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Discipline

Fashion design

Designs garments, footwear and accessories and organizes them into collections. It decides the shape, fabric, color and construction of each piece so it can be worn and made.

In Spanish
Diseño de moda
Origin
Sorger and Udale (2006) describe its process; Kawamura (2005), its cultural side. In Spain it is one of the four specialties of the Degree in Design (RD 633/2010)

What it deals with

A garment has to fit different bodies, move with them and be made at a reasonable price. And it also says something about the person wearing it.

Principles

  • From body to garment

    You design for a body that moves, not for a drawing.

  • The fabric decides

    The material changes how the garment drapes, how warm it is and how it is cared for.

  • Think in collections

    Each piece makes sense alongside the others from the same season.

Applications in design

  • Use it like this

    Try each garment on real bodies in motion, not just on the fashion sketch.

  • Avoid

    Choosing the fabric last: it changes the drape, the price and how the garment is cared for.

  • Don’t fall for it

    Think from the start about how long the garment will last and what happens to it once it is no longer worn.

Especialidades

Specialty

Textile design

Designs fabrics and prints: their structure, feel, color and how they are made.

Specialty

Costume design

Designs what characters wear in theater, film, TV, opera and dance to show who they are.

Authors and works

  1. Royal Decree 633/2010 (Spain)

    Keeps fashion as one of the four specialties of higher Design studies, alongside graphic, product and interior design. Its profile includes garments, styling, textiles, costume for theater and film, and accessories.

  2. 2006

    Richard Sorger and Jenny Udale

    Described the fashion design process: research, design, choosing fabrics and techniques, constructing the garment and developing a collection.

  3. 2005

    Yuniya Kawamura

    Distinguished clothing, a material object, from fashion, a symbolic and cultural product, and questioned the idea of the designer as a lone genius.

Sources

Original sources

Secondary sources

  • Sorger, R., & Udale, J. (2006). The fundamentals of fashion design. AVA Academia.

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