Sitemap
>> Fashion
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