Step by Step Fashion Design Development Process

By Jahanara Enam-11:15 PM
In the fashion industry, every fashion designer should follow fashion design
development process to design a new dress. Fashion design mainly influenced by
cultural and social attitudes, and it has varied over time, place and religion. Fashion
designing knowledge is mainly comes from the theoretical background. Students are
learned step by step fashion design development process from their institute. All of
these information’s are very important for the beginner. When developing your
designs for a new collection involves many components like inspiration, drawing,
color, design functionality, technical package, garment patterns and so on. 

Fashion designer creates all kinds of garment and accessories. Most of the
designers choose to work in men’s, women’s, or children’s wear for their entire
careers. But some creative designers are specialize in one type of clothing or
accessory such as maternity wear, suits, lingerie, hand bags, or shoes.

Step by Step Fashion Design Development

Process: 
Every designer has their own way to develop a fashion design. But now I will discuss
some basic knowledge for a fashion designer to designing a fashionable dress. Just
follow these steps to get started making fashion designs. 
Fig: Fashion design development process
 1. Analyzing the Brief: 
Before starting your work, it is very essential to understand accurately what is
required for a client or project. It can make the difference between a success or a
failure. To get the right decision, some questions are essential. These are in below: 

 Are there any magazines that you need to refer to? 

 Are there any special considerations, for example, when designing children’s
nightwear? 
 Are you free to interpret the market in the way you see fit? 
 Can you impose a timetable of tasks? 
 Can you use inventive presentation and media techniques? 
 Do you have to source the fabric? 
 Do you need to include samples of finishes? 
 Do you need to look at other material such as: historical, cultural, political,
social, artistic inspiration? 
 Have you been given a deadline? 
 Have you got a firm idea about the colour story, fabric story, silhouette,
details, pattern and texture? 
 How are you expected to do it, in terms of format, presentation and layout? 
 How much work is expected? 
 How will you break down the tasks? 
 Is a shop report necessary to gain a better understanding of the market? 
 Is the shop report going to be directional or comparative? 
 Is there a budget? What is the budget? 
 What are you being asked to do? 
 What style of execution is required? 
 What types of fabric and finish goods are required? 
 What will you use for fashion direction? 
 Which season are you designing for? 
Analyzing all of the above questions should start with deconstruction and end with
reconstruction. Breaking down a brief allows you to try and determine what the client
wants and more importantly, to identify what the client or consumer actually needs. 

2. Think your imagination: 

Thinking is the first step to imagine a design. So, at first think your design in your
mind and solve different questions which are around in mind. Finally draw your
design on paper or illustrate it and make a decision for fashion design. 
 Develop your design ideas with due consideration of suitable drawing media use for
fabric representation. Present the different design ideas and photographs for your
portfolio. 

Different areas of consideration: 

 Silhouette 
 Fabric 
 Colour 
 Pattern 
 Texture 
 Graphics 
 Presentation 
 Fashion direction 
Work Requirements: 
At least 30 designs are prepared with coloured working drawings and illustrate it, for
presenting fashion portfolio. 

3. Innovation: 
To generate new products, to promote products or services, innovative thinking
successfully change the way we do things. After analyzing the brief, designers
require different innovative ideas; that may help when developing a whole new range
of products. 

4. Research: 
Research is a journey of questioning, exploring, conceptualizing and visualizing
information generated by observation and investigation. Record the all research
information’s and creates a rich visual archive which can be used to inspire your
designs from theme to final detail. Research is the key direction to good design
development. It is actual guideline to start fashion design development process. 

Researches are basically done by two ways. They are: 

a. Research inspiration (personal inspiration & concepts): 

Inspiration can come from anywhere. Sources of inspiration are individual and also
related to the designer’s personal experience. 
 Research material will help you to provide a focus on your ideas and product design.
This reference material will provide the theme that will inspire the colour, texture,
image and styles of your designs. Inspiration can be taken from natural form, colour
and texture and raw materials. 

