Lessons I Learned as a Clothing Designer

Many different television programs are bringing the art and business of clothing design into households across the United States. What many don't realize is that there is more to the profession than what these televisions shows allow the public to see. Here are a few tips and lessons I've learned along the way.

No One Told Me Clothing Design Demanded my Blood, Sweat and Tears

Clothing design can be a labor of love when you have carte blanche to design as your heart desires. When things don't quite go the way you envisioned, it can bring you to tears. When you are hitting crunch time with a strict deadline quickly approaching, you will sweat buckets. When you are in a rush, panic or are running off of little sleep, you will spill blood.

The main culprit behind shedding blood, sweat and tears is lack of sleep. When your brain wants to shut down and recharge, let it. Otherwise, you will make careless design and construction mistakes as well as increase your likelihood of personal injury.

Lesson learned: When sleep wants to come, take an hour break and get a nap. Trust me; you don't want to present your design to a client with a bandaged hand and bags under you eyes.

Fashion Design is about You and Me

As a designer, your focus is to make your creation into a tangible three-dimensional garment. For a lot of us, we have a grand idea in our minds that looks absolutely fabulous on paper and may be fun to construct. However, once the design has to be worn by a person, that person has be able to get in and out of your design by him- or herself.

I learned this lesson after working with a company that designed clothing for people with physical disabilities or limitations. Every design aspect needs to be taken into consideration but not for style, for functionality. For example, people with severe arthritis do not handle buttons so well and the smaller the button and button hole are the harder it is for that person handle the button closure.

Lesson learned: Function always trumps style. If the customer can't put it on, it's useless.

Always Have a Professional Shrink Your Fabric

Starting out I needed to cut cost as much as possible. Preshrunk cotton, wool, linen and silk fabrics cost more than those that are not preshrunk do. There is nothing wrong with purchasing such fabrics, but by all means do have these fabrics professionally shrunk by a dry cleaner who has experience with such procedures.

While I knew this would be easier to do, the cost issues forced me to make the decision to preshrink my own fabrics. Preshrinking five yards of 60" wide wool is not an easy task in an apartment. I had to use my bathtub, a few towels and my long table. Even though wetting and drying the fabric was cumbersome, the worst part came when I had to smooth out the wrinkles and creases. Needless to say, I had to reschedule my presentation and still come out of pocket to have the fabric pressed at a cleaners.

Lesson learned: Never cut corners or costs when it comes to your fabric.

Whenever Possible Create New Patterns on Cloth

Flat pattern making is essential to garment creation; however, a mixture of flat pattern making and draping helps to ensure the best possible fit of a garment. I used to strictly create my designs using the flat pattern method because I am good with measurements and have a good eye at gauging the distance between two points. However, a two-dimensional pattern does not always translate into a wearable three-dimensional garment. I found myself making multiple pattern corrections to address fit issues after my sample garments were constructed.

Then one day I was pressed for time getting a design made so I decided to drape it on the dressform and transfer the cloth pattern to paper. When I constructed the sample garment, the fit was almost perfect. I made maybe two minor tweaks to the pattern and I was ready to go. I still can't believe how much simpler my life became after draping my designs first then transferring them to paper for grading.

Lesson learned: Drape your design to create a cloth pattern then transfer that cloth pattern to paper.

These are only a handful of lessons I've learned along the way during my 10 years as a clothing designer. As many designers know, you never stop learning or discovering within this profession. Once you stop learning and making discoveries, you become stagnant. So research the industry and gain insight from other clothing designers. The most important learning tool is to learn from the mistakes and successes of others. So pay attention to the success and failure stories from other designers. Hopefully, the lessons I've learned along the way will help another designer or design student one day.