
After 6 months of research and preparation, the Fashionary mens edition will be launched in early August. In the meantime, the templates are open to download.
Download the template (PDF):
http://fashionary.org/download/mens_sketch.pdf

The mens template works in the same way as the womens, to serve as a tool for instant sketching and at the same time it can be treated as blank page.
Sketching Sample:

Our pick of the menswear SS11:


This season is a really sad season for me, with the gone of McQueen, and still, the fashion industries is damaged severely by the economic crisis. “Safe” is the term to describe this season’s show and hopefully the best is yet to come.
The Blood of McQueen

Lee McQueen’s last collection. A lot of velvet and especially the red one are used. And this spread to D&G, Alexander Wang, Altuzarra, and Zac. I can predict the blood of McQueen will flowing in the next season.
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The fashion illustration is an unique art. You need to strike a balance between the whole drawing and the details of the garment. This is why it is very hard to master. If you miss our PART 1, you can take a look at here. And we would love to continue to sequent below.
1) Danny Roberts, based in California, USA

Danny’s artwork was honored by being the first featured portfolio of 2007 Graduates on the WGSN Generation Now Website, a unique showcase of graduating talent from the world’s leading universities and design colleges.
Despite his young age, he has been widely known, especially when you consider his publications. Being one of my favorite fashion artist, you can find a more detailed interview we did here.
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We are in Colette, thanks Karmuel, Ronnie and Sarah!

You bring away the color from this world…..

Color is one of the most important design element and every seasons, companies pay a huge amount of money try to invent new color or to stay with the color trend. And in this post, we explore some more about color, like generators, or color research tool.
Color Wheel
To understand color, you need to under the color wheel first

In the color wheel, we have 2 formula formed:
Analogous colors – any three colors which are side by side on a 12 part color wheel, such as yellow-green, yellow, and yellow-orange. Usually one of the three colors predominates.
Complementary colors – any two colors which are directly opposite each other, such as red and green and red-purple and yellow-green. In the illustration above, there are several variations of yellow-green in the leaves and several variations of red-purple in the orchid. These opposing colors create maximum contrast and maximum stability.
Color Mode (Spot color, RGB, CMYK……)
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FASHIONARY is an on going project, so I am always looking for feedback. And I received a number of requests for modifying the current technical templates. Thanks a lot! Today I update it and you can download here.
The Changes

Now, we can use the templates more easily for both sides.
Here is an exmaple, I spent 10 mins for a denim jacket.


If you have any other feedback, please don’t be hesitate to tell me.
Regards,
Penter

Happy 2010!
Thanks for all your support! I hope you guys have a great year and so do FASHIONARY.
Will work hard to make it the best fashion sketchbook and will bring more excitement to you guys in 2010.
Take care!
Penter

Denim is one of the oldest fabric, but still, it is one of the most fashionable and widely used fabric. And as the full jeans trend is going wildly this season, we can have a deeper look at the finishing details of your jeans. And somehow, denim has the most sophisticated finishing. Some of the techniques found below can be done by yourself, like bleaching, washing and ripping.
Acid Washing

Patented in 1986, this wash uses pumice stones soaked in bleach to create deep contrast within the coloring of the denim jeans.
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Honestly, the SS 10 RTW is quite boring to me, with digital print still going good (the best, I really say the best, is the engineer print by McQueen), some trend are evolving like fully denim-ize and the raw edgy. Here come the highlight of the SS 10 Trend:
Fully Digital

With the technologies allowance, the digital print can be the best option under this economic recession period. The highlight are the engineer print by McQueen and the fluid print from the up and coming Mary Katrantzou.
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A while ago, when I walked along some vintage store in Manchester, I found some vintage sewing pattern. They were mainly from the 60’s and 70’s. If sewing is the language of fashion, the pattern should be the books. It recorded different style according to time. Below, here are some free pattern resources you can find online:

Thanks smiffy for the update (20/12/09)
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Eastern art has long been found in modern fashion, especially in some Haute Couture Collections (Dior and Valentino). The modern fashion trend is started in the West and when it meet the east, the culture mix together to form a unique and interesting style. Just like the trendies blending with the traditional. Here, I am not talking about the Kimono and Qi-Pao in the Eastern fashion, I want to focus on the art and painting from the East that influence the Western fashion world.
1. Chinese Pattern

Monotone is the main style in traditional Chinese painting, like the landscape ink painting, the blue decorative painting on china pot. It represent a Zen culture, a minimal style. The textile for the upper class is colorful though, with elegant embroidery.
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Having a sketchbook that is tailor made for fashion designers has been always my dream, animators can use story board templates to draw, graphic designers can use dotted paper to have a grid system. And we should have our own sketchbook to streamline the development. And I decide to make it on my own, but it happened not as easy as I thought…
The process includes 10 main steps:
- Brainstorming Ideas of the Sketchbook
- Developing the Templates
- Gathering Feedback
- Research for Information
- The Outlook
- Making a Perfect Name
- Web
- Printing
- Packaging
- Online Store
1. Brainstorming Ideas for the Sketchbook

I love my moleskine, I love the short information they printed on the book. Also after studying some Japanese schedule book which they include some useful information like the Metro map, bus timetable, I am convinced that a fashion sketchbook should include handy information, to go with the templates (which I spend many hours to test — cover in the next part).
In order to search for most suitable fashion information to put in the book, I started to ask for my fashion designer friends for generating idea, we found that the body measurement and the unit system is a must, also the basic patterns and the categories of garments. And all agree that the typography and the presentation board border us, so I start to do research in those area.
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Fashion photograph is the language of fashion. The designers talk to us using the fashion photograph. Without the help of the photographer, the fashion world will be silent, dead silent……. below are 30 photographers that are controlling the language of fashion todays.

Annie Leibovitz’s powerful portrait photography has distinguished her above and beyond most of her peers for over thirty years. From 1970 to 1983, Leibovitz was the principal photographer for Rolling Stone magazine. She spearheaded the movement of music photography away from stage and studio portraiture to intimate, behind-the-scenes portrayals of musicians.
The first twenty years of her work has been collected in an extensive retrospective book and exhibition Photographs: Annie Leibovitz 1970-1990. Her recent book, Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life 1990-2005, brings together her assignment and personal work, and is accompanied by an exhibition that opened at the Brooklyn Museum and is touring internationally. Her lifetime achievements have recently merited her a place in the acclaimed PBS documentary series American Masters, aired in January 2007.
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Vikki Yau from R&R just did some awesome illustrations for the postcard of fashionary. It will be included in the shipping of fashionary. Vikki did 4 illustrations for me and let’s have a look below:
1

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The fashion illustration is an unique art. You need to strike a balance between the whole drawing and the details of the garment. This is why it is very hard to master. Below, we have 30 illustrators you can drawn inspiration from. — PART 2 (updated 23 Mar)
1) Antonio lopez, 1943-1987, New York, USA

Antonio Lopez is the Picasso of fashion illustration. He captured the pulse of style from the 60s to the 80s, and is still revered as the most inspiring illustrator by today’s practitioners. He worked with a variety of materials including pencil, pen and ink, charcoal, watercolor and polaroid film. His work appeared frequently in Vogue, Harper’s bazzar, Elle.
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This year, the catwalk industries is badly affected by the economic downturn. Some shows are cancel, many models was unemployed, some fabric was replaced by a more economy choice….. By apart from that, the 0910AW was still attractive, especially the McQueen show, it was one of the best in recent year. Let’s us see hows the trend going in this season.
The Pink Panther

You know what’s make the Pink Panther so special? Yes, it’s the pink, whole-body-pink. The Pink Panther just paid a visit this season and if you gonna pick 1 color to go, I’d say shocking pink. Be warned, not all of you can handle it.
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