Designers can be influenced by the current trends, architecture, museums and

exhibitions, books and magazines, historical influences, art, global styles, cultures
and traditional areas of inspiration etc. 

b. Research direction (fashion forecasting, comparative & directional retail &

trade fair reports, market research): 
Research direction is another way to investigate and information collection.
Inspiration for design can be derived from many sources like: 

 Intelligence Gathering: Current and forward thinking developments in the

fashion marketplace. 
 Trends: Fashion trends are affected by the economic, social, political and
cultural changes; researchers provide essential design direction for the designer. 
 Street style: Street style or sub-cultures is a rich inspiration source of
contemporary design knowledge. 
 Designers: Select the areas of design. It can be inspirational ready-to-wear,
haute couture, menswear, sportswear for example. 
 Retail: All the collections can be viewed and stored on the retail shop for
customers. 
 Internet: Information’s are available on Internet. So it is suggested that, this
leads to research that is conducted in only one manner. 
 Fashion forecasting: Fashion forecasting can provide much of the direction
required to inform the design process. 
 Market research: By the market research process they can know the detail
information about latest trends, most usable color, consumer demands, and
preferable fabric & price ranges. 
Quick research exercise flowchart: 
 Fig: Quick research exercise flowchart
To continue the designing process, different skills, knowledge, educational
experiences are required. Personal judgments, inspiration, concept development and
decision making are needed to select and reject ideas. Here I will show quick
research exercise flowchart that will help you to research easily. From the following
flow chart you may choose one or more elements from each level to start new
designing. 

5. Draw your design: 

Drawing helps to form design solutions. Designers take notes and sketches whilst on
trips from television, films, whilst shopping or researching, from books, galleries, etc.
Sketching is an important part of understanding the human form and basic form of
dress pattern. Sketchbook is a meaning of practicing the skills of drawing. It
develops your illustration and fashion awareness. It is a visual diary of places,
events, ideas, patterns, textures, form and colour. Drawing is a presentation of both
design and illustration. 

After collecting your research and swatches of fabric and samples, a suitable figure
can be sketched. The pose and attitude of the model figure will have an impact on
the designs that you illustrate. Draw your own design structure, possibilities, and
anything that your eye cannot see all at once. 

a. Theme selection: 
Theme selection is the basic part of a designer because that represents their
collection. It can be a period in history, a foreign place, a range of colors, a type of
fabric and so on. 

b. Make inspiration board: 

Inspiration board is a references and research framework for your design. Designer
collects different inspirational images, words, and objects (fabric, colour,
textures,trims, paint chips, packaging, etc.) that are organize and keep at hand as a
reference for starting a fashion design. It can be made in the form of a paper poster,
a bulletin board, a digital graphic, or a video. 
 Fig: Fashion inspiration board 
Difference between mood boards and inspiration boards: 

Mood Boards = feeling, conceptualized, psychological. 

Inspiration Boards = details, colors, textures, specifics. 

c. Make a mood board: 

A mood board sets the mood like a style, feeling, emotional scenario, ambience,
presence, context, clean and modern, soft and romantic, summertime fun, dark or
light for whatever the final product will be. A mood board will influence what goes into
an inspiration board. 
 Fig: Fashion mood board (Courtesy: dutchgirlinlondon.com)
Mood board is the summary of your design collections. Put everything together like
fabric, trims and also express emotions and mood on your mood board in a way
that’s not just beautiful but fascinating. Remember that, your mood board is a selling
tool for your ideas, so make it exciting! Mainly it’s a design tool that will help you to
stay focused and consistent as your line develops. Generally it is prepare for the
communication purposes and explaining your vision to others like retailers, media
etc.. It is also use for creating a range or a collection.

6. Fabric and trim selection: 

In this stage fabric properties like its weight, tenacity, and construction are
determined. Now-a-days fabrics are becoming smarter. For the textile development
there are new terms are used such as, high performances, technical, intelligent and
smart fabric. Some designers select these kinds of fabrics to show their creativity
and present it on fashion show. 

Designer select perfect trims to embellishing fabric in the form of hand work,
computerized embroidery, treadle work and other embellishing media are selected to
decorate the body fabric with due consideration of costs involved. 

