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Monday, October 5, 2009

Pattern Making

A good pattern is an essential part of the fashion collection, obviously. The best way to begin developing your label is to first develop your basic slopers. Slopers are basic patterns which are used as a basis to create any design you can think up! It is important to decide the measurements you will use for your patterns and create these basic patterns to reflect those measurements. It is extremely helpful for a designer to know and have a good understanding of patterns and how they are made. I have worked with "designers" in the past (not saying names) that had no idea about patterns or how they were created. These types of designers are a blessing and curse for the professional pattern maker. Blessing because since they do not know what they are doing they can often be overcharged and taken advantage of (although i would never do that to anyone)........Curse because the designer more times than not has no idea what they want and they think of designs that are not possible to create the way they would like. If you want to be a good designer get a good education and understanding of patterns...I mean an architect has to have some understanding of how a house is built to be able to design it right?...it's no difference. KNOW YOUR SHIT. People will not be able to take advantage of you and you will be legit.
There are also some great books to learn about patterns, aside from school:
1) Patternmaking for Fashion Design by Joseph-Armstrong ( fabrics w/out stretch a.k.a. wovens)
2) Design and Patternmaking for Stretch fabrics by Keith Richardson (stretch fabrics)

Beginnings

We created a great way of designing our collection, in my opinion. Each of us could come up with our own designs and then we would meet and discuss what we came up with. We have very complimentary styles when we design and it was a relief to see that everything came together as a collection quite easily. We discussed, critiqued and edited our work to create our first collection. Possessing an education and knowledge of pattern making has been a huge help for our success to date, pattern makers make good cash in this industry and it will be one of your biggest costs in sample development. We split the work, Diego did some of the patterns and i did the rest. We bought some cheap jersey to use as muslin and began cutting out the first muslins......They did not turn out that bad!!! Of course, there were some changes that needed to be made, but overall we were quite pleased. We were on our way, but the work was just getting started.

How We Got Started

I had been let go from my previous job as a fashion designer here in New York from a womenswear label. Unfortunately, it was at a time when the economy was on its way to hell and at the time NO ONE was hiring in the fashion industry! Diego was let go from his job around the same time due to economics as well, his store closed completely.
While trying to find a job i worked to keep myself busy and current with what was going on in the fashion industry. It's an exciting industry and it changes so much it is sometimes hard too keep up with all the changes. I decided to "revamp" my portfolio and began working on new collections, in order to keep my portfolio up to date.
I decided, after many attempts to try and find a job, to start "doing my own thing." One thing about a crappy economy is that it acts as a toilet. Sometimes..... people with no aesthetic or design sensibility, or sense of style acquire a large amount of money to design and create their own label. I am not sure how it happens (not bitter here) and i do not know why it is allowed by the universe, but what can you do. Anyway, unfortunately for these previously described folks their end usually comes during a time when the economy is not doing so well and consumers start to think about how they are spending their money.
I hate to admit it, but although clothing is a social necessity (thankfully) fashion is not, at least not for everyone. I personally believe fashion is born from a basic, somewhat primitive desire that humans have to adorn themselves and to create a sense of self. People view clothing two ways: some people just view it as a means to cover their ass, which is the necessity. Alternatively, some people (fashion people) see clothing as a way to create their own identity, create a sense of beauty, attract others or as a social status. I'm down with the creating of one's own identity and sense of beauty, i am NOT, however, down with viewing clothing as a social status. I get it.....i just don't support it. I think that people who put too much emphasis on fashion and clothing as a social status tend to be petty, insecure and more times than not have no sense of style and everything to lose.
As a result, in regards to fashion, I concentrate on design, quality and utility. I figure if you view fashion in this way you can reach more people. You get all the types, people who like to create a sense of identity through the designs they wear, beauty from the quality of the garment and it's execution and if you have good design and quality you automatically fill the requirement of utility and wearability.
So yeah......side tracked there for a sec...anyway, i figured that now would be a great time to start my own thing. During an economy like this, labels that are not generating enough income begin to go out of business, which creates space for new and emerging "talent" to come in and try to situate themselves in the market. It is a fantastic time for people who can "make it happen" during a bad economy. Creating a collection is expensive and alot of hard work, people who are not in the industry just do not realize the amount of organization, timing and planning that goes into a collection.
I knew i needed help and the fact i had no money was no help either, however, i knew if i had a partner we could really get it together. Since Diego had recently lost his job i approached him about this opportunity. I knew Diego would be committed, reliable and would work just as hard as i would, plus he also knew how to do patterns and is a very talented designer. Upon his agreement we set out to begin our collection!!!

The Players



Jaunt is a women's cut and sew collection originally thought of by me, jeremy Freeze. It is owned and operated by myself and my business partner Diego Vela. We are responsible for creating all of the designs, making all the patterns, sewing all the samples and selling the collection. Oh and we also do all the production and distribution. Its a ton of work, but can be a very rewarding experience (supposedly, when things start to take off)! hehe. This blog is an attempt to share our development and setbacks with people who are interested in the fashion industry and want to know the steps to creating their own label! FASHION IS NOT GLAMOROUS! I will try to keep it as current as possible. I am starting this blog about 5 months after we started working on the line so i will get everyone caught up-to-date with where we are now. Hope you enjoy it!