I am always amazed that how people can turn thread into fabric, and then into garments — by using their own hands. They seems to have everything in their mind and they are just like a composer conducting the thread together for a symphony, making it as an art performance. I would love to share some of our favourite knitwear brands/designers.

1) Sandra Backland, based in Stockholm, Sweden

2) Mark Fast, based in London, UK

3) Sibling, based in London, UK

4) Sonia Rykiel, based in Paris, France

“I feel more like a novelist than a fashion designer,” Queen of knits Sonia Rykiel is famous for inventing inside-out stitching, no-hem and ‘un-lined’ pieces that allowed women the freedom to dress for their personality.  A woman to be admired, oui?

5) Missoni, based in Varese, Italy

Missoni is an Italian fashion house based in Varese. It is famous for its unique knitwear, made from a variety of fabrics in colourful patterns. Missoni knitwear is known for its multitude of patterns such as stripes, geometrics, and abstract florals, in a kaleidoscope of colours!

6) Louise Goldin, based in London, UK

Louise Goldin, luxury knitwear designer extraordinaire, has transformed the way we look at woollies, taking the genre in a whole new direction: the future. It really surprised me when Rihanna wore Goldin sheer-panelled maxi dress in red stripes in the Nightclub’s NYE party.
She looks sexy with the see-through piece!

7) Tim Ryan, based in London, UK

Irish fashion designer Tim Ryan’s knitwear are totally sexy and sophisticated. With 12 years of self – taughing experience, he use pure wools, silk yarns and lots of lurex and glitter to make his dresses alive. I love the yarn fringe which make the magical light reflect!

8) Timothy James Andrews, based in London, UK

Andrews is eager to break conventions and illicit surprised reactions, the colourful pom pom plus, amazing chunky hand knits and structural silhouette make people feel like entering to the cartoon movie scene! Wearing his pieces must be full of fun!

9) cooperativedesigns, based in London, UK

Cooperative Designs is a London based design duo Annalisa Dunn and Dorothee Hagemann. Known for their playful designs and unreal silhouettes, they make very special pieces overflowing with personality. They always try to give things humorous, slightly ironical side…

10) Everlasting Sprout, based in Tokyo, Japan

Keiichi Muramatsu launched his career as a japanese fashion designer from ’05 S/S Tokyo Collection.  He believes clothes are the canvas, material is the paint, and the designer creates with unbounded imagination. With rich texture and romantic colors, he creates stories full of imagination.

11) Clarissa Labin, based in Berlin, Germany

The berlin-based designer Clarissa Bone bring cool Scandinavian collections. She finds inspiration in nature, interesting surfaces, graphics and colors. Playful colours like neon yellow and washed out salmon make each piece your friendliest cold-winter fall back.

12) Simone Shailes, based in London, UK

Thanks Susie bubble, I ‘meet’ this fresh 08 Central Saint Martin MA grad knitwear designer. The loopy and baggy knits caught my eye. The cardigans, dresses and merino wool jackets all boasting feather like folds.

13) Alice by Temperley, based in London, UK

London label ALICE by Temperley’s collections are a wonderful hybrid of luxe fabrics and fun, flirtatious designs.Using 1920s-40s Africa as a starting point,Temperley’s Cruise collection is a melting pot of Military and traditional inspiration. I love her modern take of African safari pattern so much! How about you?

14) Eternal child, based in Istanbul, Turkey

Eternal Child is an Istanbul based collection, particularly renowned for highly creative knit design. The collection uses an innovative mix of knit structures and contrasting textures.
Elegant and modern intarsia and jacquard techniques create its signature style.

15) Clare Tough, Balerna, Switzerland

It’s not easy to wear the boudoir trend without appearing overtly sexual, but Clare Tough’s collections make the Lingerie-like clothes become garments which you can definitely wear it out daily. It’s romantic, sexy and comfortable via Clare’s hands.

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:

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……)

This is one of the technical terms that many fashion designers get confused.

