Lessons

Lesson Info

Student Mood Boards

So because he brought these really great sample she brought images but she also brought go but she also brought actual trims and notions that there is some really great stuff. So j can you talk a little bit about what the instructions were for wave similar checklist and it was to basically go hunting for these um representations of each of these areas and one of the easiest things to do is to go to magazines or our do print outs from online and start to focus in on what uh what you like in those areas great and before we get too much further can we just introduce uh kensi can you talk to us a little bit about who you are and what your uh sort of level within fashion design is having created a mood board before sort of where's your baseline for this project yeah, I guess this is my first like super intentional mood board and definitely one of those typical people that's like obsessed with looking on pin dressed and like going through for I don't know different fashion inspiration um I j...

ust I've always been interested in fashion and like styling that kind of aspect of it and recently I've been helping more working in a production coordinator creative lives so a lot of photographer friends and just kind of like getting more involved with helping make a lot of dresses and like interesting pieces for photo shoots and I find I like a lot of the stuff I do is a little, uh more like unconventional like materials and things like that so I personally haven't been like super involved in like, just making like street where anything like that, but I'm no I'm stoked toe kind of create this for the first time intentionally, right? Well, I think a lot of people can relate to being at that point, right? J people that are new students that come teo definite and the key word that because he used was intentionally I think that's the real key because a lot of times we can get waken get um I feel like we're waiting for the muse, right? But in fashion design, we really need to kind of start working bef for that, the muse shows up, we need to kind of start to put some stuff down so we can decide what's relative relevant and what's not to our right the way we're going with an idea. So all right, so we can just going to put up a couple of more things and then we can get get to playing so this thiss whole, um way of approaching it, but they're um is just getting everything on the table you could do it on a table you could do a pawn on a wall on a board like this and I like I like working with you know corkboard because you could kind of move things around but you can very easily do it in front of you and I would invite our other students in the class to kind of pull out their materials and you have a corkboard infront of you can start to just lay things out so you can kind of see some of the relationships that form for you as well as are any students online who might wantto start playing they could very easily do that maybe with their pinchers boards start to see what kind of images they've been collecting so let's let's go to our board so we can see what are some things that you recognize their popping out at you when you see all this together that that air hitting these points so let's start with color what do you see for color here yes oh color I'm definitely drawn to the more darker stuff yeah a lot of like black and white I think is a key element with like splashes of deep colors like burgundy's or like dark greens uh more purples um and yeah and I like uh this kind of like goes into like the the texture and fabric and all that but I like the mixture of like really soft and hard so I think that's why I like the splash of like light colors or like bright metallic colors with like against the contrast of the black or like the lacey and like leather stuff like that? Well, it sounds like when you think about black and white, especially when you're introducing color into a cz well, a lot of times that sort of a base when you work with neutrals, so you know, thinking of black and white as a neutral, they become a base line that you can build off, so and you also mention about sort of hard and soft and that could again be represented that way, so let's, let's play with the color a little bit, I'm just going to move some things around because this whole process just keeps evolving. So a couple of the things that I see right away because you mentioned sort of the layering you can actually mix combined swatches and start to play with what they're doing and here this is a really good example. This is a real pretty color combination and we could wake can also play with an actual little bit of metallic there, so right there that starts to feel like a collection we're seeing gold, but we're seeing it in different ways. We're seeing color represented with a pattern as well as with a solid were things um layering to change the color because all of a sudden when you put the lace over the burgundy that's another kind of feeling so that's a great place to start for a collection, and it kind of represents what you've been talking about, so the next one here is texture. We're definitely getting texture in the lemay and this great crinkle sort of like it looks really great. And is there any other texture that you think you could pull in because I'm seeing some other things, too? That could be kind of cool to pull in? Um, yeah, I mean, I kind of like the look not in the color scheme, but the look of, like, the tattered, like father, I