It ain’t gotta be perfect; the rough sketch just needs to relay a message....
The first thought that came to my mind is “my brand - my lifestyle.” I constantly here people in the industry saying that your brand can’t be all about you. It should be something that takes care of a particular need in the world. Well. Ok, I agree, to a degree. Let’s just be honest, I wouldn’t be doing this if it weren’t something I would want to in my own closet. So, yes, it started with an idea of a garment that I wanted to see myself in. And the need, well does fashion ever really take care of a real need outside of the need to look and feel good? Ok then, that's good enough for me. I feel good, when you feel good.
Naturally, as I progressed, consideration of the type of woman who would want to wear something like this came to mind. Who is she? What does she do for fun? Does she work from home? What does she do in her LEISURE time? Does she value quality as well as comfort? Where does she shop? Is she as tired of today's athleisure styles as I? And so on and so on.
Once I determined who she is and what she likes to do, I kept my miss in mind throughout the remainder of the design/development lifecycle. Being not only a start up, but a start up on a budget of $15k for this particular initiative, I had to make extremely careful decisions on how to get through the process with limited funds. This means, I had to step into my walk-in closet and pull out every hat I own. Yes, I would need to wear the founder hat, the designer hat, the product developer hat, the sourcing hat, the technical design hat, the digital marketing hat, the web site designer hat, the blogger hat, the fit model hat, and sometimes the photographer’s hat. Image that! Having to actually take the photo that you yourself must be in? This is what having to do it all solo feels like. And it takes TIME, patience, and energy!!! Lots of it.
The idea and the rough sketch will get the juices flowing. Next, comes the sourcing and development phases. This can be fun, because it involves shopping and sampling for all the materials, trims, threads, elastics, etc. that will go into making the garment. Read the next blog post, which will discuss how and where I sourced my material to create the first prototype of these styles.
P.S. Here is a little tidbit. I am sure you have noticed that all of my sketches are in the same pose. There is a reason for that. I cannot draw bodies, nor poses. However, I CAN draw clothing. So to make things easier on myself, I use a template. In the industry, this template is called a croquis. Croquis’ are great to use as a time saver and allows you to focus only on the garment that is being sketched. You will see this croquis used in many of my sketches for consistency. Maybe at some point, I will have a “Bridgette” croquis created by a real fashion illustrator and use that as my foundation. Hmmmm. That’s a thought.
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Designer, Bridgette.
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