How to Design Clothes

Find inspiration. What are you passionate about? What makes you anxious to get started? It could be a piece of fabric, a piece of visual art you see, something you want but can’t find in a store, an item you see on the street, a pattern, a vintage fashion trend you want. resurrection, or so many other things. There’s no right way to get inspired. The key is to find out for yourself what interests you.

• Consider customer preferences. What type of customer do you imagine buying your design? What do those guests need from a suit? Be realistic when designing your own clothes, designing things you also love and want to own.
• Combining existing styles and trends can be a great way to create new looks. What if you mixed military elements with softer, more flowing things? What will the style of the 90s mix with the 30s? How do you combine the menswear element with the womenswear element?

Consider fabric. Do you want the material to be stretchy, or less stretchy? Is your design sleek or sturdy and blocky? Should the fabric be smooth or rough? If your inspiration comes from a favorite fabric pattern, you don’t need to worry about this anymore. If not, you should think about what kind of material the design requires.

• Consider embellishments like buttons, strings, beads, or embroidery. These details also influence the choice of fabric.

Consider colors and textures. The impact of the design also depends on the color and pattern. Think about the intended use of the garment and how do you imagine people would wear it. Consider customer tastes and what they might want to wear. Above all, do what you think is beautiful. There are no strict or strict rules here. You’re a designer, and you should be honest with yourself above everything else.

• Look at the color wheel. Remember, opposite colors (colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel) accentuate each other. This can have a dramatic effect on your design, but if not handled well, it can be blinding and annoying. ^[8]
• It’s a good idea to buy a few palettes from a paint store to experiment with different color combinations before buying fabric.

Sketch the human figure. When designing clothes, it is important to imagine what the clothes will look like when worn on the body. That’s why designers draw clothes on human figures. But it’s also time-consuming to have to redraw a figure from scratch when you’re making a new design, so many new designers use croquis sketches. ^[9] It’s a template you can use whenever you need to sketch out a new outfit. You just need to sketch the figure with a pencil. This step can be intimidating, but it’s not too difficult.

• Do not be discouraged, but freely launch the pen. The key here is that you don’t need to draw anatomically accurate. Most of the designers’ sketches are expressed in a characteristically personal style. Your design will be even more unique on a figure you draw yourself. Don’t worry about details, treat your sketch as a mannequin in 2D.
• If you don’t feel the need to draw the figure yourself, you can use other people’s sketches. Overdraw a picture from a book or magazine, or download it from the internet, there are hundreds of croquis sketches for you. ^{[10] [11]}
• Many designers use a method called 9 heads to ensure the drawing has a balanced proportions. The theory here is to use the head as the unit of measure, and you will draw the body with a high scale of 9 heads from the neck to the feet. ^[12]
  • Draw a vertical line and divide it into 10 equal parts. This will be the guide line for you to draw.
  • Part 1 starts from below the head, then measures the body from the neck down to the center of the chest; part 2 is measured from mid-chest to waist; part 3 from waist to lower hip; part 4 is from the lower hip to the middle of the thigh; section 5 from mid-thigh to knee; section 6 from the knee to the upper leg; section 7 from the upper shin to the middle shin; section 8 from mid-leg to ankle; and part 9 is from ankle to toe. ^[13]

Draw the outline of the body with ink pen. You will need to overdraw the figure on another sheet of paper. To ease the next step, use a dark colored ink pen to trace these lines. ^[14]

Trace this figure with another sheet of paper. This step you need to draw with a pencil instead of a pen. Place a blank sheet of paper over the sketch you just drew. You will see quite clearly the line to redraw because it was previously drawn with dark ink and the paper is not too thick. ^[15]

• If you have a bright desk, this is the time to use it. Just put the sketch on the lighted table, put more white paper on it and turn on the light, and you will be able to overwrite it.
• If you don’t have a bright desk or can’t see through the paper, try attaching two sheets of paper to a window on a sunny day. You will have to focus at an unfavorable angle, but at least it works like a light table.

