FASHION ILLUSTRATION

Fashion and TextilesMrs. Downes

A fashion designer must be a good communicator. Four primary types of illustration are used to communicate design intentions:

1. Croquis2. Finished Drawings3. Flats4. Blow ups

1. Croquis (cro-kee): A quick illustration that depicts the general silhouette,

proportions and look of a garment. These drawings are in a rustic form usually in pencil

on white paper or in a sketch book without too much detail and used in the conceptual phase of the design process.

1. Croquis cont’d:•Working out the design of the garment usually takes at least three croquis and sometimes more.•Most designers maintain a sketchbook for just these.•A lead designer might show these to their design and merchandising team as an indication to how they would like that up coming season’s line to proceed. Everyone involved has input and that is when some designs stay, go or new ones are sketched. Once some designs have been agreed upon, planning and more intricate sketching can begin.

If you are interested in becoming a designer, go get your self a sketchbook and get started immediately! Never be without one as you never know when inspiration will strike!

2. Finished Drawings/Illustrations:

These are fully rendered, final illustrations of a fashion figure or series of figures.

They communicate the attitude or sensibility of the garment or collection and the intended customer.

Styling and accessories that may not be part of the fashion collection may be included for a stylish effect.

What is the attitude being conveyed by these illustrations? Who is the intended customer?

2. Finished drawings cont’d:

•These drawings are useful to sales, merchandising, marketing and many other departments in a company.•The illustrations give these teams an idea of what is ahead for that season and its attitude before initial garments (or prototypes) are constructed. The teams have the opportunity to give feedback on whether this will work for their customer or not and designs may need to be reworked based upon this.

Example: The Merchandising team might say to design “we ran a yellow dress last year, it didn’t sell and we lost a lot of money. Our customer might not be a fan of this. Maybe we can eliminate this from our line?”

The average adult is 7 ½ heads tall. A fashion figure is at least 9 inches tall.Why is that?

Well, the longer the legs, the more physically appealing the clothes look.

How is this accomplished?

By using a basic sketching grid known as the nine headed figure. Each set of lines being equal to one head. See example on next slide.

Then what?

The illustrator applies clothing, accessories, color, texture, movement and attitude in layers. Extreme details in face and clothing is not as critical as the overall feeling of the designs.

How?

Through use of colored pencils, markers, paint, etc.

2. Finished drawings/illustrations continued:

The 9 headed fashion figure

The 9 headed figure with layers, movement and personality

For some seriously great illustration check out haydenwilliams on tumblr.

3. Flat drawings: This is a technical illustration showing a garment laid flat in exact

proportion used to communicate IN DETAIL the garment’s structure and functionality.

These are rendered using a larger, more realistic body scale than the 9 headed figure.

These drawings begin on tracing paper over the form (male, female, teens or child’s form) and drawn one half at a time. Drawings are precise and use rulers, curves and templates for detail and exactness.

The first half of the drawing is folded over and then traced onto the other side for perfect symmetry. Sometimes these images are scanned and maneuvered in a CAD system and are stored in a style library. The silhouettes begin in pencil and then as they are nearing completion several sets of varying thicknesses of markers are used for details.

Sometimes colors are added once designs are completed and these flats are used as virtual paper dolls for merchandising, buying and selling. They may go into a CAD style library and be used for many seasons.

Other uses: spec sheets given to pattern makers for construction

3. Flat drawings (cont’d):

Basic flat drawing

Flats scanned into CAD and used as a sales, merchandising and planning tool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kuWs0XSUm4

A quick hand drawn overview

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73GSaOdQBDoFrom illustration to CAD Tech. drawing

3. Technical Flat used as a spec sheet for production

4. Blow up drawingsThis is often a portion of, or added to

the flat or technical design. It is a magnified illustration of a specific area of a garment used to convey details not visible in an overall view, such as construction, stitching, hardware or embellishments.

Patternmakers, product developers, production and sales teams would all find this useful so that the proper trims can be ordered and given attention.

4. Blow up example:

It all comes together… In order to build a successful clothing line season to

season, the design team must render sometimes hundreds of finished sketches. While some are borrowed from their previous sketch libraries and “tweaked” to be new again, others are new and equally saleable. Merchandisers, sales, production teams and more influence what will become the final line based on production costs of the garments, customer climate, and sales history vs. projections.

Contrary to majority belief, the designer does not necessarily run the show. Through effective artistic communication and strong team input, a successful fashion line is born!

Ta da!1. Croquis

2. illustration

3. Flat

4. Blow up

For patternmaking, production and sales

Retail

Profit