Every designer and company uses a specific process for designing. Fashion Designers need to be flexible in the process they use if they want to work on a team but also flexibility is important even if you only plan to work for yourself. In most fashion schools there is a course, usually in first year, simply called "Fashion Design" or "Fashion Design Process" or...well something like that anyway. In this course new students are taught design process.

These courses all teach roughly the same thing. The steps will be in different orders and sometimes some steps will be left out or there will be extra steps added but in general, all of the courses teach roughly the same thing, the same process. This happens because instructors tend to be designers and designers who become instructors tend to have gone to a fashion school where they were taught process. They then go out in the world and use this process in other companies and it is a big cyclical process where they are reteaching the same information they have already been taught.

This design group image provided by Cupcake84

I guess this could be seen as a bad thing: too much structure and control in the creative process. But actually within these steps there is so much that can be done to expand your creative muscles. The processes are designed more to channel what is often overwhelming creativity inside a designer039;s mind into a usable form than they are to control or diminish a designer's ability to think abstractly. So in actuality, what could be seen at first as a bad thing can also be called "best practice". In fact, most fashion design students quickly see that by learning process they become much more creative. Not only that but once you have followed process, anyone's process, at least once, and understood what you have gained going from step to step, you will be able to refine and play with the process to find what works for you.

This guide will take you from the absolute beginning, from not even knowing who you are or ever designing more than a dress here or there, to the completed design of your fashion collection. This guide covers only design, not prototyping or actually constructing, which if you're making it for yourself you can figure out on your own and if you are wanting to produce professionally you should be a member of this site, but rather only the actual fashion design process -- or in other words: how to design a fashion collection, not how to be a designer or how to get a collection ready to sell.

The steps that are in this guide are but just one process you can follow, but it is also the most common process taught in schools and in books -- possibly with the addition of extra steps. I've tried to include much as I can and most people will find that they end up dropping steps as they learn what works best for them. You also may find that you reorder the steps to fit the way your mind works best. If you come up with, or know of, a step which is not in this guide please comment and I'll add it! For simplicity's sake I have divided the steps into two sections: Research and Design.

Research

1. Define Yourself -- Make a list, a collage, and even a binder full of pictures that help show who you are as a designer. Pick images that bring emotion from you in some way. They could make you angry, they could make you sad, they could be beautiful...you may even think that they make you feel nothing and yet for some reason you stopped and stared flipping through that magazine. Absolutely everything that elicits a response from you should be included.
2. Define Your Customer -- Do the same thing but this time think about who your customer is. When you have pictures of the customer in clothing try to make the clothing not be identifiable as a specific brand. The idea is to develop an image of what your customer looks like, their attitude, their accessories, their hair...not to identify a brand which you tend to emulate.
3. Define Your Market -- This includes identifying the brands which sell to your customer and doing research on what they charge and what the buying habits of their customers (your customers) are. Visit stores, look on the internet, do everything you can to be familiar with the market you want to design for. There are several groups of markets and I will write an article on this later. If you would like to be notified please make sure you are subscribed to the site or our newsletter. For your first collection, if you are doing this only as a learning exercise and do not plan to market the clothing to people you may choose to skip this. It is advisable not to -- every designer should understand the market they are designing for -- however for someone who is attempting this the very first time and just wants to design this may be overwhelming or too boring. If this step holds you back, skip it for now but remember that when you want to be more serious about this you need to know your market.
4. Do Trend Research -- Not every designer does this as a specific task but it's important depending on your market. Every market has different trends also so be aware of what trends affect your market. Don't forget to learn about the past...a designer who designs for a trendy market that is able to predict upcoming trends, especially colours, will find success. Designers who do not do trend research may work in an area where trends are not as important however that designer will not be successful without awareness of what his/her customers are currently wearing. This may be just rote knowledge gained from reading the magazines or it may come as a specific research task.
5. Croquis Development -- A croquis is what students tend to call a fashion figure template. Some designers do not use figure templates as they have the skill to draw the clothing on the body freehand so they will obviously skip this step. Other designers, like me, have a large collection of pre-drawn templates which they pick from. But some designers prefer to use templates which have been specifically designed for their upcoming collection. In that case they may choose to do this later in the process as the very last step of research before they begin the design process so that they can incorporate all of their research into the templates they will use.
   