7. Color selection: 
Colour is a basic consideration in the fashion design process. In most cases color is
the first element that is noticed about a design and has a huge impact in how that
garment is perceived. Different forecasting companies research and develop new
 and existing colour palettes from many sources like yarn technologists, international
fabric fairs, leather suppliers, trimming merchants etc. some fashion magazine give
inspirational colour guideline for fashion design. 

Fig: Pantone color system

The Pantone colour system is an internationally recognized colour referencing
system where thousands of shades are numbered. If you want to select your color
story, you can use Pantone to develop color standards. Pantone is a color
forecasting site. Each color swatch is labeled and categorized with numbers and
letters, so you can find your true color easily for designing.

8. Texture: 
To get attractive design, the feel, handle and texture of fabrics is most essential.
Fashion is a visual medium; so touch becomes increasingly important to express
luxury looks at the fashion market. Textile technologists have made great
improvements in the sensual aspects of fabric like how it feels, looking and behaves,
in addition to treatments that can affect the look and feel of garments after they are
made, for example, washes and abrasions. 

9. The design development process (Colour, silhouette,

proportion, fabric, print, pattern, texture, detail, sampling, construction): 
 In this stage designer sketch a model with right proportion and express his or
her design idea on figure. 
 Experiment with elements of design like shape, form, silhouette, proportion,
texture, pattern and colour. In fashion design process the term silhouette refers to
express the overall shape and volume of the design. Silhouette is one of the most
important design considerations and it is easy to overlook when working on paper in
a two-dimensional context. Designer gives the perfect silhouette from the front side
and from the back side or side view. It is the meaningful relationship between
garment and body like A-line, I-line, V-line, two tiered silhouette etc. 
 Also apply the principle of art like harmony, proportion, balance, rhythm and
emphasis on dress design. 
 Maintain the aesthetic considerations on design. 
 They do the surface decoration detail and finish on model figure and also
follow the style and dress fittings. 
 Apply the perfect fabrication; handle, drape, structure and linings. 
 Sampling of finish, detail, seams and embellishment. 
 To start designing it is important to understand the construction techniques to
create basic skirts, bodices, jackets and coats, sleeves, trousers and collars. It is the
key elements that form Western dress. To create a three dimensional shape on the
figure and illustrate contemporary fashion design should know basic garment cutting
and fitting method. Also follow the two-dimensional planning of construction,
fastenings, performance and movement.
When designer developed his or her design, they should follow all the above
considerations. 

10. Sample making: 

After developing the design process, designer makes a sample to check the final
getup. 

11. Prototyping (Flat pattern cutting, pattern grading, toile modeling,

structure embellishment):  

a. Toile modeling: 
To develop a successful design, balance and fitting garment, three dimensional
prototypes are essential. Prototypes are also known as toiles. It is the correct
distribution of the waist suppression. This method is used in order to cut or smooth
away the excess fabric at the waist. Get a perfect shape of the garment to follow the
natural curves of the figure, make darts, side seams and the hollow of the back. 

b. Flat pattern cutting and pattern grading: 

Flat pattern making involves the use of basic cardboard blocks that provide a well
fitting shape, which closely fits the figure but retains the correct balance and waist
suppression. Pattern grading must be required here. 

c. Structure embellishment: 
Finish and detail form is the decorative part of the design. There are many different
embellishment processes and design details that are joint with toile for specific
styles. Such as: Pleating, frills, flounces, flying panels, pockets, collars, cuffs and
fastenings to binding, linings, pipings and the size, colour and gauge of stitching etc. 

12. The chosen range or collection (putting the look together,

accessories, decision making): 

a. Designing collection: 
Fashion design collection is a range of garments, accessories or products that are
designed and produced for sale to retailers or direct to the customer. It is grouped by
theme, colour or fabrication, creating a strong fashion statement. This range of items
may be inspired by trends and theme. Cultural and social influences are reflecting on
design. Designs are usually done for the special occasion or season. Collection is a
grouping of outfits that are present for catwalk, online web pages. For the wholesale
market, the collection will be shown at trade shows or in-house events. For the
general customer designer give their collections on press or magazine by attractive
photographs. 

