Facts about the Art of Fashion Design

Most people love to show off and express their personal beauty through what they wear and the way they wear it. Fashion is not just a product, but rather an embodiment of the identity of individuals, the way they express themselves, their perception and depiction of themselves, the way they behave, and their lifestyle. It also has the ability to improve the quality of our lives and raise our morale, and most importantly, it can bring happiness to our lives.

From here, the concept of fashion design begins as a way to transform the designer’s imagined creative ideas into clothes and accessories that go through many stages until they become wearable.

Considering that this field has become important in our current era and is increasingly prosperous with ideas year after year. Stay with us, my dear, so that we can learn together in this article about fashion design in its broad sense.

Fashion Design Definition

It is an art of design that is concerned with designing and adding beauty and creative touches to fashion, and how to apply the artistic form of a design piece by creating designs that have an aesthetic impact inspired by social, geographical, economic, and cultural aspects.

In addition to being a profession that combines technological knowledge and personal expression with responding to the user’s need, fashion design is also concerned with understanding all the basic elements of design and their structure, as every line in it has connotation, value, and meaning.

Now we will take you with us, my dear, on a journey to learn about the history of this vast and beautiful art.

Fashion Design History

The origins of fashion design go back to 1826, and the world’s first fashion designer in the 19th century is believed to be Charles Frederick Worth, who was earlier a tailor and established his own fashion house in Paris.

At that time, clothes were made by unknown tailors, and fashion standards were derived from the styles of clothes worn by kings. He was the one who began to imitate fashion houses and tell his customers what kind of clothes would suit them instead of the previous method in which they were offered ready-made clothes.

New developments in fashion occurred at the beginning of the twentieth century first in Paris, and from there they spread to the rest of the world and Paris emerged as the “fashion capital”.

Fashion awareness among people increased towards the end of the twentieth century and they started choosing clothes for themselves based on comfort and their own clothing styles rather than relying on trends in the market.

The Purpose of Fashion Design

Fashion design serves several important purposes, and its importance extends beyond the manufacture of clothing and accessories, as it allows individuals to express their personal lifestyle, identity, and personality. Fashion is able to add beauty and diversity to our lives.

It can reflect the culture and heritage of society, as it plays a role in cultural exchange, so it helps bridge the gaps between different cultures, and contributes significantly to the global economy and various industries. Designers often use their collections to address important issues and convey messages that are important to them to people, so we find many types of designs that vary from one designer to another.

Also read: Basic Clothing Items That Must Be in Your Closet

Fashion Design Sections

The fashion designer tries to design new fashions and live with the conditions of reality in a beautiful, fine way. Therefore, there are five basic types of fashion design, which are:

1. Haute Couture Design: The designer provides unique, high-end clothing designs, by creating works of art in the form of limited edition clothing and accessories, and applies to custom-made clothing for clients. When designing this type of clothing, you will be sure that it is handmade and that the fabrics used are of the finest quality.

2. Luxury Fashion Design: It includes designing high-quality clothing that is not handmade but is produced in small quantities and with a slower production cycle, precise designs, and expensive materials for distinguished customers, which affects its price so that the price becomes high compared to ready-to-wear fashion design and lower than high-end fashion designs.
3. Ready-to-Wear Design: This type of design is responsible for mass-produced designs with uniform sizes and measurements, and takes into account customer needs and requirements through the quality of the materials used. This type of design focuses on producing attractive clothing in large quantities that suit the market trend of this season.
4. Economy Fashion Design: In this type of design, clothes are produced in large quantities and at low costs, by using cheap materials to achieve increased profits. These designs are the economical fashion that we see in malls during end-of-season sales, and they are considered suitable for most people because they are the most widespread and in demand.

5. Fast Fashion Design: These designs follow the style of haute couture, but are modified and manufactured for a larger audience and in larger quantities at a rapid production rate, like the majority of clothing brands that ordinary consumers are familiar with. This type of design results from the desire of merchants to offer fashionable clothing, which can be marketed and sold at the cheapest possible cost using low-quality materials.

Each type of design mentioned has specific foundations that differ from one type to another, which the designer adopts to produce the finest clothes.

Fashion Design Foundations

Design foundations are essential to the development and production of clothing used by individuals and families around the world, and each principle has a specific role in creating an aesthetically appealing garment or collection.

Clothes often combine more than one principle, making use of design elements to create a cohesive look. Here we will provide you with basic information about each design principle:

1. Balance: Balance means harmony between parts of the design. To achieve balance, the clothing or group must have equal visual weight throughout the design. Color, line, and texture can also affect the balance of the design.
2. Proportion/Scale: Defined as the spatial or volumetric relationship of all parts of a design to each other and to the entire garment or ensemble.

