes that things actually start coming together because up until the point where we recognize what we feel inspired by within a given season, we are just making random choices based on instinct. > > So early in the process, we, you know, we start looking at fabrics and choosing colors, developing different fabrics, knitwear, accessories, et cetera. But I think without the inspiration I find, it's like I'm looking at a blank piece of paper and I don't know what to do. So we need, you know, I just can't move on. It's almost like a paralyzing sort of feeling. So when there is something that I'm excited about or inspired by, when there's something I genuinely am interested in or appeals to me, it gives me the incentive to create and to make and to do. So the inspiration plays, like I said, a huge part and I think the motivation, the catalyst. And it isn't something we can decide to find. > > It really is a very organic thing that happens throughout the entire process. Throughout the months of working on a collection. And I'd say that, you know, I feel inspired by different things all the way up until the end and putting the show together, putting the collection together, making the final choices even down to the hair and makeup, the casting of the models for the show. All of that needs to have an inspiration. There's not any part of the process design execution that without that catalyst ever feels real or right or like it has any authenticity or spirit. > > **Inspiration Helps Narrow Your Infinite Choices** > > When I feel inspired, I think it sets off a load of other actions. I mean there's research. It depends of course what the inspiration is. But when I do become inspired by something then it gives me a little bit of a parameter, which is really useful for me. I mean, I find when I have or when there are no boundaries, when there are no limits, when there are no rules, I find it's too overwhelming. > > So when that inspiration does strike and when I do feel there's something I want to say or pursue, it gives me a little bit of a sort of scope. And then I can look into doing research. Researching, depending on what it is, what that looks like, looking for visuals, looking at colors more carefully, it helps me to edit. It helps me to focus. And so it's very again useful in terms of, I guess, creating a focus. > > Then going into the design process it helps to inform the exploration of different details. I'm somebody who's very interested in every single detail of everything. So in terms of the stitching and the size of the stitch, the type of the yarn and the trims, all of the things that go into making a garment or an accessory. I mean, everything plays a part in the whole. So again, finding that inspiration helps to sort of narrow down those choices and then, you know, put them together in a way that says something fresh and new. I find that it's really useful. > > **Be Inspired By Life** > > I think it's very important to, I mean, while fashion is again the reason I do this. And I think the reason we're here talking about all of this. All fashion designers, again as far as I know as a fashion designer, it's important to see other things. It's important to have the exposure to many different visual arts. This is a quote, and I can't actually remember who said it. "Fashion is not an art. It's part of the art of living." Like good food, like beautiful interiors, like architecture. > > For fashion to have a life, it needs to come from life, and life is very rich. I mean, to be a part of the landscape means you have to look at many other things. I keep my eyes open when I'm on the street or when I'm in a car and looking out the window, you know, I think life is inspiring, people are inspiring. And ultimately fashion is what inspires me the most. So it's the way people wear clothes. It's what they're wearing. It's what they have worn. It's the type of style within a certain group. > > You know, I've never been interested in making a dress for an exhibition in a museum. I'm interested in the idea that someone will someday buy that dress. Somebody will wear that dress, someone will love that dress. And maybe somewhere down the line, their daughter will get that dress and turn it into a t-shirt or something like that. But the life of clothing is very interesting and the only way it can have any life is if it comes from life. Life is so full of different things to look at. It's very important to see and experience as much as one possibly can in terms of informing your choices and stimulating your creativity. > > **Explore Your Genuine Interests** > > Often collections that I've done have been inspired by people, people, fictitious people, real people, music periods in music. I mean, I've done collections inspired by the grunge movement in music, and the photography and the models and the sort of style sensibility that came out of that music. I have done collections inspired by hip hop. I have done collections inspired by glam rock. > > I have done collections inspired by places that I've been like Miami when it was first becoming a place to go again and its art deco architecture. I have done collections inspired by artists whose work I love, like John Currin and his wife, Rachel Feinstein. I've done collections inspired by friends such as Sofia Coppola, who's a great