week 12 discussion

Topic 12.1: Research on Various Designers: Research the various designers mentioned in this module and try to understand their style categories. Identify their unique philosophies and see how each one differentiates themselves from the competition. What do you see as the similarities between them and where does your own philosophy and style fit in the mix? Share your finding and opinions with the rest of the class.

Georgio Armani
What I love about Armani is the softness and wearabliity of the fabrics he makes formal cut clothing out of. It's so movable and flexible. He got a lot of notoriety from the film American Gigolo and even still there's certain boudoir influence to it. Like formal wear you can make out in.


Ralph Lauren

I dig the western Americana flavor to this. It's definitely something important for me to look at while working on my final.

Assignment 12.1: Develop Mood Board with Fabric and Color Story

11.3 inspiration

I haven't finished collecting the images for my inspiration yet but more on that in a minute.

This collection will be derived from Tinkertown, a museum/tourist destination/one whittler's creative outlet, located between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, NM. I went there a lot as a kid; any time someone would come to visit my family Mom would take us there. It's the only place that I loved as a child that was even better when I returned as an adult. The humor and wit is incredible. I think this is perfectly in line with the Betsey Johnson brand. There's nostalgia mixed with the notion that being grown up is awesome because you have more accessible and you can to whatever you want.  The most impressionable themes from there are old west (which I have translated to Annie Oakley, a long time inspiration that pops up in BJ collections every now and then), good.v evil, fighting over the soul (alla William Blake, etc), gypsy fortune teller (similar to the Zoltar machine that makes Josh turn into Tom Hanks in Big), and big top, multi-ring 'n' sideshow circus.

I was thinking I would style the girls in handlebar mustaches. Gender bending and mustaches are totally in, not just on faces but everywhere!

Now the other element that I don't have any images for yet is: I have an appointment on Friday to go see a collection of old Richmond society ball gowns. I want to use that as inspiration for class and sophistication and glamor. I'm really excited about this. I made this contact some time ago but I haven't had time to squeeze it in as a leisure activity, but it's perfect timing now as I think a spoonful of elegance is just what the BJ brand needs.  Plus there's a certain "playing dress-up" quality to the Betsey Johnson clothes and I bet seeing those gowns will feel like going into grandma's attic!

I'm trying not to have any idea what the clothes I design will look like until I have all the materials together. I emailed Bill Martin at the Valentine Museum as soon as it hit me how important it would be to this project and that's his earliest availability. The gowns are not on public display. I always have a sketchbook with me especially in bars and I was doing some fashion drawing last semester when someone approached me and gave me this contact. I feel so exclusive!!! Very exciting!!!

  Ali: Very interesting - and i really like your gender bender idea - maybe you can push it in more then just an urban androgynous look.

Ali: Try to build on these pages now with sketch ideas, fabrics, print ideas and what look you plan to derive from it.

Ali:I would not go too much into the classic circus element - done too much before.

me: I think the circus I really important though to this concept. It's a metaphor for having a bunch of stuff going on at once, a band of outcasts, over the top, modern nomadic, not to mention the original bearded lady. I think the colors and large scale prints are also important. I don't want the girls to look like they are in the circus, but I do think there's a lot of fodder for new work without being cliche with this theme as long as it's incorporated well with other elements.

Ali:definitely keep it in your concept - I am just making you aware to not follow that aspect too literally in your design interpretation.

In general I'm not into cliché and spend a lot of time keeping clothes from being costume. We are on the same page.

Me: In general I'm not into cliché and spend a lot of time keeping clothes from being costume. We are on the same page.

good.

I was thinking of doing some cut and sew pieces making pictures our of the different fabrics. Figures, objects. I want to do an intarsia sweater legging with a gun holster knitted into it, and a top with an angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other, trapeze artists swinging across dresses, ooh maybe a crystal ball print!! and of course bold stripes What do you think?

Also is 4 on a page cool? I'm sure it is but i wanted to ask, on 8.5"x11" 5 is really cramped.  I have a few 5 on page but mostly 4 on a page.

Ali:All great ideas - go for it.

4 are ok as long as they don't look to be stepping on each others toes. Though these days usually it is being preferred that you do each piece individually with its technical and even fabric swatches and then cut and past through computer and show the entire line up together as well.
Your choice...