can't tell whether the cereal that because it looks like almost like a sheer fabric and you actually brought feathers, I don't wantto ruin them, so I don't know what it's fine they can be put in media. This is gorgeous, and this again ties in for something that maybe we saw in a black and white, but again, we're bringing in the color for it, so that could be that's a beautiful isn't it could've been through? Oh, yeah, okay, because I think it it really tells a beautiful story and that's really at the heart of all this, which is thinking about the story that you're telling in terms of, of all this, so next on here so we have details is there any particular me here you have definitely the pearls but is there any other kind of detail that your thing? Yeah, I was looking more towards like just the super like kind of ornate like the bead work and like the embellishment don't know kind of I like the idea of like, making the lacey look out of other other things like you're pure it's done with, like boning and all that um yeah yeah, I think that was my biggest draw. Yeah and like yeah, a lot of just like a little little this's definitely hardware and I'm just gonna hold us up actually put it here this is a great example that can take the place of not only decoration, but for instance, this could be a designer's inspiration for a button or a closure and it becomes the hardware actual functioning detail so after that we have silhouettes now from all of all of your image, your fashion images, which ones do you think would best represent the type of woman and how she'd like tio, you know what shapes she'd like to wear? Yeah, I there's a lot going on I kind of like the idea of like a fairly basic silhouette was like the little details like sharp shoulders, so like a little more structure, not necessarily flowing or anything and just kind of hard to see because it's all black about still the way you like them apples let's move up those two what was the other one and this starts to bring in what you mentioned earlier which is the black and white you know this because a foundation and becomes very graphic all right, so the heart of this mood board we've started to edit you know we're not necessarily going to use everything but this starts to look like a collection. What about the look of the model model? I was kind of I was liking the fairly naked look except for the lip like a dark lint on kind of like sleep back hair. Okay? Clean and dramatic. Yeah, andi like the like the strong brow? Yeah. Strong row bullet. Okay, just look back here and then we any accessories? Um, accessories kind of not I like the idea of playing more with the structure of the dress like the high necklines I'm strong shoulders movie like simple hearings. I didn't you know that not having it on there is probably an indication of it's not part of the mix and then on dh then finally theme wise, is there anything here that gives you a sense of a theme or do you see anything when you see everything all together? Yeah, kind of like this a lot I knew right away yeah, I don't think a bonnet stuff where it's just very like broken almost gothic um I like that look so I mean I think we're telling a really incredible story it's very rich very opulent dark andi think that's a great beginning to a collection very cool awesome. Thank you so let's kind of turn to our other students in class and find out what they brought and from having it in front of you is there anything that jumps out at you in terms of these areas that we discussed here for color? It could be any one of them would do a couple of examples yeah, my name is margo and I could hold that might just here and I have done uh a lot of personal sewing but also costume uh, stuff and you know, for some local theaters and the high school theater and things like that so predominately interested in costume I like I also like the history of fashion and and and fabrics and things so actually what I did was I brought in this piece of fabric that infuse me uh I've actually had for a couple of years and have not done anything with it but it's a japanese motif beautiful color and uh, what I'm trying to do which I can't figure out quite how to do it is I also like the art nouveau period and um I know that they have taken some inspiration art nouveau doesn't take some inspiration from the east, but I want teo use some modern fabrics for that and actually one thing which I wasn't able to bring a piece of but I wanted to do something with burlap oh, and some of these finer fabrics like a z said I don't have a piece of burlap that I could bring, but I just thought that would be a very interesting combination something very basic and crude if you will and then some very fine materials well that's kind of what I'm I think that sounds really interesting and one of the two things that kind of came out of what you said that I think are really important bringing in the burlap is in a great example of the formula I mentioned earlier because you're kind of shaking it up by you know, like having things could collide, you know, but also the fact that you talked about costume when we talk about coming up with a mood board and inspiration for a collection often in costume and just let me know if you agree in costume you often doing that for characters you know you're basically coming up with what colors would that character where what fabrics would they where do they need to look flowing? Do they need to look stiff? And those are the same the same issues we need