Informational and Articles Based Site.: "History of Fashion and Design"

Fashion design is the art concerned with the application of design and aesthetics toclothing and accessories. Fashion design is influenced by cultural and social attitudes, and has varied over time and place. Fashion designers work in a number of ways in designing clothing and accessories. Some work alone or as part of a team. They attempt to satisfy consumer desire for aesthetically designed clothing; and, because of the time required to bring a garment onto the market, must at times anticipate changing consumer tastes. Some designers in fact have a reputation which enables them to set fashion trends.
Fashion designers attempt to design clothes which are functional as well as aesthetically pleasing. They must consider who is likely to wear a garment and the situations in which it will be worn. They have a wide range and combinations of materials to work with and a wide range of colours, patterns and styles to choose from. Though most clothing worn for everyday wear fall within a narrow range of conventional styles, unusual garments are usually sought for special occasions, such as evening wear or party dresses.

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Structure:

Fashion designers can work in a number of ways. Fashion designers may work full-time for one fashion company, known as 'in-house designers' which owns the designs. They may work alone or as part of a team. Freelance designers work for themselves, selling their designs to fashion houses, directly to shops, or to clothing manufacturers. The garments bear the buyer's label. Some fashion designers set up their own labels, under which their designs are marketed. Some fashion designers are self-employed and design for individual clients. Other high-fashion designers cater to specialty stores or high-fashion department stores. These designers create original garments, as well as those that follow established fashion trends. Most fashion designers, however, work for apparel manufacturers, creating designs of men’s, women’s, and children’s fashions for the mass market. Large designer brands which have a 'name' as their brand such as Calvin Klein, Gucci, or Chanelare likely to be designed by a team of individual designers under the direction of a designer director.

Designing a collection:

A fashion collection is something that designers put together each season to show their idea of new trends in both their high end couture range as well as their mass market range. It is considered to have a planned obsolescence usually of one to two seasons. A season is defined as either autumn/winter or spring/summer.

Designing a garment:

Fashion designers work in different ways. Some sketch their ideas on paper, while others drape fabric on a dress form. When a designer is completely satisfied with the fit of the toile (or muslin), he or she will consult a professional pattern maker who then makes the finished, working version of the pattern out of card. The pattern maker's job is very precise and painstaking. The fit of the finished garment depends on their accuracy. Finally, a sample garment is made up and tested on a model.

History:

Fashion design is generally considered to have started in the 19th century with Charles Frederick Worth who was the first designer to have his label sewn into the garments that he created. Before the former draper set up his maison couture (fashion house) in Paris, clothing design and creation was handled by largely anonymous seamstresses, and high fashion descended from that worn at royal courts. Worth's success was such that he was able to dictate to his customers what they should wear, instead of following their lead as earlier dressmakers had done. The term couturier was in fact first created in order to describe him. While all articles of clothing from any time period are studied by academics as costume design, only clothing created after 1858 could be considered as fashion design.

It was during this period that many design houses began to hire artists to sketch or paint designs for garments. The images were shown to clients, which was much cheaper than producing an actual sample garment in the workroom. If the client liked their design, they ordered it and the resulting garment made money for the house. Thus, the tradition of designers sketching out garment designs instead of presenting completed garments on models to customers began as an economy.

Types of fashion:

The garments produced by clothing manufacturers fall into three main categories, although these may be split up into additional, more specific categories:

Haute couture:

Until the 1950s, fashion clothing was predominately designed and manufactured on a made-to-measure or haute couture basis (French for high-fashion), with each garment being created for a specific client. A couture garment is made to order for an individual customer, and is usually made from high-quality, expensive fabric, sewn with extreme attention to detail and finish, often using time-consuming, hand-executed techniques. Look and fit take priority over the cost of materials and the time it takes to make.

Ready-to-wear:

Ready-to-wear clothes are a cross between haute couture and mass market. They are not made for individual customers, but great care is taken in the choice and cut of the fabric. Clothes are made in small quantities to guarantee exclusivity, so they are rather expensive. Ready-to-wear collections are usually presented by fashion houses each season during a period known as Fashion Week. This takes place on a city-wide basis and occurs twice a year.

Mass market:

Currently the fashion industry relies more on mass market sales. The mass market caters for a wide range of customers, producing ready-to-wear clothes in large quantities and standard sizes. Cheap materials, creatively used, produce affordable fashion. Mass market designers generally adapt the trends set by the famous names in fashion. They often wait around a season to make sure a style is going to catch on before producing their own versions of the original look. In order to save money and time, they use cheaper fabrics and simpler production techniques which can easily be done by machine. The end product can therefore be sold much more cheaply.
There is a type of design called "kitsch" design. . . originated from the German word "kitschen" meaning ugly or not aesthetically pleasing. Another way to describe the term "kitsch" is "wearing or displaying something that has passed its fashion date and is therefore no longer in fashion. so if you are seen wearing a pair of pants that was once worn in the 80's it is seen to be known as a "kitsch" fashion statement.

Fashion education:

There are a number of well known art schools and design schools world wide that offer degrees in fashion design. The most notable of design schools include Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising Fashion Institute of Technology, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, Pratt Institute, London College of Fashion, and University of Westminster inLondon; Fashion Federation, National Institute Of Fashion Technology, India ,Parsons The New School for Design in New York City , Politecnico of Milan, Columbia College Chicago, and International Institute of Fashion Design, and National College of Arts (NCA) in Pakistan.

Areas of fashion design:

Many professional fashion designers start off by specializing in a particular area of fashion. The smaller and the more specific the market, the more likely a company is to get the right look and feel to their clothes. It is also easier to establish oneself in the fashion industry if a company is known for one type of product, rather than several products. Once a fashion company becomes established (that is, has regular buyers and is well-known by both the trade and the public), it may decide to expand into a new area. If the firm has made a name for the clothes it already produces, this helps to sell the new line. It is usually safest for a company to expand into an area similar to the one it already knows. For example, a designer of women's sportswear might expand into men's sportswear. The chart below shows the areas in which many designers choose to specialize.

Area	Brief	Market
Women's Day wear	Practical, comfortable, fashionable	Haute couture, ready-to-wear, mass market
Women's Evening wear	Glamorous, sophisticated, apt for the occasion	Haute couture, ready-to-wear, mass market
Women's Lingerie	Glamorous, comfortable, washable	Haute Couture, ready-to-wear, mass market
Men's Day wear	Casual, practical, comfortable	Tailoring, ready-to-wear, mass market
Men's Evening wear	Smart, elegant, formal, apt for the occasion	Tailoring, ready-to-wear, mass market
Kidswear	Trendy or Classy, practical, washable, functional	Ready-to-wear, mass market
Girls' Wear	Pretty, colorful, practical, washable, inexpensive	Ready-to-wear, mass market
Teenager Girl Wear	Colorful,comfortable,glamorous,pretty,	Ready-to-wear, mass market
Sportswear	Comfortable, practical, well-ventilated, washable, functional	Ready-to-wear, mass market
Knitwear	Right weight and color for the season	Ready-to-wear, mass market
Outerwear	Stylish, warm, right weight and color for the season	Ready-to-wear, mass market
Bridal wear	Sumptuous, glamorous, classic	Haute couture, ready-to-wear, mass market
Accessories	Striking, fashionable	Haute couture, ready-to-wear, mass market

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"History of Fashion and Design"

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