The first step in creating a collection is choosing your concept. Whether you want to portray a story, an emotion, a place, or anything at all, that is the starting point. Your inspiration CANNOT come from fashion. There is no such thing as getting inspiration from clothes because you will simply end up copying that designer.
Take a step back from fashion and search for inspiration. It’s hard to describe how one can get inspired because it honestly just happens. You can make the process easier by seeking out possible concepts that you admire. This means going to museums, walking around, looking at pictures of past travels or possible future travels.
Look for patterns in your inspiration to then merge and create your concept. I have learned that it is harder to visualize and create from concepts that are not tangible or visible.
Then it’s time to brainstorm, brainstorm and brainstorm. Write down everything. Explore new ideas that come to mind, make connections, but write it ALL down.
Here is a picture of the 3rd brainstorm I did. I started with the basic concept of nature vs. city and then continued to expand on specific concepts I was possibly interested in conveying. Again, you can make as many of these brainstorm sheets as you want until you specify your concept.
THEN comes the more fun part!
Developing your mood-board. Okay, not going to lie, this is a lot of trial and error. You are going to begin by collaging images together. From this original collage you will pull the ideas you find the most interesting to then add to your mood-board. DO NOT glue anything down at first! Try different combinations to see which works best with the visual research and concept you had in mind. This is still part of the inspiration process, so use your collage of images as inspiration to further your ideas. After picking apart your collage of visual research then plan for your mood-board. Cohesiveness is key! The theme of your mood-board has to be understandable. To make sure people know the direction you are taking your project in I recommend asking family and/or friends to look at your mood board and guess what your idea is. If they get it… great! If they don’t… you probably need to switch things up a bit.
Here is the mood-board for my collection:)
Okay, hopefully, you guys were able to see the theme, if not then I may have to go back and take my own advice.
For this collection, I was inspired by the contrast as well as similarities and cohesiveness of urban, manufactured, and man-made vs. organic, abstract and natural. I represented a sort of gradient in my mood board, where the top and bottom represent the extremes, while the middle shows the morphing of the two. I chose to use color, texture, and patterns as the references for comparison. The top includes randomness, abstractness, and vibrancy while the bottom is gloomier, rockier with industrial patterns. In the middle, I chose to combine the ideas by focusing on images with that contrast already embedded in them. Obviously, the mood board is supposed to show the basis of the idea, in reality, your complex ideas will be harder to describe- at least mine are.
Hope this was even a little bit useful. I am so excited to continue the process of developing my collection, and showing you guys!
xoxo,
Carmen (your 16-year-old "work-in-progress" fashion designer)
Originally published on January 20th, 2021