to think about in terms of a collection as we do for the theatre or for film we're creating this character that's telling a story so we need to think about what they wouldn't want it where years of sowing and creating things is I met point in my life where I really am looking at you what I'm making is more of a work of art then as something that you know I just throw on toe where right and so that's kind of where I'm coming from with all this stuff it sounds beautiful thank you just wanted teo jump in we have a great question that came in from the folks at home and the question is on the first mood board that we were looking at the fabrics were fall when winter fam ix structure tweed but also but shown with a flowy summery dress was the color there only the only thing being explored I think this actually was before when you were showing can you talk a little bit about this seasons and how those play into a particular mood board are you changing them up within a season? Well initially the mood board doesn't really have any rules a lot of people you know feel like oh it has to stay within the season or stay within the theme and sometimes a good example with the mood board we have here is that you can see has this image of the feathers, you know, the feathery kind of look, but this might not be the way it's interpreted it might be interpreted in another color. So sometimes it's a silhouette or shape or, like, you know, that first slide with the tweet and then something very summery. A lot of times that khun bring ideas together and honestly in fashion with the exception of outerwear, I think there are less and less rules about what's for spring what's for fall, you can have a lot of cross over. So, emily, what did you, uh, what jumps out at you on your board? Which category would you think strongest for you right now? I definitely end up with a lot of, like, pastel and spring colors, which I didn't realize when I brought them in, but they kind of jumped out and I wanted to go together here and then on top my board end up with a lot of, like, heavier blacks and, like metallics and, like, bright gold on guy have like, a chiffon and like a black stretch pleather that I had together so well, it sounds like they're again. You have those two strong areas that can work together and just kind of rip off what we talked about with seasons you mentioned pastels and you said spring, but there's no reason we can't think of a way to interpret, you know, pastels for fall, if that happens to be the collection you're working on. So if you're, you know, working for a design house and you're working on fall collection pastels or just what you're attracted to that season, there are ways to introduce that. So people great, alright, I'm patti robinson, and I'm a specialist in bridal in formal wear, but I like to get away from the white, and so apparently I like color, but I'm daunted by it, and I tend to get just I just step away, go right to black and white always so I thought to be fun, to play with color and get some sense of how it can work in an overall design. So what I see in front of me is a lot of color and also very three d it looks like you're very tactile and want toe feel enough of the fabric, not just a little swatch, but see how it floes, how it drapes that's another great thing, because again so some of my students, when they do mood boards, they their mood boards have to go into a portfolio so they need to take photographs of how that drapes kind of thing so this is really nice if you had a physical mood board upon a wall where you could kind of play and get inspired by it when it comes to the colors do you see any you know because you talked about having maybe some difficulty with what to put together instinctually what what are some things on the board that you think work together and not necessarily the other thing that I worry about is not don't worry about matching everybody always thinks match and it doesn't always have to be a match it has to be a lot of what happens when you look at those two things together it's very personal so I see a lot of texture and I do like texture like the tactile quality of fabric I also do a lot of bias garments and so the drape is terribly important so I spend a lot of time working with fabric on the dress form and seeing how it molds to the body so part of another thing here is a lot of these fabrics are very stiff and don't drape it all so I like them but I can't I don't know howto work with them exactly I don't know howto make them into something that pleases me because I like the drapey but I also like the texture and the loft of a fabric that has a little more more body christmas to it yes body so you know, I'm it's just a little overwhelming, but I also collect a lot of vintage findings buttons uh buckles just stuff to go on and again I've a little trouble with editing throwing out you know, so that they're we talk more about that a minute so the focus stays on the specific unique one of a kind element in the garment in what design that brings up a really important point, you know, especially when we're using a formula we're mixing a lot of things it doesn't have to be for the whole collection but often thinking you know, every every specific outfit thinking about center of interest you may have a lot of things going on but what about that outfit the ensemble or that garment is really the focal point? So is it that little buckle you know it could be the tiniest little thing but on a simple little dress