Lessons

Lesson Info

Learn to Edit

Here we have learning to edit we want to ask the right questions okay? We have a couple of questions were goingto approaching the second personal and professional evaluations when you're asking questions and trying to figure things out, you want to remember that it's not just the professional questions but it's also the personal ones that relate to why you're doing it and how you feel about it the precious problem and this is when we fall in love a little too much with our own stuff and can't imagine changing it and we have to remember that we have to be open to that process because if we're holding on too strong, that means the idea can't stand on its own so then we have not like the other we want to be able to we may have come up with a whole set of designs and we want to be able to spot what doesn't fit. So you know, ask yourself if you're designing, uh collection and you have ten dresses and one pair of pants you know an ensemble of one pair of pants either you need to add more pan...

ts or you need to get rid of them because there's not you're not sending a cohesive message for the collection fashion equations how we figure out the balance of the collection and then the shuffle I always when designers especially are doing separates and you know that you can mix and match I always have their them cut their designs in half so that they can shuffle ago how would that top look with that skirt even though you showed it with a pair of pants and really play with it? Because it's another exercise for kind of exploring the choices you have available to you, can you talk a little bit more about why that why editing is so important? I think people will need need um more focused work to get their attention. I think when ideas have too much information, it could be a little overwhelming and when you're talking about garments, you know you want to tune into that garment for what it's providing you so the designer has to do that step first, you know, because I think we all have moments where we have lots of great ideas and we'll try to include them all in the same outfit or all of the same collection, but I think like we spoke earlier about doing variations of an idea, I think that allows you to reach more customers as well. So when you say I'm going to do a bean ekland but for just uses a quick example if I do this for my b neckline there's going to be a woman who doesn't want that the neckline who doesn't want a dress cutting in here so you want that edit, so to speak, of that other variation, so ask yourself. Well, maybe if I put the v in the back because that might give her a sense of feeling comfortable she's covered up but little drama and still your design detail and those things you figure out through the editing process, you can ask yourself, does everything I have having a deep opening in the front, right? Because that's only one woman whose going to respond to that particular design detail but how can I take that plunging look and put it elsewhere like put it in the back, put it on, have the sleeves open, you know, like great example is donna karen, her little cold shoulder, what they call the cold shoulder, where a woman is completely covered up, so like turtleneck, completely long sleeves but there's a cut out on the cap of the sleeve so to show the shoulder and it's the reason is, she says, no matter what age you are, it's smooth and pretty and soft and central part of the body so all of a sudden it gives that that woman that choice whereas another design in her collection might have cut outs you know what cut out here or cut out on the skirt, but this gives another woman a choice tohave that design detail but in a fresh way so and that all comes from the editing process so I'm cem started questions these are a little bit more personal and I encourage designers to ask themselves these questions some of them might seem kind of self explanatory, but they're really not you need to delve a little deeper so why do I want to be a designer? What is your definition of success as a designer? You know it's like why do you want to do it? You love being in that workroom you love the possibility of fame right that's fare you want, you know, love the idea of making lots of money you know, those airfare things but you know, you might want to go deeper and saying what's going to keep you coming back on these by the way are in the bonus materials I just pulled a couple of them um what training do I have? And by virtue of that also what training do I need? What have I committed? I have I committed to a professional career path because some of us might be just having some fun right and make it more of a hobby and that's perfectly valid some incredible things come out of people who are just having some fun with it don't forget if you're thinking of a career and you know a professional you want to think about what are my business skills and my good with people this is very key because I know at events I'm a little more reserved and shy and I need to have people on my team who arm or outgoing and greg areas to keep that balance, you know? So I'm taking care of things and then who are my industry role models because their career path and their choices could help you make yours? Um here we're talking about equations this going back to donna karen these air drawings of her system dressing where she says if you have one of each of these essentials you could mix and match for the whole season that's all you need so you want to ask yourself, you know, bodysuit shirt, jacket, jeans, leggings, pants, skirt dress you can do anything you need to do