A few things a lot of people ask me is where creativity comes from, how to choose your inspiration, how to choose your colors and trendy designs. Well, all of these questions are answered during fashion school (in case you have been there) or, in case you are not the most creative kind of person, you build your creativity and combine your vision with your inspiration. Yes, simple like that and not rocket science, but yes, there is a process for that.
Even though I love the creative part of the fashion industry, I never felt like I was the most creative person. In the end, I would come up with amazing designs and collections, but I needed a lot of guidance from my professors. The creative process and brainstorming are what give you direction and stimulates your creativity. In fashion design, this happens through a process of choosing what your brand will be (who will be your customers? Women? Men? kids?), your style (romantic, trendy, street style…), and what inspires you (which can be legit anything). Back in the day, during fashion school, we used to do this in sketchbooks with a pencil and gluing pictures from magazines and newspapers (Nelly Rodi books in particular).
Choosing your inspiration (which can be anything) and starting creating a mood board is the way to start your designs. Inspiration comes from shapes and colors. That is how you start creating your first draft of designs. What I always liked to do and was taught to do in fashion school (lo, but for real) was the following steps:
1. Choose your inspiration. As I said, it can be anything! My first collection in fashion school was inspired by the joker from Batman movies - yup, I am that nerd! And my final project in fashion school was inspired by Francisco Goya, a Spanish artist from the romanticism period. No, none of those inspirations were a copy of the original arts or involved prints of the artist. The opposite, everything was inspired by the shape and lines I took from the joker clothes and Francisco Goya paints.
2. Be old-school style! Create a mood board. Cut your inspiration from magazines and glue on a sketchbook if you have to, but create a mood board and start drafting from there.
3. Choose your color pallet. Yes, choosing colors involves being coherent to trends BUT your color pallet should come from your mood board as well.
4. Draft as much as you can, but then narrow down styles. Inspiration can go wild when you are inspired by something but do not forget you will have a budget to invest in your collection, so narrowing down styles to what sells better (according to that marketing research you will do while working on your branding) and are reasonable to your budget is the one step before development.
5. Select your styles, work on your tech sketches and decide on your trims. Again, you will have a certain budget to invest in your collection, so deciding the styles, working on tech sketches, and choosing your trims will also help you to narrow down your costs.
All these steps are so helpful to boost your creativity and will always give you, not only a sense of direction but coherence to put your entire collection together.
As I mentioned before, I never considered myself the most creative person. I love the creative side of the fashion industry, but always needed help (mostly direction, lol) for what I am doing and what I should do. A lot of people are very creative naturally (respect!) but even those people need a creative direction and that is what makes your collection coherent between styles, colors, and budget (do not forget the budget, lol BUT FOR REAL!).
Below are a few pictures as an example of a mood board, first drafts, and final collection. This was my final project for fashion school. A conceptual collection inspired by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya.
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