Fashion Design: from sketch to boutique

1. Select the fabrics you will use.

2. Craft your theme & draw rough sketches of your design.

3. Create a spec sheet, complete with finished dimensions, fabrics to be used, and technical (flat) sketch of the design.

4. Hand the spec sheet over to the pattern maker. This should indicate to you that you'll need a pattern maker.

5. Once the pattern has been received, cut and sew a prototype out of a cheap muslin. Make sure you select a muslin with a weight as similar as possible to the weight of the real fabric to be used.

6. Hold a fit testing and try the prototype on your model. Make notes of all adjustements, make adjustments to the spec sheet and tech sketch as necessary. Give your revisions to the pattern maker.

7. Repeat steps 4 & 5 until you are completely satisfied with the garment.

8. Have the sewing contractor create your salesman samples - this will give you just what you need to go to market, as well as give the sewing the contractor a dry run prior to placing a production order.

9. Take your salesman samples "to market". Start hitting the pavement and getting the word out. Take orders and don't be afraid to scrap a design that isn't selling well.

10. Place your fabric orders as soon as you can (we will cover fabric testing in a more detailed lens soon!!).

11. Place your production orders and verify the quality is maintained throughout the production cycle.

Since I'm an outsider working my way in, I find pretty much every aspect of the fashion world fascincating. But one of the most interesting aspects to me is how seasonal colors are selected.

You're not going nuts when you think that you can't escape the same color palette store after store after store. Here's why:

1. A group of people (industry insiders, professionals, and experts) actually gets together and votes on a season's palette.

2. They'll select a few different palettes for each season. In the photo you can see a "color card" from a recent textile show. Each column is a seperate color palette for that season.

3. Colors are selected aproximately 18 - 24 months prior to the applicable season. I think it's so crazy that what colors will be "cool" are actually selected years in advance.

4. The selected color palette is then passed onto the textile producers around the world. The textile producers kick into gear and create solids and prints using the color palette they were given by the deciders. :-)

5. Us manufacturers are then presented with the color palettes and new wave of textiles aproximately 12 months prior to the season we're sourcing.