   
   This is a set of fashion figure templates which I developed specifically for a project. I saw these girls in a magazine, painted up to look like statues, and I knew instantly that they would fit the design group I was working on for school. Which was perfect because at that time I was still terrified of drawing figures and so I jumped at the chance to digitally manipulate them so that they were the right proportions. I'm not a photoshop whiz by any stretch of the imagination but I did my best and my instructor really responded well to all the creativity I poured into this mini collection. I did add the umbrella, I was proud of that! Originally the model had been holding a staff.

The next 3 steps are interchangeable and the order I'm showing them in is really just random. If this is your first time pick the order you will do them in and stick to it so that you can stay focussed.

6. Inspiration -- Decide what your inspiration is for this collection and develop a mood board or concept board using images, drawings, paint, fabric, twigs, anything that says to you what this collection means. Sometimes a designer is inspired by fabric or by a set of fabrics. Even though they have their colour palette from the fabrics and they have their fabrics it is important for most to still define their inspiration by finding images which give the mood that they envisioned when they became inspired by that fabric.
   
   
   Here is a collage I did for school. Earlier in the course the instructor had us look at reviews of runway collections and pick one which not only reviewed the clothing but talked about the inspiration that was in the collection. This was during the part of the course that she was teaching us about market research. Later in the course she had us take those reviews and pick one and then make a collage based on what the review said the inspiration had been. It was not about the designer but rather about finding a good review with lots of visual keywords. One thing that should be noted is that even though this looks like a mess of images this is the only 100% I received in the whole course. An inspiration collage is a collection of inspiring images to use to work from, it is not usually the final mood board (though it can be if a designer likes it enough) and it is usually in a sketchbook -- somewhere that the designer has been able to collect the images as s/he goes.
   
   
   Here is a picture of me with images of stained glass. I originally thought I was doing a church stained glass theme for my final project for this course but in my research I came across a stained glass window with a west coast BC (Canada) theme and I eventually decided on that as my inspiration. My final mood board is below...you'll notice it is not traditional and that is okay. Rather than making a collage image I actually made a stained glass window out of plastic and behind it I had photographs of the area that particular window was based on. A mood board is about presenting the mood of what you are designing in whatever way speaks to you best. A collage is different and is often done in the designer's sketchbook and is literally a collection of images that the mood board is pulled from.
   
   
   
7. Colour Palette -- From your inspiration board pick your key colours (In the mood board I did above mine were pretty obvious but sometimes you have to make strategic decisions). Or, you may pick your key colours first from one specific image and then do your inspiration board so that it is more harmonious...representing both your inspiration and the colours which actually creates a much stronger mood on your board. Or, sometimes a designer is inspired by fabric and in that case the colours for subsequent fabrics and the inspiration board are picked from the fabric and from colours which will be pleasing with that fabric. You can represent the colours using paint chips, a colour board, or just be aware of them as you pick your fabrics and finalize your inspiration.
8. Fabric Choice -- Pick your final fabrics. For new designers most recommend no more than 3 main fabrics, 2 accent fabrics and 2 trims. Making a cohesive collection with dozens of fabrics and trims is difficult even for established designers. Designers often create a fabric board or they may incorporate the fabric board with the mood board.

Design

1. First Item -- Often step one in the designing portion of designing a fashion collection is to design a first item, either a jacket or a dress which is developed from the inspiration you have collected. Some designers just start drawing and may skip this "first item" but for many designers this is integral. This dress or jacket may never even end up in the final collection, in fact it may be abandoned early, but for many designers it is an important starting point.
   