and just having a tiny little buckle it's what really draws your eye s o you want to think about you know, how can you emphasize because a lot of times you'll want to include all your ideas it let's say in a garment and it starts to get overwhelming and there's a lack of focus so when we talk about fashion design were often talking about collection it's so we can take a single idea like that little buckle and reinterpret it differently in each garment, and even if your you don't may end up making all those garments being able to consider the variation, this is going to give you more choices and is going to give your customer more choices, too, because if she doesn't like to emphasize her waist, maybe it's on the straps too little buck cols rather than on the the belt, it could be on her shoes on an accessory so there's different ways you, khun, bring that out, but all working from that simple original idea. So right? Um, I'm brian, I, uh, do, uh, mainly corsetry, but I also like, you know, big guy, like super stiff, you know, upper parts, very structured, but with giant bottoms. I don't know why, but looks like huge on the bottom. I love chiffon and, um, brocades and lace. Um, but, yeah, I like very, very structured or unlike the waste the school's really big on the bottom. I did this one that was like silk on the top. And then, like, five layers of chiffon, a lot of french seams, that was one, but, yeah, I didn't really, um, bring teo like doesn't relate my mood board what what jumps out yeah when they don't have tio I mean like when you when you do this when you do this creative process and you start mining for things it's important to just let yourself wherever you are at that moment because creatively you could be in a different moment next week you know I mean in different place next week so what jumps out at you is probably the strongest thing about the things you brought in you know, on this list of things it's a detail is that color is a pattern I don't know I would say like the textures I like texture a lot I'm actually doing a show based on elements so like I should have brought things that let's talk about that for a second it's like when you think about the elements right? You know so with the elements what might you associate with in terms of you know, laissez for fall and for I mean for fire or water or like what might be some textures because you mentioned textures that you would go with for those surprisingly this was going to be for my fire this black sequin ah ha materials very well why I was going to like read with it I just thought that that would be really you know, really fun to dio and then like for earth I actually did this like purple but it has, like, leaves. And then this, uh, I only brought my silhouettes things that you mentioned a really key, because, I mean, I think when we think of fire, we might go very representational and say, red, you know, and red and orange in gold, but you're bringing in the black as well, and then the texture and the reflectiveness of the sequence is giving you that sparkle of light and then for your earth, you know, thinking of the purple again unexpected like that probably wouldn't be the first place most people go. But then I immediately thought of sort of like, the richness of, you know, flora and, you know, like just like, how opulent and beautiful you know what the earth produces so you can go those play and what's great about this is that those two swatches we can give to everyone in the room and they're going to interpret them in a completely different way? Oh, yeah, I also think of, like air, like not just like white, but how it is, like fun and flowy and big, you know, also chai, I also think of the models themselves, like I have certain people, and I kind of go with their personality too. It's like well yeah, I mean that in that place to the look you want whoever's out there representing the you know, the creation you have made to be an extension of it you know, actually I should be more an extension of the person often but you know, the design process you want someone's going to represent it well similarly, ryan, we have fashion time who had said can you use unusual things like food, pictures or nature just as you were talking about? I'm not expected more people the better I mean, I I've given assignments that are, you know, design collections based on candy and again I'm surprised because I normally associate candy with bright fun colors and I had someone do all all these shades of licorice, you know, so like dark, deep red and black and all of us and and the whole thing was all about the spirals wrapping around the body, and if you looked at the dress, the design, you would not think candy but that's where it came from. So the more unusual and the more meaningful I think it has to be if you're if you love food you know and the vibrancy of colors and or even recipes I mean, I've had students actually put the ingredients for something instead of you know, if you think cakes don't put a cakes on there, but put all the ingredients. And all of a sudden you have the texture of the flower and the shiny nous of that egg. Or, you know, whatever it is, and that could be a great source for inspiration. For a mood board. I love that. Just that thinking, really outside the box, or of these atypical things that you might be encountering in daily life, but not thinking that they actually apply teo collection or your fashion. Yeah, it's like it's, very freeing, right, it's ringing.