11.2: Customer Profile

1.Demographics:

1. Age: 16-25
2. Sex: f
3. Marital status: unmarried
4. Level of education: in high school or college
5. Career: student, maybe a part time retail or hostess job
6. Salary: still on Mom and Dad tab
7. The location of work: anywhere
8. Living location: anywhere
9. Leisure activities: hanging out with friends, athletic or academic extracurriculars, texting, prom, watching tv & movies, internet social networking & blogging/vlogging, shopping, partying, beach by day, bars by night

2. Lifestyle: active, fun-loving, enjoys the spotlight
3. Physical Characteristics: the current line serves 24-30 inch waist,  32.5-39 inch bust and 34-41 inch hip. I would like to restructure the sizing for my line. Part of feeling good is being able to find clothes that fit and not be mortified by the number on the tag. I don't want this to be a "plus size" or "fiercely real" line. I just want to design for all girls, not just skinny twigs. I definitely think the aesthetic can translate to more voluptuous body types. 
4. Psychographics: These girls know their fashion, they buy the mags, they watch Gossip Girl, and Pretty Little Liars and Glee and want to emulate these fashion oriented starlets. 
5. Social Class:  middle to upper 
6. Social Behavior:   these girls have nothing to spend money on but themselves.

7.Values and Attitudes: these girls want attention. They want boys to think they are hot, and girls to wish they were them. They will stop at nearly nothing to get this. These girls haven't had hard times. They are light and naive and fairly innocent but don't want anyone to know it. Or they aren't and they don't want anyone to know that!
8. Economics: varies. Some customers go to BJ for special one time gowns like prom, etc. others may have a larger amount of disposable income to buy separates, day dresses, intimates, accessories, etc. The price point makes the accessibility pretty broad.
9.Religion: whatever family practices, girls may be finding some new found independence here in college.
10. competitor: tons of competitors, anyone selling frilly girly clothes at a similar price point but this is THE target audience. More demand=availability for more supply, boutiques and online retailers.

11.1 Fashion house- Betsey Johnson

Before I read the prompt for the final assignment I had made a decision for the last project to target a younger audience. I wanted to push a play a little more. The last two collections I had myself in mind as a consumer, and I like to wear easy, simple, yet interesting clothes. But I feel like targeting girls 16-22 would give me a lot more room to push a play with bold prints and frills, design elements I'm attracted to visually but have grown out of wearing as part of my own identity.
So with that decision already firmly made, I chose Betsey Johnson as the fashion house I will be "taking over". I think she has done some great stuff and some hideous stuff but I love the spirit of it! Girls just wanna have fun! I think the point of fashion is to make everyone either wish they were the wearer, or wish they were in bed with the wearer (or both). And I DON'T think all her stuff does that, but what it has is an "I don't care if you approve or not," vibe that I really identify with. But I'd like to add a little more "you wish you were me" back into it. I looked back though all the collections from the past 9 years. I really appreciate her ability to create a story with each season. I love that she is unabashed, and sometimes downright vulgar (boys <3 BJ tees, kiss marks on the butts of shorts etc). However, it falls apart for me when there is just too many things happening at once. She's not a great editor. And yes, this is part of her signature, but no one wants to literally look like a clown other than Halloween or a kids birthday (or if you are into that kind of thing).
As we all know glamor is in for the coming seasons, so I'd like to give signature Betsey a little polish, no too much, it still needs a gritty side. The clothes will still be fun and flirty and sassy, but just not so tacky.
I know Betsey already has a successor in real life, her daughter, but I'm not going into fashion anyway so my fantasy can be as fantastical as a Betsey Johnson runway show.
The price range of Betsey Johnson is between $150 to $700 for dresses, making some of it affordable for special occasions for a lower income bracket and also seduces people with bigger bank accounts to buy more pieces. She also has more than a dozen license agreements including footwear, intimates, accessories, and fragrances that seem to be relatively affordable for a high-end brand.

Ali:

somehow your chosen company does not come as a surprise. Good analysis and customer profiling though!

week 11: on fashion forecasting.

