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……)

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

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.

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.

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.

Jeans Factory

Denim is one of the best fabric available for its durability, stylish finishing, cheap, never-die stylish…. I am glad to see it’s in full dress. I am not surprise to see they will be seen in every main boutique store in large amount this coming spring.

Fluid Drape

Every time I see some style like this, I feel like seeing students’ work, I remembered we were doing stuff like that when we are in year 1 and the outfit is hard to dress. But I like how Burberry Prorsum and Gabriele Colangelo handle the draping and make them look awesome! This is the difference.

Inside Out

In Paris, we have Dior, in Milan, we have Dolce & Gabbana, in London, we have Christopher Kane, and NY, we have Marc Jacob. It is interesting to see how the designers bring the lingerie element into their design. I can’t say, but is this trend can be seen next season? Longing…

Pants Hole

Finally, we get some pants design, please keep going guys, I really love the Gareth’s one, subtly blend the his famous stripe to the pants. I predict these pants will be popular in store this spring.

Summer Sport

“When you are stuck in your work, go out and play some sport.” my parents always tell me. Yup, I think the designers have this ideas too, when we are in the midst of the economic meltdown, why don’t go out and relax and make some fun. Thanks Hermes, I love the tennis cardigan.

Striky Stripy

The stripe can be seen in many show this season, not in their usual form, but they turn into different style they as the form of stripe. It is one of the long lasting trend and I think we will keep seeing stripe evolving in the future.

Summer Leather

The global warming turn the weather upside down, who say we can’t have a cold spring, and yup, at that time, the leather seems to be the most stylish option. Celine does a great job on this, it look like a classic.

Raw Edgy

In the 90s, there was Martin Margiela, and now, Lanvin already used this style as their signature finishing. And we have Prada, Fendi and Jil Sander joining the party this season. But I doubt this can develop into a bigger trend.

Other Trend Reports:

Fashion Platz

Grazia Fashion

Style.com

Tangent

Trend Spark!

TrendStop

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.

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.

Dragons are common in Chinese art as it represents the emperor. The dragon always come with cloud to show that it is flying in the sky. And landscape, flower, bird, fish and shrimp are also the usual topic.

And in traditional drawing, the perspective is fake 3 dimensional, flat but rich in content, it can be extended easily so the art is suitable to create textile.

Start from Left: Jean Paul Gaultier S08C, Vivienne Tam S07RTW, Valentino S08C, Gucci Resort10

Textile characteristic: detailed, vibrant, ink style, embroidered.

2. Japanese Pattern

Japanese art covers a wide range of art styles and media, including ancient pottery, sculpture in wood and bronze, ink painting on silk and paper and more recently manga, cartoon, along with a myriad of other types of works of art. It is more vibrant than those in China, and more crisp line, more “vector art” in modern terms. The symbol pattern represent some kind of honor in the Samurai’s armor.

Japanese art also don’t have a real 3D perspective, so it can be extended easily, like the painting on Ukiyo-e (meaning “floating world”), and which make it more easy to transform into textile.

Start from Left: Christian Dior S07C, Alexis Mabille AW10C, Basso and Brooke S09RTW, Armani Prive S09C

Textile characteristic: detailed, vibrant and colorful, vector style, embroidered.

3. Indian Pattern

Indian art can be classified into specific periods each reflecting certain religious, political and cultural developments. One can find many symbols in their culture as they are linked to spiritual states. The paintings is rich in details and gold foil are found in many of them. They are mainly for religious purpose.

Elephants are popular in Indian, as it was the chosen carriage for many gods in the legend. And a white elephant is special as there is a story about Buddha’s mother dreamed of a white elephant. And then the prophet of peace Gautam Buddha was born.

Start from Left: Kenzo S2009 RTW, Etro S2009 RTW, Dries Van Noten FW2008 RTW, Balenciaga FW2007 RTW

Textile characteristic: colourful, rich patterned and textured, contain symbol, light weight.

4. Islamic Pattern

Islamic art is not an art pertaining to religion only. The term “Islamic” refers not only to the religion, but to the rich and varied Islamic culture as well.

According to the Encarta “Islamic art is developed from many sources: Roman, Early Christian, and Byzantine styles were taken over in early Islamic architecture; the influence of Sassanian art—the architecture and decorative art of pre-Islamic Persia was of paramount significance; Central Asian styles were brought in with various nomadic incursions; and Chinese influences had an important effect on Islamic painting, pottery, and textiles.”

There are repeating elements in Islamic art, such as the use of geometrical floral or vegetal designs in a repetition known as the arabesque. The arabesque in Islamic art is often used to symbolize the transcendent, indivisible and infinite nature of Allah.

Start from Left: Chanel Resort10, Valentino S09 Couture, Christian Lacroix F2007 Couture, Matthew Williamson S2008 RTW

Textile characteristic: detailed, geometric patterned, embroidered, contain symbols.

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.

2. Developing the Templates

I started to develop the template in the next step. The problem for the traditional template is that we can’t draw directly on it. We need to place a semi-transparent paper on top of it for sketching different post, and it is not convenient enough to bring along and draw everywhere.