with these so you can come up with your own interpretations of what's your system for that season or just in general and then learning to edit by the numbers by restrictions by attitude and utility by the numbers it just means actual numbers like how many outfits can you actually do and produced that makes sense? You want to cut that down to a manageable number by restrictions you want to ask yourself when it comes to the client? Do they have restrictions? We talked about professional where earlier there are still rules on employee handbooks that say you can't wear pants for a woman or you can't wear open toe shoes or you have to wear hosiery even in the dead of summer and so there are restrictions as to those are extreme you know by today's standards but there are restrictions for people as to what they can and can't wear for a man you know they're certain jobs where you can only take off your jacket in your office when the door is closed so it's like um so if you want to remember that attitude like what? The attitude behind the clothes how does that play a factor in your editing? Does it feel like you were talking about those outfits felt strong but you immediately cut the other one's out because they were soft so your focus was on the strong and then utility um a lot of people forget about you know does my customer want a pocket in her pants, right? Some people actually cut the pockets out of pants because they want a smooth silhouette, whereas in ball gowns we might hide a pocket so that they don't have to carry a purse. So um and and a great quote from cristobal balenciaga elegance is elimination I wanted teo talk teo the the students here that we have in our studio audience and we've talked about mood boards and we've talked about sort of finding a path and all these different options that there might be can you talk a little bit if you have experience with sort of getting to where you are now or the challenges that have come within that? And we just have a couple of minutes, but if you want to touch on that great well, he was talking about earlier about how your shy in front of people and you have other people that help you with that. I was just thinking to myself, it's so important to have a good team around you, like I have ah, a business partner and she's brilliant and she's completely opposite of me, and it really helps. Yeah, and then I have amazing photographers that I've got his published like because of that, like, I mean, it's so it's, I just think it's so important to have a good team. Well, I'm just I just work on my own. I don't have a team at all though very appealing to think about having such a I think it's just narrowing the focus, narrowing the focus, narrowing the focus and not getting pulled in too many different directions by, you know, somebody wants this. Somebody wants that well, you have to learn to say no, um, I just started doing costuming and cosplay just a zahabi a couple years ago and had really only made things from myself and some friends and seeing the explosion of popularity of that culture and the growth that it's gone through in the last couple years and seeing other people other peers in that community turning their their passions into a career it was really inspiring for me and you know, let me to think I could also be on that path and actually enjoy what I do for a living so that's where I met what what I'm getting out of this class which is really good for me is that, um when I'm making costumes you know there are very definite you know, very definitive things that I need to do I need to make no this kind or this you know, whatever for the actors, the actor, the scenes or whatever but the thing that's always baffled me when I do stuff on my own is I just I always would look around and think, oh god, everybody else has he's great bursts of inspiration and now thanks to you, I realize it's a lot of hard work, you know, and people don't just get those bolts out of the blue it e I think that mood board is a very good example of that, so actually I feel a lot better now thank you I think I think the editing just comes in handy a lot because I think if anything more than than making the things that I have made it comes in handy with styling just because there's always tons of ideas and just kind of taking that idea that you khun it doesn't have to all go into one garment and I have definitely had issues with that before we're just like I go and I make him and then I want to put it together I'm just like this is not at all what I'm envisioning in my head and like trying to translate that from like from what we're seeing in your head and on paper toe like real life is good you all for sharing as we as we round out like you said earlier this this particular class do you have any any final words for us about about the mood boards about narrowing your path really, really awesome but I think when it comes to the mood words and you know we're talking about you know, those people that we feel like our always inspired is that those people are usually immersed you know, every day it's part of their there there everyday process to you know, to immerse themselves in something that that is inspiring and then for the editing I think a lot of people are scared of editing because they feel like it's discarding things but I say it's you're not throwing it out you're just putting it aside, so that might be a great source of inspiration later on. So it's just again, just narrowing it down, because I know it could be hard when toe edit when you have so many great choices. But focusing on one thing at a time is a great way to approach it.