director and whose work not only inspires me, but who she inspires me, her sense of style, her ease and style, her naturalness and chic. > > So I find inspiration to be something very personal and what usually resonates and what works the best for me in terms of responding to an inspiration is when it is something that I actually have a connection to, when it's something I've lived, something I've experienced, something I've seen when I watch something or I see something, I'm not really sure why it does it. > > But again, it's like I connect to it. And then I just pursue it again and again. Look at things related to that particular thing. I would suggest to anyone to explore any interest that they genuinely have, you know, if you love art, if you love music, if you love street style, you know, is to really engage in it as much as you possibly can. If it's all of those things, then do as much of that as you possibly can. > > I think, you know, if it's social media, if it's technology, whatever, whatever turns you on. I think you have to just go into as far as you possibly can and explore as much as you possibly can. So wherever that comes from, you know, in order to feed that you need to, you need to find it and you need to pursue it and see it and look at it. > > Again, I always find that something there's always sort of like roots from anything that I'm interested in. So when you do find that thing that you genuinely love or that you're genuinely interested in, there's kind of things that come from there, so one thing might lead to others, and in order to do that, I think you've got to really delve into whatever it is. > > **Pursue What Seduces You Visually** > > I think the experience is the most stimulating part of the process for me. So whether we're talking about the fabrics, seeing fabrics, touching fabrics, seeing listening to music, looking at the musicians that make the music, looking at the places the music was performed. Art, learning about the artist, looking at the painter, looking at the work, experiencing it. I think it's, you know, > > I remember when I was very young and before I started designing, I was very interested in punk rock. And it wasn't because of the music itself. It was because of the way the kids looked, who are listening to the music. Now I came to learn and love punk music because I remember there was one guy I was sitting on a park bench in Central Park and he had like Black hair that had been bleached and it had bright orange and red, that like flew out of dye. And he had a little shrunken motorcycle jacket. I mean his jacket was too small for him, and he had skinny, skinny Black jeans and these funny like converse sneakers that had been like drawn all over. And I just thought he looked so odd. He was such a strange looking character, but it was that that made me interested in what punk rock was and what the music was because I was so inspired and so kind of seduced by the visual. > > And of course, the more people I saw of like people who are going to these rock clubs and the more I saw what the bands were wearing, the more I kind of, the more I kind of loved it and like, found out about it and discovered different aspects of, you know, i went I started going to thrift shops where people were buying clothes. I started listening to music. I started looking at the things the musicians were looking at and I started to learn about the things that were of interest to the people that interested me. And so again, it sort of grew, you know, my interest grew as I pursued what I was interested in. Or what turned me on and what seduced me visually. > > **Revisit the Past to Create Something New** > > Past inspirations, past collections play a big part in going forward for me. Although it's very important. And we always want to create something new, when you want to say something new and say it differently that we've said it before. There's this need to feel that there's something consistent in the work, so when the nature of fashion is to change what makes your work consistent, and I always think that in order to do that, we need to look back at things. Revisit ideas, revisit thoughts, revisit shapes or silhouettes or fabrics so that there is some kind of consistent handwriting even in the change. > > And so what that means for me specifically is to sometimes look at old shows, look at old collections, and say, what are the pieces? What are the silhouettes? I always love a sweatshirt. I always love a sneaker. There's types of clothing that I look at. So regardless of what the inspiration is, there are types of clothing that we will use or we will become affected by the inspiration. So that's what I mean by revisiting them. > > They're also style ideas like style icons or people that I've always found stylish and there's the manner in which they put clothes together that is always consistently interesting to me. So it will take a new shape or it will have a new look within a given season. But by going back to things that consistently pleased me in terms of silhouettes, in terms of fabrics, in terms of style icons, I feel that there's a kind of credible continuity. And so that's a very important thing. > > **Inspiration Is An Evolving Process** > > I wake up in the middle of the night a lot, and I write things down on post-its. I do funny