In order for clothes to have visual appeal on the human body, it is recommended that they fit the natural shape of the wearer’s body, and the design details in the clothes can contribute to the overall proportion of the collection.

3. Concentration: concentration is used to attract interest in clothing or to draw attention to a specific part of the collection. When used by the designer, one feature of the collection is more apparent in the design than others, such as the use of color, line, and texture to draw attention to parts of the body.
4. Rhythm: Using this principle, the eye moves from one feature of the body to another, as it creates a sense of movement in the design. A pattern or texture is created by applying rhythm to the surface design of the fabrics used in making clothing or products.
5. Harmony: Harmony occurs when visual unity of the overall design or clothing collection is achieved, and when design elements (color, shape, line, and texture) are used effectively within the parameters of design principles, harmony is created.

Fashion Designer Definition

A fashion designer is a person with an innate sense of style, precise perception of color, personal creativity, and artistic talent, who comes up with a vision for the garment and designs sketches to show what the final product will look like.

Originating in the 17th century, the word “designer” meant “one who plans,” and the word soon came to describe a person who figures out how something should look.

A clothing or fashion designer creates clothing for all segments of society – women, men, youth, children, and babies – including dresses, wedding dresses, casual wear, versatile separates, jackets, sportswear, tailored clothing, evening wear, formal wear, outerwear, lingerie, maternity clothes, and swimwear, and usually specializes in one of the previous categories. In order for a fashion designer to be good, he must have many qualities that we will learn about.

Fashion Designer Skills and Qualities

Designers rely on their creativity and artistic sense to create designs, but the fashion design profession requires a variety of skills that the designer must possess, including:

1. Good communication skills.
2. Flexibility in thinking.
3. Competitive spirit and constant striving.
4. Creativity and innovation.
5. Artistic ability in order to convey ideas effectively.
6. Sense of style by knowing which fabrics and colors will complement the clothes.
7. Knowledge of source materials.
8. Good sewing skills.
9. Team spirit.
10. Knowledge of the latest fashion trends.
11. Strong visualization skills.
12. Computer skills and design programs.
13. Ability to make decisions.
14. Attention to detail.
15. High skills in marketing, sales, advertising, and management.

What is the Study of Fashion Design?

Fashion design is the practical application of art, creativity, and aesthetics in the design, creating, and production of clothing and accessories.

University degrees in fashion usually approach the topic from one of two angles:

1. As an academic field of study, fashion design combines disciplines such as history, business, psychology, illustration, and technology.
2. As an artistic practice, fashion design intersects with culture and psychology.

Whoever wants to study the specialty of fashion and fashion design, this major includes a number of curricula in the field of design, such as knowing the concept of the field of fashion design in general, its specializations, and its pros and cons, which we will learn about later in the article.

The student also studies the principles of drawing, methods of drawing a mannequin, and how to display fashions on it, the basic elements that make up the design, in addition to electronic design programs. Among the subjects studied are the technique of combining in design, coordination between colors, the method of embroidering clothes, the skills necessary to differentiate between different types of fabrics, and methods, handling, proper detailing, etc.

When it comes to studying fashion design, earning a degree in fashion is definitely one of the best ways to secure a good position in the industry. One of the benefits of this degree is the diverse options and fields available when it comes to the types of fashion design majors and the careers they lead to.

Fashion Designer Fields

After graduation, fashion designers can choose to work for a fashion house, an independent fashion label, or an established clothing factory/store.

Other functional fields include:

1. Creative practice and research.
2. Design of all kinds.
3. Visual merchandising and marketing.
4. Public relations, production and trade, etc.

Fashion Design Steps

A fashion designer always begins his work with a goal that needs to be achieved, and the goal does not depend on creating new designs. The designer’s task may be to meet the requirements of the consumer or the fashion house and to create a product design that suits the brand’s style, values, budget, and restrictions.