Fashion collection and line both are common terms in the fashion industry.
Collections are found within a line. A line may be composed of multiple collections.
Every larger apparel companies often have four or five lines that are defined by
gender; lifestyle or price point and each line will have a new collection produced for
each season. Haute couture, ready-to-wear, menswear, womenswear and childrens
wear are considered lines, the clothing shown in each of these categories during
fashion runway shows for a particular season makes up the collection. 

The professional designer when putting together a collection, they are following
some commercial considerations for example, the target market, lifestyle and
aspiration of the customer.Other factors include seasonal and climatic considerations
of the domestic or export destination and the cost and ease of manufacture. 

b. Range planning: 
 When all of the designs are completed and set out the financial parameters then
range planning is required. A range plan is an overview of your total design collection
like from how many styles you will have, to what fabrics and colour ways will be
used. It is used before you start into large scale production. It is extremely useful for
you to follow as a designer. But most importantly it gives buyers a clear conception
of your vision. 

Fig: Range planning for fashion design (Courtesy: www.offsetwarehouse.com)

Range planning includes the creation of the ratio of garments to be selected in any
given collection. For example, a basic range plan may be formed of four skirts, three
trousers, six tops, two jackets and two dresses in three colour ways. Every collection
needs a breakdown of units (garments) to enable the looks to be worn with enough
combinations. If more volume sales come from tops it makes knowledge to supply
more of these when editing the collection. 

Range plans usually include: 

 Total number of garments

 Illustrations or flat drawings of every garment
 Proportion of different garments types (Tops/bottoms/dresses)
 Specific garment styles
 Different fabrics and colour ways for each garment
 Cost price per garment
 Selling price per garment
 Order quantities per style
 Sizes
 Manufacturer details
c. Decision making: 
In this stage only experience person who can help to improve decision making. It is
really depends on whether the unfolding of a range or collection fulfils the original
need or philosophy. Decisions on research, colour, design development, fabrication,
silhouette, proportion, construction, prototyping and embellishment all contribute to a
well considered range. 

In the fashion industry designers are responsible for designing the range and for
providing design direction to the buyer. They would work with the buyer regarding
previous best sellers in the range and consider this when producing new styles.
Before making any decision designer follow merchandisers or best sellers data,
consider about the upto-date trend information, fashion direction, buyer and
merchandiser feedback, finally maintain consumer and market demands. Decisions
are constantly being made but are always informed. 

13. Promotion (product & portfolio promotion/graphics and photographic

styling fashion careers): 

a. Create a brand name or logo: 

In this stage designer create a brand name or logo. The philosophy and identity of a
range can be continued into promotional activities such as branding and styling. To
promoting and marketing fashion goods it is very important. Normally the branding
would be a graphic designer’s job. It is the interesting use of the language or words
can produce visual effects, such as, iMac (Internet ready Macintosh computer), O2
(mobile phone provider), FCUK (French Connection United Kingdom). 

b. Styling photo shoot: 

To promote fashion collections, designer need styling photo shoot with a specific
theme and story. 
 c. Make a portfolio: 
Portfolio is book of experience. To promote and present your designing journey,
fashion portfolio must be required. Portfolio is the visual presentation for your project.
Six steps should follow to make a portfolio these are: 

 Showing the process, 

 Key elements, 
 Illustration, 
 Photographic skills and 
 Editing skills.

References: 
1. Fashion Design-Process, Innovation and practice by Kathryn Mckelvey,
Janine Munslow 
2. https://fuel4fashion.wordpress.com/2013/10/11/the-fashion-design-process/ 
3. https://makersrow.com/blog/2015/04/starting-a-collection-how-to-develop-
your-fashion-designs/ 
4. http://analoguechic.com/2011/02/how-to-create-an-inspiration-board/ 
5. https://burnettsboards.com/2013/04/inspiration-boards-awesome/ 
6. https://www.skillshare.com/classes/The-Inspiration-Where-Fashion-Design-
Begins/1091681073/project-guide 
7. https://theswatchbook.offsetwarehouse.com/2015/06/11/what-is-a-range-plan-
for-fashion-designers/