In the post “Production Management and Product Development - How It Really Happens?” I mentioned each step of product development until launching your collection. I received a lot of questions about how to choose your inspo and how to use/incorporate trends into your collection. A lot of designers do not have a specific inspo for their collections, but they tend to follow trends, their brand identity (if they are already a recognized brand), or simply start their sketches and create a collection from a concept.
What most designers do is; choose an inspiration, create a mood board, and start sketching from there. This is the most traditional way to design a collection (or design anything, lol). Choosing your inspo can be easy, because it can be anything that you like, lived, experienced, or have seen and will help you build up ideas in your mind. But choosing an inspiration can be tricky. Speaking from my own experience, I once designed a collection inspired by the Joker (yup, I was always a nerd), and, being a women's collection, I had to redesign pieces at least three times so it would not look like a copy of the Joker’s outfit. Now, one of the things is that everything needs to be coherent and work together with your inspirations and trends.
Even in choosing your inspiration out of something personal that you like, there is no way to escape trends. What matters here is keeping the essence of your inspo translated to what really sells. Remember that you are building a brand that is not only for yourself or your friends. The bottom line is that: to have a successful business and make a sale, sometimes, you need to give what your customer wants. Trends can always be applied to your collection in colors, shapes, pieces, and details, trends are not an enemy nor a copy of anything. Englobing a trend can be simply matching new shapes (like those new weird high rise pants with open pockets so people can see your skin) to your inspiration prints or colors. One of the tricky points here is to use trends without losing your inspiration aesthetic and making sure whatever trend you are going for still matches your brand identity. I believe this goes unsaid, but if you are developing a line of high-end leather settles, bags, and shoes which is for country gear, why would you incorporate that hot crochet bikinis trend into your collection? (lol, but for real).
Another alternative that designers really like is designing a collection using a concept instead of an inspiration. A lot of designers and brands (even big brands) do this. Especially brands already recognized in the market, like Chanel, Fendi, etc… They follow trends but never stray from that particular style and statement pieces already established by the brand. If you are a new designer creating your very first collection and want to work with a concept and trends instead of an inspiration, look back to what I just mentioned in the previous paragraph: if you are developing a line of high-end leather settles, bags, and shoes for country gear and style, why would you incorporate those trendy crochet bikinis into your collection? This might seem silly, but it is true, and as a production manager, I go through this with a lot of designers. Following a concept or even a “story” is great, and I have seen it work with a lot of designers, but look back to your brand identity and see how this new trend and how this concept can be applied/ mirrored to your brand.
One thing that you should note, is that using only trends in your collection is not the answer for sales. Fast fashion brands tend to use only trends as their main creative direction. But if you are not looking into becoming the next H&M or Forever 21, which I really hope you are not (lol, but for real), and producing a million units of each garment and about a thousand different styles, picking your own concept or inspiration will help you narrow down what your collection is about.
No matter what made you start your collection, the important thing to keep in mind is that you are not developing a collection for yourself or your friends. The bottom line is to make the sale! Keeping your inspo aesthetic while including trends and harmonizing all of this to your brand’s identity is something that needs to be cohesive and needs to be revised during your creative process. A lot of my clients who are brand new designers, building their first collection, come to us with nothing, sometimes a sketch on a napkin (lol, but for real) and we help them turn that into a collection and a brand. The process of creating your first collection and your brand identity should start together - or start on your brand identity first because that can lead you to inspiration and styles.
Comments