Sneak Peek: Fall patterns, from inspiration to design

Many of you have said that you’re interested in hearing about how we decide on what patterns to make. In other words, how do I go from inspiration to concrete ideas?

I thought I’d use the upcoming Fall patterns as an example, and tell you a little about my design process.

Last week, I shared some of the vintage inspiration that led to the latest pattern collection. But there’s a lot more to coming up with new designs than the initial inspiration.

In designing patterns (or anything else for that matter), you have to understand your constraints. Now, constraints sound like a bad thing, but I think most designers would tell you that they are actually a huge source of creativity.

I’ve often thought that this is one of the things that separates designers from fine artists. That’s not to say that artists don’t have their own constraints, but dealing with them isn’t a necessary part of the artistic process. To me, it is fundamental to the design process.

In other words, when I’m coming up with patterns, I have a lot to think about besides inspiration. Such as:

• Sewing skill level: In other words, how hard will a particular design be to sew? This is a big one for me right now, because I’m trying to round out my offerings with patterns anyone can sew, from beginners on up. For the Fall patterns, I decided to introduce three more beginner patterns to keep balancing things out.
• Number of pattern pieces: This is somewhat related to skill level, since more advanced patterns can be more complex. But overall, the fewer pattern pieces a design has, the easier it will be to sew. Since the Fall patterns are designed to be easy, I tried to design them without a lot of fussy pieces. This means keeping the designs fairly simple, though I have to balance that with making sure they’re still interesting.
• Body flattering: My customers come in all different body types, so my designs should be flattering on a wide variety of people.
• Creative opportunities: Another thing I think a lot about in designing patterns is whether they afford creative opportunities for you all. Can you use two fabrics to add visual interest? Are there some interesting details you can add? Are there fun related tutorials I could add to the blog?

  Two of the Fall patterns incorporate contrasting fabric, and all of them can be modified in countless ways.

• Fabric choice: Will customers have access to they types of fabric that the patterns will work best with? I always try to imagine the designs in widely accessible fabrics like simple cottons. That isn’t to say I don’t design drapier things, but it is something to keep in mind.

  For the Fall, I designed a cigarette pant that will be ideal in a fabric with a bit of stretch. So I had to think a bit about what that might mean to you as customers, since it narrows fabric choice a bit.

• Garment types: Separates, dresses, outerwear? I think about what seems to be selling well and where the holes are in the current offerings.
• Customer requests: I take customer requests to heart. Many people have asked for trousers, for example.
• Number of patterns to introduce: I have to decide how many patterns to release at once as well! This is balance of finances (in other words, how much inventory I can support) and how many I can reasonably put out in a season. Three seems like a good number for now.

As for my actual design process, I am a visual thinker. As many people can attest, when I’m thinking through a problem or creative idea, I often have to whip out a notebook and pen and write or sketch.

So my design process involves a whole lot of sketching. I sketch, I take notes. I think about my constraints above, I crumple up paper, I start again. Repeat until I finally have something that just clicks and seems right.

I’m curious if other people work this way? Do you sketch tons of ideas? Do you think much about practical considerations? Or do you work more directly from your inspiration?

A related post you might be interested in:

Fall Pattern Inspiration: Inspiration for the upcoming patterns for Fall 2011 (in case you missed it).