Finding inspiration is the easiest and most elusive thing of all to me. Sometimes at home I will have an idea when I’m driving or walking, maybe my mind is focusing on one thing so the other part can relax and figure itself out. I talk to my husband Andrew about this often and how this happens for him also with writing songs.
Often ideas for designs will come from finding a gorgeous fabric like I have written about in another post which sends me into a frenzy of making patterns and sending it out to be made. That process generally is very fast because I’m so impatient to see it finished.
As I was preparing for my trip I was thinking about needing more space to think long term about what I’m making, how I’m approaching design going into the next year and let some new ideas in or work on new projects. Sometimes at home, I get so engrossed in the details of day to day life or with the shop details, so it’s nice to get into a different head space, walk around and think clearly without all that stuff clouding my head. Some of the best ideas pop up when I’m just sitting somewhere doing nothing and doodling. I thought maybe it would be interesting to talk about the approach to design that starts from sketching.
When I started my collection after I got out of school, I would make very small scale sketches. I think I did this due to the fact that I have never been much of an illustrator unlike many of my fellow Parsons classmates. I suppose my thinking was that the smaller the sketch the less obvious it was how little I knew about fashion illustration. I still think my sketches are pretty childlike but as I started working and got a little more confident, I gave them more flair- bows on the hair and shoes, some postures. I had a well known stylist at one point describe them as “special, quite unique,” I wasn’t sure if it was a compliment or not but I took it as an encouragement at least to keep going. One thing that did come from this minuscule drawing was an insane amount of attention to detail on my sketches- every dart and seam was marked even if it was on a napkin. Still to this day, I do my best drawing on a hotel notepad staring out the window.
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Random sketches from over the years
When I started drawing this week remotely, I was designing a mini collection for fall and I keep coming back to some sketches of longer length black dresses of different silhouettes and some blouses and dresses with a textural adorned collars. There are some oversize sailor or nautical- like collars that keep coming into my drawings, a slouchy wrap peacoat in navy with vintage buttons I have been dreaming of and some high waisted pants with a sailor or safari pant feeling that are definitely going in there that I have been working on at home. But overall I see what I am sketching emphasizes length, layers and slouchiness in the silhouette with a higher waistline.
Rough Sketches for fall
When I am away from my design studio or production I feel more pressure to figure out the idea or design first on paper, then turn to the fabric. Sometimes these designs in the end are more thought out because I have to mull them over longer. They don’t always work, because at times what looks nice on a sketch doesn’t transfer to a garment. I backlogged some fabrics I found last month and have been holding them for fall so I have some direction from fabric. Nothing is very definitive, just some accent prints, so it’s still a little bit of a puzzle. This is honestly where I am at the point and have to sift it all together and see what this is going to look like.
One of my favorite things to look at in terms of reference for drawing are sketches by the masters like Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Dior and Cristobal Balenciaga. In the past five years, I have been to a couple retrospectives and I love to see their drawings and how they expressed themselves. There was so much movement in their drawings and they were quite small relative to what I used to have to do in school. When I learned to draw at Parsons, I found that I didn’t relate to the extremely elongated “fashion” body illustrations. My peers would take it to extremes to make their drawings stand out, but I just never could get into trying to draw like that. The head of my department I will say was very tolerant of my drawing and just encouraged my creativity and I really look back and appreciate that freedom she gave me.
Anyway back to the masters, I love their ladylike poses, I feel a lot of dance movement in their drawings. In a future post I want to talk about dance and fashion: both things I have a good amount of experience in, because I do feel the connection so much. I think elegance and statement played the part so much in their designs, so the drawings reflected as such. But, what interested me so much is how the accuracy of the design came from the pose. They chose exactly the right movement of the body, to show their design and the details.
Here’s are some beautiful examples I’ve seen on my travels from Yves Saint Laurent.
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I suppose the thing that makes me draw the most though is just being in a beautiful place and seeing new things. Yesterday I was in Bevagna, Italy with friends looking at pottery and it finally centered some thoughts I was having about silhouettes even though of course these two things are not related at all. Something about seeing the different shapes juxtaposed together made me see some of my own shape ideas I’ve been thinking about and how they can fit together. I think it’s funny how that can happen in an unrelated context.
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I remember reading a rare interview with the designer Phoebe Philo and they asked her about her inspiration for a certain collection and I am paraphrasing but she said that it was much more about a feeling or instinctive sense of something or femininity, not a direct inspiration and that made a lot of sense to me- this continuous feeling of instinct of where to go next without being bound to a theme or a context.
I would love to hear how you all get your inspiration in your different kinds of work. Thank you for the messages you have been sending privately to me, I love to read them and I feel very flattered you’re enjoying reading and getting something from this. I will write another little travel post for paid subscribers this weekend if you’re interested you can subscribe below. Have a lovely weekend.
Xx Katherine