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Build Trend Files - Jennifer Sauer |
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Build Trend Files
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Become hyper-aware.
Following and forecasting trends is a blast. I define the job as half detective work, part psychic ability. I love to mine the magazines, troll fashion websites, and walk the streets of any city in search of great silhouettes, unusual pairings, stand-out accessories, and striking details. Even a trip to the local mall can become a trend-spotting extravaganza. (Plus, it's a great way to get your shopping "fix" without spending a dime!) As a designer, you need to eat, sleep, and breathe fashion. Inspiration is, quite literally, all around you.
Spy, stalk, research.
O.K. First, think like a detective. Become sneaky. Bring a small notepad and pen everywhere. Also practice using your cell-phone camera. Your covert mission is to track down fashion and record it. I recently took one of my classes to New York City to spot trends. They watched the masses in Bryant Park, and snapped pictures on the street (see one student's photos, below). The students also shopped the stores, stopping every so often to hurry out to the street and sketch down garments that inspired them or that they felt were fashion-forward.
When the weary-but-happy students returned home, they next spent time surfing www.Style.com, perused Women's Wear Daily, and tore through the stack of magazines (fashion and other) we keep for trend-spotting purposes in the college library. I also asked them to study architecture, art, and interior design, as well as analyze economic, social, and pop culture trends. An event like Michael Jackson's death will ripple through the industry.
Organize, file, then organize some more.
Once you start the trend-spotting process, it's hard to stop. In every magazine that I read, I find a page or two to tear out (a practice frowned upon in doctor's offices). I might be drawn to a cool sleeve in Vogue, or a great pair of boots in the latest Macy's flyer. Recently, while reading an article about Johnny Depp in Vanity Fair, I fell in love with the Mad-Hatter styling from his new movie, Alice in Wonderland. (Ooh, great hat pins, shredded half-gloves, crushed velvet, lace!) I immediately tore out the page, and pinned it up on the bulletin board in my sewing studio.
Only a few ultra-inspiring trends make it to my board. Mostly, I stash my trend findings into a file cabinet I set aside for that purpose. Nerdy me, I've set up a system to organize all of my tearsheets, sketches, and photos: a file on dresses, one on pants, a section on trims and embellishments, another on fabrics (broken down further by season). You get the picture. I do the same thing on my computer. I save web pages into my "Favorites" and organize them by topic, season, or whatever filing system ensures that I won't spend hours trying to hunt down "that cool color Marc Jacobs used in 2002." Be sure to date all tearsheets and notes.
Then peer into your crystal ball.
As a fashion designer, you should treat your files as your own personal trend "history". (It cracks me up to see how obsessed I was with poet blouses in the early 1990s.) But, really, you should always be looking ahead. Here's where you tap into your psychic abilities. As you organize your files, look for common themes. Maybe you noticed lots of '80s looks. See pages and pages of bold, bright colors. Pintucks and pleats. Oversized bags. Whatever. Jot the trends down. Then think about how those trends will influence fashion in six months, in a year, in three years. Will women get sick of '80s silhouettes, and long for something loose and flowing? Will bright colors hang on for a long time? After an '80s obsession, is the next step a revisit of '90s styles?
The good news? There aren't any right answers here. You -- and every other fashion professional out there -- are making educated guesses about color, silhouette, details, fabric, and accessories. The future hasn't happened yet. That's the fun of trend forecasting.
Make it your own.
Every time I design a garment or bag, I pull out my trend files and browse. It gets the creative juices flowing. All creative people are sponges, and soak up beauty all around them. Artists and writers have been doing this for centuries. The key: never steal another designer's ideas. But get inspired, by all means.
If I want to design a shirt, for example, but am stuck on what type of collar or sleeves I'd like to do, I'll pull my file on shirts (or collars, or sleeves, I'm that geeky) and take out a few examples I like. Then I sketch. In the photos below, you'll notice that I already had a striped fabric in mind, so I played with the positioning of the stripes in the sleeve cuffs, collar, and placket. When I was happy with the sketch, I pulled out my pattern tools and went to work. Then I moved to the sewing machine and iron. When the shirt was fully constructed, I wasn't quite sure what to do about closures. Buttons seemed expected, and boring, but I went ahead and marked their positions with small safety pins. When I tried on the shirt, I loved the safety-pin look on such a feminine, pink shirt. Shades of Vivienne Westwood!
Design is an organic process. As I tell my students, find inspiration all around you, know current trends, and use them as a jumping-off point. Then create something new and fresh: designs that are uniquely, utterly you.
Photo Credits
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(09/10/09)
