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Fashion Design
Fashion Design
Fashion design is the art dedicated
to the creation of wearing apparel and lifestyle. Please
see also Fashion for a more complete definition.
The first person who could really be
considered as a Fashion designer was Charles Frederick
Worth (1826-1895). Before he set up his maison couture
(fashion house) in Paris, clothing design and creation
was handled by largely anonymous seamstresses. When he
started his business, his customers could attach a name
and a face to his designs once they learned that they
were from the House of Worth, thus starting the tradition
of having the designer of a large company is not only
the creative head but the symbol of the brand as well.
After Worth, Paul Poiret started with a concept which
is nowadays considered as general fashion design/ marketing
and Haute Couture, and is also credited with starting
the trend of removing the corset from female fashion.
Although fashion itself has a long history which leads
back to the early civilisations, the people who designed
and produced garments before the late 19th/early 20th
century were seen as anonymous artisans, not well-known
public figures.
Following in Worth's and Poiret's footsteps
were: Patou, Vionnet, Fortuny, Lanvin, Chanel, Schiaparelli,
Balenciaga, and Dior.
By the 1960's, haute couture was not
the only trend dictator anymore. Under influence of Fashion
Icons (like for example Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn
and Jackie Kennedy or the models like Twiggy), Youth culture
and the independent women's movements, it became acceptable
for fashion to ascend from the people rather than be handed
down by large couture houses.
Fashion brands not only just produced
garments anymore but also started to create their own
image or started designing for certain target groups and/or
sub cultures. Vivienne Westwood for example "created”
the image which is now generally considered as Punk. The
Trend dictation of the Old Couture Houses was over.
Modern fashion design and designers
Modern fashion design is roughly divided
into two categories, haute couture, and ready-to-wear.
A designer's haute-couture collection is meant exclusively
for private customers and is custom sized, cut and sewn.
To qualify as an official "haute couture" house,
a designer or company must belong to the Syndical Chamber
for Haute Couture, a Paris-based body of designers governed
by the French Department of Industry that includes American,
Italian, Japanese, and other designers as well. A haute
couture house must show collections twice yearly with
at least 35 separate outfits in each show. It is often
shown on the catwalk and in private salons.
Ready-to-wear collections are not custom
made. They are standard sized which makes them more suitable
for larger productions. Ready-to-wear collections can
also be divided into designers/createur collections and
Confection collections. Designer/createur collections
have a high quality, a superb finish and a unique cut
and design. These collections are the most trendsetting
compared to Haute Couture and Confection. Designer/createurs
ready to wear collections contain often concept items
that represent a certain philosophy or theory. These items
are not so much created for sales but just to make a statement.
The designer's ready-to-wear collection is also presented
on the international catwalks by people who do fashion
modeling.
Confection collections are the ones we
see most commonly in our shops. These collections are
designed by stylists. The brands that produce these collections
aim only for a mass public and are in general not searching
for new grammar for the language or a new point of view
on/of fashion.
Although many modern fashion designers
work in a "traditional" way -- making clothes
that are fancy and expensive, but still based on standard/traditional
construction and design concepts -- some designers have
broken these "rules" over the years. These include
some now-deceased designers such as Elsa Schiaparelli,
who worked in the thirties, forties, and fifties; Japanese
designers Yojhi Yamomoto, Comme des Garcons, and Junya
Watanabe from the early eighties to the present; and designers
from the mid-nineties onward. Fine examples of modern-day
"rule breakers" are Martin Margiela and Warmenhoven
& Venderbos. These designers approach clothing, Fashion
and lifestyle from new angles and explore also the boundaries
of Fashion itself in order to create "new" concepts
and views for fashion design. Their collections are not
only restricted to garments (ready to wear as well as
couture) and other fashion-related products, but also
contain work in other media. The works of this breed of
designers can also be placed in a certain Art movement.
Most fashion designers attend an Academie
of fine arts. Fashion design courses are considered applied
arts just like graphic design and interior design.
The types of fashion designer -- stylist
versus designer -- are often confused. A stylist inspires
his/her designs on existing things, trends and designers
collections. A designer starts from scratch; he/she develops
a unique concept and translates this into garment collections,
other lifestyle related products or a statement in various
other types of media. Some designers approach their work
just as a fine arts painter or sculptor.
Inspiration for fashion designers comes
from a wide range of things and cannot be pinpointed exactly.
However, just like all artists, they tend to keep an eye
on things going on world-wide to inspire themselves towards
making their future clothes lines.
Most fashion designers are well trained
pattern makers and modeleurs. A typical design team is
made up out one or more: designer(s), pattern maker(s)
/modeleur(s), sample maker(s), buyer(s) and salesman (men).
For presentations and catwalk shows the help of hair dressers,
make-up artists, photographers modeling agencies, the
model and other support companies/professions is called
upon.
As fashion became more and more a large
business, designers also began to license products. (For
example: perfume, bags and all sorts of products)
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