Start sketching the design. Still using the pencil to erase the inevitable mistakes, gently draw the outfit you have imagined. Let’s start from the rough things like the overall shape of the suit and then gradually go into the details. Once you’re satisfied, trace the entire outline with ink. ^[16]

Design coloring. You can use any material you like for this step. Markers and crayons are usually a good choice, because they can overlap. Start with the lightest colors you plan to use for the design, and color in large areas with long, regular strokes that capture the direction of the fabric. Gradually add darker colors, along with textures and shading. ^{[17] [18]}

Repeat the process. Now that you have a sketch, new designs can be made faster. Just draw over the drawn shape, and repeat the steps above.

Make a dummy. You’ll need a tailor-made dummy to try on the designer, making sure it fits your body. If you don’t have one, you can make a temporary dummy for yourself, with your own measurements. ^[19]

• Wear a t-shirt that is no longer in use, then tape the shirt while still wearing it. This step will shape the dummy based on your body with strong duct tape.
• Remove the shirt by cutting a side line from the hip to the armpit, along the sleeve.
• Re-glue the cut line to return it to its original shape. Stuff the dummy with newspaper, sealing the bottom, neck, and sleeves with duct tape. You can keep the arm part or cut it off.

Stamped on brown butcher paper. Draw in pencil in case of mistakes, and label each section to avoid confusion. Remember the carpentry adage: measure twice, cut once. You will lose a lot of time with just one mistake. Once you’re done drawing, cut them out.

• Ideally, you should have some knowledge of pattern making before doing this, but you don’t need to be an expert. You just need to be able to visualize how your outfits will be put together, and need to be skilled at implementing them. ^[20]

Redraw the pattern on the muslin fabric. Stitch the paper onto the muslin and draw again, then cut the fabric, attaching them to the basic shape of the outfit. ^[21]

Sew the cut parts. Start bringing the fabric cuts from the pattern to the sewing machine. Remove the pins, and dress up the mannequin or yourself if you’re designing your own.

Evaluate the outfit. See how it fits. Think about shape. Which place is fine? Any place yet? Annotate, sketch, draw or trim fabric, or whatever helps you to make the most of your edits. ^[22]

Decide on the next step. How close is the prototype to your vision? Are you ready to continue with this design? Do you need to sew a test pattern before using a better fabric. Depending on how the pattern looks, you may want to redraw the whole thing, or you may be ready to move on to sewing the finished product. ^[23]

Sewing finished products. It’s time to bring the design to life. Continue the process as you did with the muslin pattern. ^{[24] [25]} Remember, mistakes will happen, especially the first few times in the design. Make sure you buy more fabric than you need, give yourself extra time, and always double-check your measurements. Many things will happen unexpectedly, so prepare a solution, or modify the design. Sometimes the greatest improvement begins with a mistake.

Build portfpio. Take a photo of your product and store it. This is how you will sell your talents as a designer throughout your career. Notice that you want to show flexibility on your resume, but still have your own unique style and opinions. Portfpio should have a variety of products but make your audience see your uniqueness. ^{[26] [27]}

• Take quality photos. Don’t just spread out your clothes on the bed and take poor quality pictures with your phone. Hire a model to dress up, make sure the lighting is correct (if you can’t shoot indoors, go out on a not too sunny day – you can get well-balanced natural light), use a camera with decent quality, and attention to details like hair, makeup, and accessories. The way you display your products plays a big part in making an impact on your audience. ^[28]

Study. Are there any independent clothing stores near you that have a similar aesthetic to yours? Is there a clothing website that reminds you of your product? Look for designers who make products that remind you of your stuff, or what you want in the designs. Then observe their strategy. ^[29]

• If you’re more into graphic design but think your work would look great on clothes, look for sites like RedBubble, which can print your work on a wide range of products.

Website construction. If you want to sell clothes, the world needs to know your talent. Most people make their own beautiful website these days, use platforms like Squarespace to create your porfpio. Keep them simple and elegant. You’ll want people to focus on your clothing design, not your web design capabilities.