So I decide to solve this problem by combining the templates with blank papers, to make the template barely visible, so the designers would not be bordered by the template and they can draw and write notes as free as they want on the template pages.

After different trial on poses, I decide to settle on 1 pose only, for easier sketching. And I send to about 50 people to sketch and the result is positive.

Download the templates to try

Watch the video

3. Gathering Feedback

I start collecting feedback in early stage, right after the template stage.  And according to the book: Blink and BUY-OLOGY, you don’t need to have a lot of feedback, but you need to have the expert’s feedback. In this case, the experts should be the fashion designers who will bring along the sketchbook. I made a pdf which contain the idea and some of the layout of the book and send over to some of the designers around the world to look for comments. After collecting it, I start to work on the information part.

And I then setup a website (cover in the later part) which talk about the details of the books and have a polling(polldaddy) and survey(surveygizmo) system. I posted my site in Notcot.org, which is a very good design/lifestyle site, to generate some visitors and hopefully to receive some feedback. And the result is positive and it make me feel that this sketchbook can really make the life more easier for fashion designers.

4. Research for Information

Wring the information is not an easy task, to interpret the information and re-write them on the book. I read over 20 books for reference of the basic pattern and measurement.  And to create some unique content. for example, the typography section, I need to find out which type face is most used in printed book especially fashion magazine, it turn out to be Didot. And I look for trend books and magazines for different style of fashion presentation boards. One of the hardest part is I searched for all the brand name in the catwalk show and sort them out into different category and location.

And later on, after the information were all written, I need to go through 7 times of proof-readying, and every time some mistakes still could be spotted. And it take nearly 1.5 month to finish all the checking.

5. The Outlook

Thread-bounded and hardcover sketchbooks are must to me, it is more easy to carry around, more durable and convenient place on the scanner in case I need to scan my sketches to the computer. And I want to keep all the things as minimal as possible, with distinctive yet subtle color combination.

Originally the cover was blue, Burberry blue, but after searching for the material, and for easy mix and matching, I chose graphite (dark grey) which a lighter grey eleastic band for hightlight.

Color Scheme for FASHIONARY:

6. Making a Perfect Name

FASHIONARY means Fashion + Dictionary + Diary.

To make a good name, there are some rules:

• Easy to remember
• Easy to say in person
• Easy to understand over the radio or phone
• Easy to spell
• Easy to type
• Easy to read in print and online ads

And marketing guru Seth Godin have some amazing topics about nameing:

The new rules of naming, Being brace with names

7. Web

Internet is the best way to spread your idea and information. And building a website nowadays is not a giant project (some still is). I choose to register a domain for FASHIONARY first, then find a hosting(I choose Doreo). A good website should include these things.

• Concept: The site connected to your barnd and target audience
• Content: all the information(words, products, picutres, audio, interactive features)
• Navigation: The way users move through a stie, like menus, links
• Decoration: supporting design element
• Marketing efficacy: method such as signup forms or buying link

I suggest reading some of the articles like this on Smashing Magazine before starting a website for business or hire a professional to do so.

8. Printing

It takes time and luck to find a good printer, and it is event harder for me to find a good printer that print small quantity. Many good printer out there they take orders like 10000 copies and so. And for people to print the book in China, you need to put full attention and catch up with them all the time, because they will really mess things up! So I choose to print in Hong Kong, And for those who is not familiar with printing, this is the steps to get the book printed:

1. Contact the printer, talk about the specs of the book, like dimension, binding, material, color(CMYK or Spot Color) and ask him to give you some samples
2. The printer will send you some samples and maybe meet up with you and start quoting the price for you, remember to pay attention to where he print
3. Once you accept the quote, you can ask the printer to make a prototype or anything similar to make sure they can produce the quality you are looking for
4. There are many back and forth in the prototype stage and dun be afraid to have changes for the book
5. Once the prototype is confirmed, you start to send them the AI or PDF file for print, usually they will print your content out to let you proof read it
6. Once everything is confirmed, you need to pay for a deposit for printing, usually 50%, but I think it can be bargain
7. An efficient printer can deliver the final product in 2 – 3 wks, but it depends on their workload
8. Work on something else and wait for you baby born

9. Packaging

I pick orange envelopes from a local nearby stationary store to match the orange color of the FASHIONARY. Thanks to my girlfriend, Vikki, to hand-painted a FASHIONARY logo on the back of the envelope. And the weight of the overall package is 400 g.

10. Online Store

Just in case if you don’t have idea about Etsy, it is a website which provides the general public with a way to buy and sell handmade items as well as vintage items and craft supplies. To make it simple, it is an ebay store for designers. And I prefer Etsy over ebay as Etsy has a better interface, and not as spammy as ebay. And it is more focus on handmade items such art, photography, clothing, jewelry, edibles, bath & beauty products, and toys.

The transaction method is simple, 1) Money or 2) Check order, and 3) Paypal, and all the transaction and payment notification is very user friendly, and I really highly recommend to designers who want to setup online store.

The listing fee in Etsy is US$0.2, much lower than ebay.

Last Word

The main goal of FASHIONARY is to make the life more easy for fashion designer, and it will continue to improve according to feedback. Although the job is hard,  still sweet!