For simplification, we can classify the color into 2 categories: Screen and Pigment

For screen, a very wide range of color can be displayed

• RGB
• CMYK(generated, not 100% exactly with the real pigment)
• Spot Color(generated, not 100% exactly with the real pigment)
• HSV
• Lab Color

Still, the screen can’t be display some kind of color, like florescence and luminous color

For pigment, we have

• Spot color, which is formed by mixing different chemical (PANTONE or some other color palette)
• CMYK, very common in normal color-printed, mixing Cyan, magenta, yellow and black by dots to form different color

So, we normally use RGB color mode when displaying on the screen, and CYMK, spot color for printout, and spot color for textile.

Color Trend Posts [Updated 15/02/10]

Fashiontribes

Fashion Trendsetter

Color Sizzle

Fashionising

SICO

Color Research

Idee

Select a color, and it can find the respective photo for you.

Color Generator

4096 Color Wheel

Color Explorer

Color Hunter

Big Huge Labs: Color Palette Generator

Color Blender

Color Scheme Designer

DeGraeve

Color Wizard

Color Jack

ColorMunki

Colorlovers

ColoRotate

kuler

Stripe Generator

Aviary

COPASO

If you have any more color resources, please let me know.

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

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.

Batching

We can find this in many kidswear jeans and old school jacket. As Denim is a durable fabric, the batch is attached on the surface firmly.

Bleaching

A chemical used to make denim fade. Liquid bleach is usually an aqueous solution of sodium hypochlorite, and dry powdered bleaches contain chloride of lime (calcium hypochlorite).

Crushing

A textured effect achieved through a special fabric construction and wet processing. The denim jeans are woven with an overtwisted weft yarn; when the garment is washed, the yarn “shrinks,” acquiring a goffer look that is further enhanced by bleaching and stonewashing.

Dirty Washing

A finish that creates the look of stained jeans.

Embroidered

Found in many high-end denim in Japan. You can see the insanely details done by the Japanese, to replace the printing.

Frayed

A finish in which the waistband and hems of denim jeans have been sanded to create a “worn” effect.

Overdyed

A second dying process executed after denim jeans have been sewn, to make the thread color the same as the jean.

Raw

Denim jeans that has been not been treated or finished.

Screen-printing

The majority of denim is 100% cotton and very good for screen printing.

Sandblasting

A laundry process in which denim jeans are shot with guns of sand in order to make the jeans look as if they’ve been worn.

Tearing and ripping

Denim jeans that have purposely been ripped or teared — and not repaired — prior to sale.

Tinted

Denim jeans that have been dyed a second time, usually with a yellow khaki hue, to create the look of vintage denim.

Washing

The are several washing method:

Enzyme wash – Considered a more efficient and environmentally sound way to stone wash jeans. Rather than using pumice stones, organic enzymes (proteins) are used that eat away at the indigo. Jeans finished using enzymes tend to be stronger than those broken down by traditional stone washing, as the fabric is not subjected to the same level of abuse.

Sand wash – A finish achieved through a combination of pumice stones, enzymes and sand; used to create the illusion of aged denim jeans.

Stone wash – A process that physically removes colour and adds contrast. A 20 yard roll of fabric, generally 62 inches in width, is put into a 250-pound washing machine along with pumice stones. The fabric and stones are rotated together for a set period of time.

Whiskered

A denim jeans finish that produces white lines that look like wrinkles near the crotch and sometimes behind the knees.

If you have any other treatment you have done to your jeans, please leave comments.

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:

BurdaStyle

Thanks smiffy for the update (20/12/09)

About Sewing

Craftandfabriclinks.com

Craftster Forum

Sewing Stuff

Otsukaya (大塚屋)

Free Patterns.com

Antique Pattern Library

AllCrafts

Babyclothes

Free Needle

Berroco

Crochet Pattern Central

Free Patterns Menu

Modern Sewing Patterns

Instuctables

All Free Crafts

Fitzpattern

SavvySeams.com

Are there any good free sites not in the list? The list will continue to update.