Modern fashion design is roughly
divided into two categories, haute couture, and ready-to-wear.
A designer's haute-couture collection is meant exclusively
for private customers and is custom sized, cut and
sewn. To qualify as an official "haute couture"
house, a designer or company must belong to the Syndical
Chamber for Haute Couture, a Paris-based body of designers
governed by the French Department of Industry that
includes American, Italian, Japanese, and other designers
as well. A haute couture house must show collections
twice yearly with at least 35 separate outfits in
each show. It is often shown on the catwalk and in
private salons.
Ready-to-wear collections are
not custom made. They are standard sized which makes
them more suitable for larger productions. Ready-to-wear
collections can also be divided into designers/createur
collections and Confection collections. Designer/createur
collections have a high quality, a superb finish and
a unique cut and design. These collections are the
most trendsetting compared to Haute Couture and Confection.
Designer/createurs ready to wear collections contain
often concept items that represent a certain philosophy
or theory. These items are not so much created for
sales but just to make a statement. The designer's
ready-to-wear collection is also presented on the
international catwalks by people who do fashion modeling.
Confection collections are
the ones we see most commonly in our shops. These
collections are designed by stylists. The brands that
produce these collections aim only for a mass public
and are in general not searching for new grammar for
the language or a new point of view on/of fashion.
Although many modern fashion
designers work in a "traditional" way --
making clothes that are fancy and expensive, but still
based on standard/traditional construction and design
concepts -- some designers have broken these "rules"
over the years. These include some now-deceased designers
such as Elsa Schiaparelli, who worked in the thirties,
forties, and fifties; Japanese designers Yojhi Yamomoto,
Comme des Garcons, and Junya Watanabe from the early
eighties to the present; and designers from the mid-nineties
onward. Fine examples of modern-day "rule breakers"
are Martin Margiela and Warmenhoven & Venderbos.
These designers approach clothing, Fashion and lifestyle
from new angles and explore also the boundaries of
Fashion itself in order to create "new"
concepts and views for fashion design. Their collections
are not only restricted to garments (ready to wear
as well as couture) and other fashion-related products,
but also contain work in other media. The works of
this breed of designers can also be placed in a certain
Art movement.
Most fashion designers attend
an Academie of fine arts. Fashion design courses are
considered applied arts just like graphic design and
interior design.
The types of fashion designer
-- stylist versus designer -- are often confused.
A stylist inspires his/her designs on existing things,
trends and designers collections. A designer starts
from scratch; he/she develops a unique concept and
translates this into garment collections, other lifestyle
related products or a statement in various other types
of media. Some designers approach their work just
as a fine arts painter or sculptor.
Inspiration for fashion designers
comes from a wide range of things and cannot be pinpointed
exactly. However, just like all artists, they tend
to keep an eye on things going on world-wide to inspire
themselves towards making their future clothes lines.
Most fashion designers are
well trained pattern makers and modeleurs. A typical
design team is made up out one or more: designer(s),
pattern maker(s) /modeleur(s), sample maker(s), buyer(s)
and salesman (men). For presentations and catwalk
shows the help of hair dressers, make-up artists,
photographers modeling agencies, the model and other
support companies/professions is called upon.
As fashion became more and
more a large business, designers also began to license
products. (For example: perfume, bags and all sorts
of products)
Clothing
Fashion design
Perfumery
Fashion stubs
Textiles
Western wear
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