little sketches while I watch TV on notepads. I sometimes play with apps on my phone, which helped me to color or recolor or collage things. I do a lot of collaging on my phone, or on an app that I have. And yeah, I make lots of little post-it notes. I sketch and I send myself emails to remind myself of things that come to me, like throughout the day and night to remember. > > I usually go through them with my team, like the following day or when I go to work, you know, show up the next morning and I say, like, oh, these are things that came to me or these are notes that I wrote down last night. And again, some of them stick some of them don't. But I tend to jot things down and that's how I work. > > I think it's very difficult sometimes for me to see inspiration, to see what the inspiration is while going through the process. It's only in retrospect that I can kind of look back and say, right, that was what was inspiring to me. That was, I mean, there are times where it is more obvious. But again, it's like we don't work on a collection or a show or anything in a day, and it's done. And then four months later, it appears and we put it on a runway. It is a daily process of looking at things, relooking at them, editing, adding and tweaking and so I think the process is always the same. The inspirations are daily. > > You know, sometimes the execution of something or the making of something inspires something else. So while one thing might come from some movie or somebody you saw on the street, then the actual process of making that thing then leads to something else. Again, it's looking at things daily and changing things. It's always about going back and relooking and correcting and changing. That's the way I work > [!Abstract]- 4. Sketching Your Ideas > > I've always found that sketching helps me think things through. And so in the process of working towards seeing the first prototype or the first muslin, I like to kind of doodle and sketch and draw out outfits or pieces of clothing on a **croquis**. And sometimes it helps me sort of have a visual reference of different options or it helps me to sort of think things through before we pass something on to a pattern maker. > > And I sketch, and everybody in the design room sketches in some way. But I do find that the sketching part of the process helps me to think about what we are going to make. So I usually set myself up with a stack of paper from the Xerox machine, some number two pencils, sometimes a couple of colored pencils, a sharpie marker or two, and once in a while I'll have some colored markers around. Usually I'll take colored markers out if I want to sort of think about like a color combination or something like that, and that usually comes later in the process. > > Normally the sketching process for me is doing some line drawings of silhouettes, just drawing some exaggerated versions of lengths and proportions with, again, something to give the pattern maker some indication of what I hope the first muslin will look like. Some people believe that you don't need to be able to sketch, some people I think there are designer's who don't sketch and some people or designers that I've heard have people sketch for them. > > As I went to Parsons and I studied at the school of Art and Design and enjoyed figure drawing and life drawing, and fashion illustration, sketching to me seems like an essential part of the design process. Mostly I sit in the design room and I set up an area where there's enough table space that I can lay the sketches out. Again, as it has kind of helped me in the editing process and the decision process what I like to do is a number of sketches and lay them on the table. > > So if I'm doing a jacket I might sketch the same jacket with a different color, with a different revere button, single breasted, double breasted, I might sketch at different proportions and then I'll lay them out. When I have a number of sketches laid out on the table then I kind of do a selection or an edit of the things that I like to try. In other words, I like to go to the work room or the sample room with the pattern makers and start working on a muslin. > > **Sketching Tools** > > Okay, so as far as paper goes I like a rough paper, and again it comes right from the xerox machine. I just don't like a smooth glossy paper because I like resistance when I draw. So I like using a number 2 pencil and I'm very heavy handed and I like a kind of variety in line I sketch. Especially when it's rough. So I prefer a number 2 pencil because it's soft, there's no particular brand that I gravitate towards. I do like a pencil with an eraser at the end because I hate having a separate eraser. I like sharpies. I like the widths they come in and the strength of the line. I also like flair pens which is like a finer point pen that doesn't smell as much as a sharpie and doesn't bleed through the page. > > As far as colored markers go there's not a particular brand and again it's not very often that I will fully color in a sketch. Anything that's around the studio. Pantone makes a great range of colors. So I guess those are the one's that I use mostly. > > **Working with Croquis** > > I learned at an early age when I was in school that a croquis was a kind of blank figure, representation of a figure, that I could lay underneath a piece