This is obviously over simplifying it but, essentially there is really only one trend and it takes on different forms but it goes like this: There is a norm. There are people that like to push against the norm (usually rebellious youth or fringe culture). Those people push and get more and more people to join them until that is the norm, then the pushers start pushing back the other way. It can be seen anywhere, names, colors, hemlines, facial hair, diets, basically anything people make decisions about. So whatever is considerered really ugly or bad by the norm will be a trend before you know it. I mean the thought of skinny jeans when I was in high school (90's) was the most laughable thought, yet popular in the 80's and 2000's. in the 20's the general public notion was to conserve and reuse and care for possessions and keep them for a long time. In the 60's the general thought was disposable, easy, convenient, available, out of sight=out of mind. Now conserving, reusing, and long-term quality is becoming in fashion again. The length of the ping and pong is different for each variable, but the concept is constant.

So when we look at a designer like John Galliano, we still see trends emerge within his own body of work, shifting from edgy/scary badass to sexy/soft darling and back or combining different components of different era's to create  new styles. There is still an ebb and flow to it even if it's not dictated by an outer contemporary source. He's got the whole bag of tricks up his sleeve and in choosing which tricks to pull out when, he influences the broader global concept of what's in. He's a pusher. Even if it looks like he "didn't hold to a lot of trend" it would be naive to think that what is popular isn't influencing him, because obviously he's not going to put something down the runway that has recently been done, so he has to know what is in vogue so he can push it!

Ali's response:

Very well put - no matter how avant garde the designer there is always a trend followed to a certain degree -if nothing else the color palette at least. There is too much money depending on a collection to leave it to the free will of the designer - he/she would not want that risk and responsibility either. It might sound sad in a certain way that there is always a sort of compromise but that is how fashion is as an art form. It has to really relate to to the pulse of its customer. Fashion forecasting allows us to feel that pulse better.

10.1:Let me hold your crown, babe.

This collection juxtaposes visual structure against easy wearablilty. The fabrics are stretch denims and jerseys, breathable, comfortable, classic. A woman can wear these clothes and look put together but also move around and be active and productive in a busy life. The clothes are simple but fun. The inspiration started with the song "King of Anything" by Sara Bareilles and branched out from the imagery I derived from the song. The pieces could be easily mixed and matched for many more outfits. The red and gold fabrics are shiny and they look more like the color swatches at a diagonal angle. So shooting it head on makes the colors not match. I just wanted to address it because it annoys me.

 Ali's comments:

The project has come out nice - i really love the mood board with the artsy feel to it and the collection shows a nice balance of creativity and restraint. Your flats have really improved though some minor technical mistakes like fly seams. I also really like the super flat rendering of the garments though i don't think that effect translates well to skin and hair - I think an exact opposite (very loose skin/hair rendering) combined with very flat precise clothing might give interesting results.

9.2 sweater flats

I think this would be a lot more interesting (to do, and to look at) on a slightly to much larger scale. My tiniest pen ran out so I'll be going out for more tomorrow!!

9.1 project 2 continued

I took the designs with positive feedback and did variations on each. The possibilities are virtually endless.

on licensing, ridden with cliche and cynicism

Designer Soyon An Links With Baby Phat

This chick is all over. Pop, country, hip hop, if it's in the limelight, Sohon An is behind the scenes making people look good.
Reading articles about licensing just drives home why this is not the industry for me. It's so convoluted. Like fine art or pretty much any creative endeavor today, the whole market has been pluralized. Everyones got a hand in 20 different cookie jars. In this world of corporation and liabilities, I can see why designers would want to have sort of multiple business identities, so that if one takes a hit, the others can still keep the money rolling in.
I can't decided if this has saved the fashion industry or destroyed it but clearly it has fractured it if nothing else. With the horizontal and vertical conglomerates, it's such a messy tangled web, most consumers are clueless. Where does one even begin to try to figure it out?
My experience in this byzantine business structure is more in the health food industry. In order to know who is who and what they are all doing you really have to be actively seeking out information all the time. For example, long time patrons of a company, say like Burt's Bees, family run business, gets bought by Clorox. The average American (granted probably doesn't care, but almost definitely) doesn't know that, they sure don't repackage it to say "now corporate!" People keep mindlessly buying the product that they think is "all-natural" "small business" etc, but really they are putting money into pockets of very not-healthy-for-the-planet people...
But between horizontal and vertical collaborations, licensing, multiple labels/price points/markets, my head is spinning. I know a lot more about designers and the history of fashion than I did 2 years ago, but I feel like I've barely chipped a snowflake off the tip of the iceberg. I can't help but wonder what a course like this will be like in 30 years. How will they keep it all straight? All the simultaneous things that are happening?

8.2 flats- jackets and coats

8.1 20 looks - project 2