fall winter 09/10

Can you believe it? We are already 10 years into the new millennium.. at least in the fashion designers mind... yeah, I know most of us are still unsure which jacket or coat will be purchased in a couple of weeks and you wonder if you should indeed go for the bright orange version or stick with the more subtle gray or - god forbid - black again!!

Well, that I will leave entirely up to you, but if you have to get a tip: go with the orange.

So, as this blog is about the life and work of a fashion designer, I am going to explain why and how we are already 10 years into the millennium.

First, we need to plan ahead because we need time to come up with, sample, sell, show, produce and deliver a collection in time, and that process takes exactly 1 year.

Right now we are figuring out what the mood will be... it's like the stock market, really, you bet on a look, a feel, a silhouette, a color.. if you choose the wrong one, you can loose big money.

So you got to be careful, a bit, not too much, because you don't want to seam watered down and you still need to make a mark and be ahead and stand apart of your competition, so this is not always easy, especially if you do this over and over again, every season.

Now, I have mentioned before that these may be the times of the end of trends and indeed it's hard to pin down anything, as really everything goes and you must go with your guts!

Trend agencies are also consulted, listen to the laguage and what they are talking about:

Relying on knowledge and adopting stimulating trajectories. Sparking unusual reactions and bouncing back with creative mechanisms, to project oneself into a radiant future. Exploiting interdependent chain sequences, playing with identifying visual markers and wittily distorting them. Moving forward in time and imagining sensitive and concrete answers to create new linkings and new silhouettes.

Although vage, it sounds nice. I like to let myself put into the mood. And there is more philosophy:

Connecting sense to reason, approach to intuition, and joining in a pertinent forward thinking attitude. Openly considering the most daring initiatives, and relying on a thoughtful examination to make considered choices, and lasting commitments. Ambitiously anticipating, to project oneself into a positive outlook and invent a better world.

Gotta love that! I think anyone could use this as a inspiration for any day ahead...and here a bit more specific:

Studying a pure and generous design. Connecting roundness and angularness, precision and suppleness in patterns, fabrics and clothing. Developing volumes through fabrics with the easy-to-handle solidity, of massive and softened cottons, the flexible thickness, of stretch double faces and dense milanos, the consistent suppleness of silks and mouldable broadcloths. Moving away from rigidity and rounding out the angles, softening the geometry, structuring in arabesques and favouring the curvilinear with moving fabrics, with a woolly lightness and controlled vivacity.

...and even more:

PRINTS neo-camouflage: enlarged or fragmented pixellisations. folklore, two-tones, mini-florals: inked as if overdyed or bleached out. forest-like vegetation: mysterious or nearly surrealistic.


So with all this in mind, you're going to the drawing board and put it down in your own way! That is the initial process, the first touch and thought of a new collection.