Considering Garment variations / Concept Sketches

I really wanted to consider variations of garment combinations within each outfit to ensure each look is different from each other.

To do this I looked at the different types of garments and outerwear I have used in my sketches so far.

I kind of wanted to plan what kind of garments I would use within each outfit before I started designing.

To do this I thought of some garment variations that seemed to work effectively in my earlier designs, remembering to consider that they are intended for Winter.

The combinations I came up with were :

• Dress with tights
• Dress with leggings
• Skirt and top with tights
• Skirt and top with leggings
• Top with leggings

As I came up with 5, I figured I could use each combination twice to make a 10 outfit collection. I then looked at what I thought were the most effective outerwear garments I used in my prior designs, so that I can refer to them in my future designing.

The outerwear garments I thought were the most effective were :

• Coat
• Cardigan
• Vest
• Hoodie

I tested how these garment variations would look together. I don't intend to use these garment variations as law, but guidelines to try and ensure differentiation in the garment types I use.

I think they way that there is not an overload of one type of garment in these concepts is good. All of the dresses are in the top row, the skirts are in the second row, and the leggings are in the bottom, with tops and outerwear throughout.

Considering garment types

I brainstormed a variety of different casual wear garments that I think I should include in my design work.

A lot of the garment types I specified can be made in a variety of ways and designs ( particularly tops ). I Drew combinations of different styles of tops with different styles of skirts and leggings to figure out which work well, which don't and which I should use / consider in my designs.

Top and Legging Variations

Top and Skirt Variations

Animal Patterns

I wanted to try and girlify the animal prints I found to make them fit in with my theme and colour palette better.

I did these variations of the leopard pattern:

(apologies about the upload quality)

I added colour to the white space in these zebra patterns:

I changed the stripe colour to a darker shade of the background colour in each of these as I found the black was quite dominating, and the different tones created a softer look.

I am still unsure about these particular colours. I quite like them in the leopard patterns, but I think a softer version may be better suited to my designs.

I had another idea to make an 'animal print', which I used in a couple of my concept sketches. I recreated this on photoshop, and I think it's quite effective.

After doing this, I got to thinking about other 'animal prints' I could make, and I thought I could try and use the silhouettes of the animals I drew earlier in the same way I used the paw prints.

I think I like the paw print pattern best as the paw prints are a bit more sparse than the unicorns and bunnies. I think I would fix this up before using them in my designs, but I like the look nonetheless.

Playing with colours, and density of patterns

Animal skin patterns revised / recoloured, patterns made with animal silhouettes etc... Creating my own patterns

Animal Patterns

The only animal 'prints' that I could really think of were wild animal prints. I collected these images by scanning in different fabric and clothing I had around my house. Although I like the bright, boldness of these animal patterns, I feel like they aren't really cohesive with the colour palette that has developed over the course of this project, and the girly look that is emerging.

I would be quite interested in seeing if I could alter these patterns to fit in with my collection better as they do express my theme of make believe and children pretending to be animals.

Screen Printing Ideas

Playing around with possible screen print ideas / layouts

I would also like to brainstorm some fairytale motifs to add to my screen prints as I think the fairytale look could be furthered in my designs, as at the moment these seem very animal oriented.

Animal Sketches

After brainstorming some animals that appear in fairy tales, or have a reputation of magical qualities, I did some quick little childish style sketches of them.

After I scanned in these pictures into Photoshop, I used the paint tools to colour them in.

These are my results:

I am considering using these drawings to make screen prints for my garments ( I may need to edit them somewhat first though ). I also want to look at using these animals to create prints, and also edit the existing prints that I've done ( animal skin ) to fit this kind of 'cartoony' look better.

Further Animal Inspired Drawings

beanies, hoodies, best ideas etc...

Animal Inspired Drawings

( Click to enlarge )

I think these drawings show the idea / theme of animals effectively. However they don't really express the fairytale look I was going for so well which I will need to work on to improve.

I think the paw print top is one of the items that stand out the most, and I would like to see if I can develop a print like that, and experiment with other garments it could be used on.

I also really like the hoodie with the ears, and the cat face beanie. I think that they show the theme of children dressing up as animals quite subtly, which I like, and I think I would like to develop these ideas further.

I think the animal aspects being small, accessory kind of items makes the outfits a lot more wearable, and kind of like an addition to a children's casual wear collection to express this theme.

Drawings

I tried to play around with different dress relating to fairy tales. I also looked at casual, everyday dress styles.

These are some casual, garment styles. I tried looking at outerwear as well as clothing to wear under it. I think I would need to make these styles more appropriate for the winter season.

Mood Board

Outerwear

I selected outerwear to be my main focus for this project. I looked at some examples of children's for inspiration.

Children's Winter Wear