The fashion design process goes through a number of stages until the designer completes this task, which are:

1. Finding inspiration: Designers try to discover what current fashion trends convey about consumers’ desires and needs and draw inspiration from them. They also draw from several sources such as art, history, architecture, and fashion trends, given that fashion is not just the clothes you wear, but the way you wear them.
2. Drawing ideas: Drawings help designers mentally visualize designs and present the idea concretely, giving the image another point of view. Drawings are the basis of design, as simple drawings can communicate the technical elements of an idea as they are considered a blueprint for the model maker to create a prototype.
3. Selection of fabrics: Designers must choose the appropriate type of fabric to better understand how it fits, moves, and drapes on the human body, and sometimes the fabric determines the type of clothing that a designer will make.
4. Choosing colors: Color is a powerful tool for conveying the mood, and it is often the first thing people notice when they look at any piece of clothing, so the designer must choose an appropriate color palette to depict the appropriate mood and story of the clothing.
5. Sampling and Prototyping: The designer will finalize his drawings and send them to model makers for prototyping, which represents the 3D form of the design, allowing the designer to review and modify it as needed.
6. Assembling clothes: The designer must determine the best techniques that can be used to design his clothes, and the design choices must be considered according to the appropriate place to wear them. For example, the worn and incomplete look suits street fashion, but it may not be the best choice for an elegant evening dress.
7. Clothes selection: The designer often uses fashion models to visualize his designs, coordinate clothes, and figure out what changes he needs to make when creating the final look of the product.

Fashion Design Specializations

Fashion design is classified as a department of home economics and educational arts in most universities, and students of this major learn everything related to knitting and weaving, designing, and preparing sketches by hand or by using the computer through programs designated for that.

The academic content also includes learning about the history of fashion design, modern trends, fashion, and business administration, in addition to their leadership in this field, and let us not forget the basic principles of drawing. They also undertake many projects. Perhaps the most prominent subjects taught by the students in this specialization are the following:

• The foundations of fashion design and how to become a professional

• History of fashion design

• Forecasting fashion trends

• Types of fabrics and seams

• Using computers in fashion design

• Field training in fashion design

• Textiles

• Clothes manufacture

• Children’s clothing

The previously mentioned subjects differ in terms of names from one country to another, and therefore from one university to another, and the process of teaching these subjects ranges between multiple tracks, some of which are at an advanced level and some of which are divided into several tracks, and some subjects are practical or theoretical, or practical and theoretical at the same time.

Also read: How Does Wearing Famous Brands Affect People?

Fashion Design Advantages

Fashion designs are almost dominating the clothing market, and it has become more of a need than just fashion and luxury, considering that major companies rely heavily on it. The most prominent positives of this specialty are:

1. Fashion designers have great sociability and a wide circle of acquaintances with celebrities and those who constantly need to appear in a new and attention-grabbing look.
2. It is considered a financially profitable field for those with good experience in this field.

Fashion Design Disadvantages

Just as every field has many positives, there are also negatives. The most prominent problems that the allocator may face are:

1. Exposure to imitation and theft of designs.
2. Constant stress and pressure.
3. Inability to control working hours, which may affect productivity and quality.

What is the Fashion Capital?

A fashion capital (or fashion city) is a city classified as a major center for the fashion industry.

Activities such as the design, production, manufacture, and sale of fashion-related goods, as well as the regular hosting of major fashion events (such as fashion weeks, award ceremonies, trade shows, and career fairs), generate significant revenues that contribute to the economy.

• There are four major global fashion capitals: New York, Paris, Milan, and London.

Fashion Weeks, which used to be held in major fashion markets such as New York and Paris, are now held around the world, in cities such as Seoul, Tokyo, São Paulo, Buenos Aires, Los Angeles, London, Moscow, Hong Kong and Singapore, and in smaller cities such as Jacksonville (Florida) and Charlotte ( North Carolina), Charleston (South Carolina) and many others.

What is Fashion Week?

Fashion Week is an approximately one-week event in which fashion designers present their seasonal collections to editors, journalists, buyers, and industry leaders.

In general, Fashion Week is held twice a year for ready-to-wear clothing for women and men, once in February for the fall season and then once in September for the spring season of the following year, and each of these two events lasts for one week.

The Most Famous Fashion Designers

There are many fashion designers in every country in the world, but there are some international fashion designers who are famous for their designs and the successes they have achieved during their years of work around the world, including:

Elie Saab, Yves Saint Laurent, Hubert de Givenchy, Ralph Lauren, Coco Chanel, Christian Dior…etc.

Finally, we know that innovation and renewal are the soul of this industry, and providing distinctive and different products is the essence of the designer’s work. If you are thinking about entering this field, research more, starting with this article of ours, where we mentioned to you that the world of fashion requires knowledge of the concept of fashion design and the skills to search for and create new ideas. It also requires that the designer be aware of the market and the consumer, and most importantly, that he be able to realize his ideas, as he knows that fashion design remains just an idea if it is not actually implemented on the ground.

If you are a fan of this field, share with us, dear, in the comments topics that interest you regarding fashion.

Frequently Asked Questions about Fashion Design

Sources:

digitalcommons

fidm.edu