of paper and draw over. So it gave me a kind of template for which I could draw. Again when I sketch sort of freehand, loosely as kind of notes to myself, or as a kind of shorthand to communicate something to one of the other designers on the team it's one thing. But when I want to look at sketches and I want to see them in a more uniform fashion I use a croquis as a template so that each sketch has a similarity in terms of the height, space it takes up on the page. Also so that when they go to the pattern maker, the pattern maker can look at the sketches and see the difference between one and the other. They can see that one jacket on the figure is drawn slimmer, or wider, or shorter, or longer. So if the sketches were all different sizes and shapes it would make it just a little bit trickier in terms of their understanding and communication of those ideas. > > Each season, I do what I always call my warm-up. I start procrastinating about sketching because I feel like I'm committing to something. It's kind of a torturous process for me. So in this committing to sketching, or to the process of sketching what I do is I redraw a figure. It's usually an exaggeration of a figure that I've made. But it either has some type of a hairstyle or some type of an accessory, or it's in a stance that I feel has an attitude that will work with what the spirit of the clothes are going to be. So I take a little while, and I kind of go through about 30 or so sheets of paper. And I come up with a figure for a particular season. And that becomes the croquis of that season. The croquis could change throughout the season as I become more sure of the accessories or more certain of the silhouette we're going for. Or the footwear or whatever it is. But I use the croquis for knitwear, for the clothing and wovens, etc. And so I like to feel comfortable and confident that whatever exaggeration of a croquis that I I'm using is one that feels like this mythical creature we're going to be sending down the runway in three months. > > **The Goal of Your First Sketch** > > Sometimes, I guess depending on the collection and depending on what we're doing sometimes a sketch is really about the silhouette. And it does not include a lot of detail. Sometimes after the first muslin when we see that I'll go back and redo the sketch to include some suggestions of ornamentation or decoration. Very rarely, but sometimes, even after that I'll go back and do another sketch which might be even more of a fashion illustration rather than a rough sketch. When I sit down and sketch, again, I'm trying to get the spirit or the attitude that we're going for with the look or the look of the show the style of the show. I'm trying to get a flat version or a front view of this look or this piece of clothing. With a very minimal amount of detailing so that the seam lines are what I imagine the seam lines would be, what I imagine the darts or the cuts will be. Give the silhouette to the pattern maker so that they can start to drape. > > It all depends, usually the first sketch is one that sort of gives an idea of where the cuts and the seams are, or what the silhouette is, what the lengths and proportions I'm expecting to see in the first fitting are. That's usually what the first sketch entails. Sometimes things have a little more character and a little bit more style to them. Sometimes they are a little bit more basic. What I usually do is on the right hand side of the page is I attach swatches of what the fabrics will be for the particular garment, or outfit that I've sketched. So there is some indication of what fabric, or say it's a sketch of the pant, there will be a sketch on the top right of what the jacket is and in the bottom right what the pant will be. So that the pattern maker has some feeling of how stiff or how heavy or how light the fabrics are, whether they have a nap or direction, whether they're printed or patterned or solid. So it gives them a little bit of an idea too of what I've got in mind. > > When I feel that I have something down on paper that I'd like to see realized as a muslin that's when I stop. Sometimes it takes me a little while to sort of run through a couple of versions of the same thing in my head, I put it down on paper and then I'll edit maybe five sketches to become two. Maybe ten sketches become five. But we can't try everything, there just isn't enough time. Between all the designers we all sketch, we all edit, we edit ourselves, then we submit those sketches or give those sketches to pattern makers to start trying the muslins. We resketch them after the fittings and what changes during the fittings we kind of update the sketches at some point during the process and often we continue to update them until it comes close to representing what the final garment is. > > **Sketching Demonstration Part 1** > > So I've got my drawing board, which just helps me with my neck especially. Sometimes I use a drawing board and sometimes I don't normally, I'm really flat on the table and I'm sort of leaning over and then I complain about a stiff neck for the rest of the day, but anyways. Here I have the sketching board which I got in an art supply store and some paper from the xerox machine, a number two pencil and underneath the paper is a croquis from the previous season. What I'm going to