   
   This was my first item for the review-based collage I posted a scan of above
   
   
2. Drawing and Designing -- Many many items are drawn using many methods. One method is to simply draw as many items as you can which are representations of the inspiration. Often a designer will design 60 or more items only to end up with 10. The more pieces you are able to design, the more cohesive the final collection will be because you will have so many to pick from that you have a better chance of picking pieces which go together. Other than simply drawing as much as you can some people use their first item (from step 1) and pick features out of it to transfer into new drawings. For instance maybe they have done a jacket as their first one, in this jacket they have a grey fabric with very obvious red top stitching. The red top stitching is a strong design detail of that jacket. So the designer can draw a pair of pants next which have red top stitching and some funky pockets. Next is a pair of shorts with the same stitching and the same pockets. Now maybe the designer will design a sundress without stitching but with the same pockets -- details are transferred over from one item to another. Within the on-paper designing method there are many different tricks you can use to make this process quicker and easier which you can learn about in some of the books I've recommended below. Remember to use a fashion figure template for starters.
   
   Another popular method is to design on the dressform. Within this method sometimes a designer does one great item, a dress most often, and from there sits down and draws the rest and sometimes a designer will design the entire collection on the dressform. Not everyone can do this just like not everyone can design on paper.
   
   
   Here is a picture of several items I tried to draw from that first item. I did not really grasp the concept at the time, as this was my first time designing anything more than a single dress but my instructor talked with me after this and I understood better. We had been told to make at least 40 drawings and edit it down to 8. These are the only ones I did because I did not understand and drawing was so hard still then that these 8 took many hours. This is why these designs are a bit too much like costumes, I had not yet learned the art of transferring design details subtly from one design to the next. And that's okay! That's how you learn!
   
   
3. Editing -- Once a designer has drawn many designs, hopefully at least 4 times the number they wish to have in their collection, they will edit it down to their final collection by picking the designs which go together and which most closely match their market. It tends to be general practice for a designer of a small collection (8 items) to have one knock-em-dead signature piece (dress or jacket), a jacket, two blouses/tops, two or three bottoms, and a dress. Of course this number varies greatly but it is a starting point for you.
   
   
   Here is my final mini-collection painted onto the croquis I had designed on the computer. The white is a flash, it's difficult to photograph shiny paper. I like some of it and don't like others but in the end I was really happy with the results. :)

Designing a collection is not a quick process. The above steps can take a long time. In business there are set time frames to get a collection designed but for now do not focus on that. For now, take the time that you need, set those time goals appropriately, so that you can get through all the steps and learn the process of design. Also remember to allow flexibility and to allow yourself to go backwards in the process if you need to in order to make changes or find your focus.

At the end of January we will be launching a self study course in fashion design which will follow the steps in this article but in much greater detail and with example assignments. Make sure you are subscribed to Fashion Students online or signed up to the newsletter to be notified when it is launched.

I still plan to make this skirt one day but have not because of the hundreds of hours it would take. For my mini collection that I showed you above my customer was a luxury customer. This skirt would be in silk organza, cut without darts as the darts would be accounted for in the seams of the panels. The black seaming would be hand embroidery approximately 1/3cm wide. I am documenting my next collection from start to finish and if you would like to follow along please subscribe to my personal site: www.AnnieJackson.me

As for your next (or first!) fashion collection design, you can easily follow the steps above and design a collection. You now have the tools!! If this is all completely new for you I suggest you start here and work your way through without doing any further research because for most creative people more information than they need can overwhelm them to the point of not being able to function creatively (this happened to me after a year and a half of training with a couture dressmaker and it took me another 6 months to shake it loose and be able to think about designing and making clothing without worrying about doing it "correctly"). Even follow these steps quickly if you can...maybe give yourself a day to go from step one to eight just to learn the process. Once you understand what is gained from each step, if you want to learn more I have some personal recommendations of books for you:

Goodluck! I wish you success in this endeavour and I hope you grace us with the pleasure of seeing what you come up with by posting in the personal designing forum.

If you liked this article, you might like these design books:

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Fashion Collection Design - A step by step How To
Wednesday, 06 January 2010
Every designer and company uses a specific process for designing. Fashion Designers need to be flexible in the process they use if they want to work on a team but also flexibility is important even if you only plan to work for yourself. In most fashion schools there is a course, usually in first...

© 2010 - Fashion Students Online