1. Structural designing 2. Decorative designing

DESIGNING IN CLOTHING

INTRODUCTION

For succesfully designing a garment or decorating, it is necessary to understand what constitutes a good design. The entire purpose of spending the scarce resources like time, effort and money or designing and decorating a garment is to make it attractive and pleasing to the eye.

A design can be defined as an arrangement of lines, shape, colours and texture, that create a visual image.Designing means moving from the state of randomness to the higher state of organization, to create a design or impression or to communicate an important / innovative idea. On the highest level of design is the careful and knowledgeable manipulation of art elements to produce an expressive personal idea.

There are two basic divisions of designing in the field of clothing. There are two divisions which are often inseparable, which can be defined in other words as factors influencing the design.

1. Structural designing

2. Decorative designing

1. Structural Design

Includes the all over design of a garment its form and shape plus all the details involved in assembling the sections of the garment such as darts, pleats, tucks etc. Structural design may add a decorative quality if emphasized by colour contrast or row of top stitching to outline the basic garment parts. In apparel, structural design is more important because it is the fundamental component of design.

2. Decorative design

These designs need the basic form and the designs drawn will be draped over it. It will have more trimmings, prints, embroidery, buttons and tacked on bows. In these designs the fabric, style and colour combinations are described so that one can select the design.

To enhance the beauty and personality of the person, elements of design and its principles should be used appropriately.

Elements of Design

A complete knowledge on the various fundemental elements of art and design would help a person to create and design a garment on an asthetic manner. To create beautiful garments consistantly one need to follow certain guidelines in selecting and arranging design elements. In creating a design one of the components which interact is the Design Elements.

The elements and principles of design are flexible and should be interpreted within the context of current fashion.The principles of design are the rates that governs how elements are combined. The elements are therefore the raw materials that must be combined successfully.

The following are the different elements of Art.

1. Line

2. Form and Shape                            

3. Colour and                                    

4. Texture