5 Design Development Techniques for Fashion Design

Honestly - looking back from when I first did portfolios to now, I still think there are so many ways for me to improve. After all, with the creative industries constantly changing and expnading, so do the techniques and showcasing of work. However, I do wish that when I was in my first and second year of fashion design that I knew the importance of not being afraid of always researching and looking at other work to learn how to improve my own. I used to be so afraid that I would inadverdently copy someone if I went onto Pinterest too much to look at portfolio work, but the thing is, if I am aware of the importance of avoiding plagiaraism at all costs, how could I copy someone? Besides, even if two people were to be given the exact same concept to design from, I doubt the would produce the same results. That’s why now I have made looking at other portfolios as almost a hobby now, and I think “wow, that’s a nice collage!” or “that’s a nice way to display that design for the viewer” which over time helps me to learn how to make my portfolios less of a mess and more of a succinct way of showing my process and work.

Doing portfolios is, and always was, my favourite part of fashion design. I found that by having fun with the process and making it a positive experience rather than ‘work’, made the result positive. Throughout my fashion degree, I found it fun to procrastinate from work by doing what was essentially another part of my work: my university portfolios. So, I was procrastinating work with work. In this blog post, I want to give a few ideas to anyone who is willing to read on what they can do to get creative and accelerate their design process. After all, I know that this is the type of post I wish was brought to my attention in first year.

Follow my Pinterest below for more ideas, of course!

1. Collage

I remember in first year my teacher would suggest we collage, and there were often times where a student would bring in fifty or so hand-drawn drawing, and together, they would cut up the designs and mix and match different parts to create new designs. You can collage your existing designs to make new ones, but also use pictures with your drawings to gain inspiration for more designs as well. For example, in first year when I wanted to accentuate my vision for a particular design, I cut out SO many pictures and collaged them together on a drawing so that it was easier for me to draw the original design afterwards. I remember for months afterwards I would find all these tiny pictures in my bag or desk from when I was using them for collaging in my portfolios. It was kind of funny. It got to a point where one morning I went to bathroom and when I opened the door, my dog was standing outside with one of the pictures stuck on her nose and I absolutely lost it. It was so funny how the fun of that part of the portfolio was popping up here and there.

Source: Tsuyoshi UCF — Source: **Tsuyoshi UCF**

2. Mixed Media Collage

rce: Jasmine Bennett Portfolio - Northumbria Fashion

I used to basically do a lot of my developement through a physical portfolio: collaging and painting, etc, all by hand. Over time, I realised, that this world is becoming more and more digital, and to make a portfolio neat and professional, at some point each page may need refining to better make sense to the viewer. I don’t think I can ever step away from painting and drawing by hand, as the raw and authentic results has always been appealing to me - you never know which direction it may go and what ideas you can produce. I love throwing down some watercolours to figure out my colour pallette and make backgrounds unique, but sticking to one medium can sometimes get a bit repetitive, so over time I learnt to scan in my physical work and then rearrange everything digitally tol better portray how I went from the beginning to the end of the process. For example, I used the fabric offcuts from my designs and stuck them onto paper, then scanned it in to use it as background. I then would add my digital drawings and development that emerged from being inspired by that fabric or print. The result is a page that is rich with different elements of what may have contributed to a design.

This concept for portraying work proved useful at times when I would get so many ideas at once and I had to get them all out before I forgot them. It often ended up a mess that I olnly I understood, but each mess of an idea could then be seperated and developed in its own way - adding different elements and medias, refining it til it’s an idea that is instantly recognisable. By adding onto one idea with different means, also encouraged me to come up with new ideas and new designs.

3. Variations

I remember in first year, quite often in design classes we were asked to bring a hundred or more designs to class that fit the concept we were doing - and of course, many of us could not fathom even having twenty of fifty designs let alone one hundred. Our teacher suggested that when we are lacking in ideas, just take some of our favourite designs and make variations of them. For example, if you designed a blouse, try a different style of sleeve, or making the sleeve five times bigger, or adding different details to sleeve. Or, try different collars or prints or textures. In the end, one design could turn into ten more designs just by changing a few of the elements of the original, and you never know, you might discover that an original design looks much better after varying it a few times.

4. Drawing

This one could be a bit obvious but I feel like the way to draw in portfolios can be done in various ways. Of course, there is the standard drfawing on a fashion block but there is also rough sketches that you can photoshop over inspiration imagery, or doodling over existing designs, or, like mentioned before you can draw various designs and then photocopy them, cut them and stick them together to draw over them a new design that you just formed from two others. With drawing, the possibilities are endless, and even though sometimes they can be a total mess, it’s one of the best ways I find to quickly throw down a sketch of an idea.

Source: Various Imagery sourced from Pinterest

Of course, there are many ways to do a portfolio and the development within it, some do it entirely digital, some do most of it on paper. Everyone has their own style and technique, but these are just a few ways I found really gives me inspiration to make my portfolio really stand out. In a competitive sea with others, I do really enjoy finding new ways to enrich and improve my portfolio and my design process, so I hope these techniques will give you some idea on what to do in your next project.

Enjoy life,

Nina