Ok, if you are reading the INSIDE THE FASHION INDUSTRY blog series, I hope you took the first step, if not I hope you found it informative and helpful. Now it is time for the second step of developing your clothing line: sketching.
Sketching is the fun part. It is creative, it is hands-on, and will make your creativity bloom. It can also be a bit tricky since most designers tend to love all their designs and want to produce them all. The quantity of styles you will produce has to be coherent to your budget and the materials you will find out there, but for now, let’s worry about actually getting some sketches done.
To start designing your collection, first, you want to look at your mood board. As I mentioned in the previous blog post STEPS TO DESIGNING YOUR COLLECTION, I am old school! I like a big sketchbook, pencil, some watercolor ink and a bunch of prints in front of me. Some people are not like that. Nowadays people are all about Ipads and digital sketches, which is great, but you have to know what works best for you and what will most help your creativity.
Here are a few steps that will help you with your first sketches.
1. Break your mood board into pieces
As I said, I am old school and I like pencils and paper. Printing your mood board and cutting through images will help you stimulate your ideas for shapes, colors, and prints.
Cut pieces of your mood board, glue on a new piece of paper and draw sketches (simple ones) next to each image.
Here is an example of a mood board I made myself back in college.
2. Do not worry about pretty sketches
Your first draft needs to give you direction for colors, shapes, and prints. Do not worry about making pretty sketches right now. Worry about letting your creativity run free.
This is the moment you can go wild and legit design everything/anything you want.
3. Now narrow it down
You know your budget! So you need to know how many designs you will be able to produce.
In the second step, when you let your creativity run free, you should have enough styles to narrow down and select which ones are your favorites. If your budget allows you to produce 8 styles, then your first draft of sketches needs to be at least double that. In that way, you will select between 6 to 8 designs and move into the actual pretty sketches.
Here is the moment you want to have full-body sketches with colors and fabric options next to each one of them.
4. Be aware of the difference between one design and one style
This might seem silly, but it is actually something new designers do not think through: when designing a collection and moving into full-body sketches, you want to sketch a full body with the entire outfit and show one style, but that one “style” can be a skirt and a top which means you have two different designs.
You need to make sure all those designs are fitting in your budget. So, sometimes, it is better to cut styles, and instead of producing two or three dresses, you want to produce one dress and add a skirt and a top to your collection.
Remember, when developing your garments the pattern maker will charge you per pattern. If you show a full look (style) of a skirt and a top that is considered two different designs.
5. Start fabric and material sourcing
Your fabrics and materials need to be coherent to the styles you are developing. Your mood board will also give you inspiration and direction for fabrics, prints, and colors, so starting your fabric source at the same time as creating your sketches is a great way to start collecting information about fabric prices, what is available on the market, and if you will need to order custom materials or not.
Like I said, sketching is the fun part of the process, but can be tricky when you are not thinking of an overall budget. Start sketching, have fun and then remember, fashion is a business and as a business owner, you need to look at what sells, what is coherent to your budget, and to your inspiration.
Next step: selecting your final fabrics and materials!
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