do is just sketch roughly one of the looks from the last full show. > > So with this type of sketch I'm going to try to refrain from too much flourish or style and give a slightly simplified indication of the type of car coat that I'd like the pattern makers to work on. So I'm just going to put in a little indication of a hat. Just a little bit of a head and face to have some character. But what I'm really going to try and put down is what I imagine this "car coat" will look like. The size of the lapel and revere that I would like to see. Where the buttons begin and end. The sort of width of the jacket and length. Maybe indicated the shoulders dropped a little bit. The sleeves a bit wider, it has a tab at the bottom, button. That it's very boxy in the fit, that it doesn't fit the body but it's more of a box around the body. I'll give a little indication of the hands so that they know what I'm expecting in terms of the sleeve length. I'll draw in bits of a pocket shape and proportion where I expect it would come to in the jacket. Maybe I'll put in a little bit of texture in the collar and revere, or so they understand that it's a thick shearing. I'll draw in suggestion of a yoke so they know the cut on the shoulder. I'll keep it that simple. > > Then I'll just sort of very loosely rough in the pants so that the figure is complete. The pant isn't really the focus of the sketch it's just more to finish the drawing. I might indicate little button holes, a button. I will attach swatches and I'll write "Wide Wale Corduroy," I'll put "fake shearing lining and trim" and at the top I'll write "Car Coat" that's about it. > > So this being the sketch that I would give to the pattern maker. What I try to do is not put in too much information. Again I wouldn't render the corduroy, I wouldn't put in the color because at this point what I'm trying to give them is basically a flat sketch on a body. I don't really do flat drawings but a lot of designers do, for more technical drawings. But I find that again, after years of working with my pattern makers and like I like to draw things on a figure. So even if it's a very flattened version of what a garment is, I prefer to do this kind of flat sketch on a figure. > > So I leave out as much information as possible just so they can kind of get a sense of the length, the width, the proportion of the type of car coat. So again I'm not asking them make or drape a 'look' I'm specifically focusing on the idea of a car coat that's in a wide wale corduroy that will have a fake fur lining, and fake fur trim and it gives them some indication of what I expect in terms of the silhouette. > > **Sketching Demonstration Part 2** > > So this is a croquis from an old season but I just pulled this up to use. The croquis doesn't really matter that much. I feel that I like to do a new croquis for each season. For now I'll use any croquis and transform it to what I know is in season. I can wing it. Lets sketch a dress here. In thinking about this last collection. You know I want to do dresses but I want them to have a sort of sporty feel. So I started to think of what kind of attributes dresses could have in order for no matter what period they were inspired by that they felt a bit more like sportswear like a bluzon. So when I started to sketch I went and started with this little bucket hat. Put in some little indication of a head. Then I thought about a mock turtle neck, which is just a short little turtle neck and the idea of something that felt a little bit more like almost like a velour tracksuit rather than a formal dress. I indicated that there was a bluzon that was below. Put a little bit of gathering into the skirt portion of the sketch. I indicated that there would be a rib trim at the wrist of the dress. Suggestion of the leg of a what I knew would be the boot. Very simple again to show the very basic version of the silhouette. A little bit of gathering and an elongated bluzon waist and that's it. And then probably write "Back Zip" "2 Side Seams" just to give an indication of how simple the pattern should be. > > **It's All About Communication** > > What I've learned about sketching is first of all it's not always easy to understand what a person means by a sketch. Sometimes I feel, and it's very again this is a learned experience. You know I could put something down and while it's very evident to me what it means and what it represents it's not always very clear to every pattern maker. So along with the sketch, any other information written or spoken is useful. So sometimes I'll draw something out, which to me is clear but then I'll write above the swatch "I want a narrow jacket with the feeling of a high-waist" so the sketch is something that I first do for myself as a means of communication. Anything that I can do to support that sketch, any references whether it's a swatch of fabric, a few written words that indicate what the proportions are or what I'm going for. Whether it's talking through it with a pattern maker or whether it's a photograph or a visual reference based on some of the research that I've done. Anything I can do to support that sketch and give a clear message to the pattern maker who's going to interpret it, that's the most useful thing for me to do. > [!abstract] 5. The Creative Process of Design > --- ### **References**