Product Development is known as the process of following a product from concept to production. This process may differ depending on the size of the company. For a medium to large size company, many people are involved in the creation of a new design starting with the creative director and/or the designer who gets the ball rolling with the help of their design assistants. This process begins approximately one to two years in advance of the season for which the merchandise will be sold at retail.

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Prada patterns photographed by Brigitte Lacombe

A pattern is a two-dimensional diagram of a garment, drafted by what is known in the fashion industry as a pattern maker or pattern cutter.  The process is also known as pattern drafting, pattern cutting and flat patterning. Once a pattern is made, it is subsequently cut and sewn in fabric to make a garment. The history of pattern making can be traced as far back as the thirteenth century concurrent with the introduction of form-fitting clothing. Tailors and dressmakers authored guides on how to cut and sew men’s, women’s, and children’s clothing. Guilds were formed offering apprentices the opportunity to learn techniques of the trade. By the late 1770s, publications such as Garasault’s Descriptions des Arts et Metiers, Diderot’s Encyclopedie Diderot et D’Alembert: Arts de l’Habillement, and The Tailor’s lnstructor by Queen and Lapsiey, all contained pattern drafts for the professional tailor, as well as the home dressmaker.

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French Fashion Plate: 1880

Fashion Art is the process of visualizing your design ideas through the medium of fashion drawing. The art of fashion drawing dates back to the sixteenth century, much before Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, blogs, and ‘costume’ books depicted regional and ethnic dress. From the seventeenth century through the nineteenth century, France and England produced a multitude of fashion magazines containing fashion illustrations.  Among the most proliferate were Lady’s Magazine, Godey’s Lady’s Book, La Belle Assemblée, Ackerman’s Repository of the Arts, Le Cabinet des Modes, & Gallery of Fashion.  Within these early magazines, fashion plates depicted the latest fashion trends of the times.

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Sewing is the craft of fastening or attaching objects or parts of a garment by making stitches with a needle and thread, either by hand or with a sewing machine. It is the fundamental process underlying a variety of arts and crafts, including embroidery, tapestry, quilting, appliqué, patchwork, and couture techniques.  Sewing is also one of the world’s oldest art forms.

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History

Madame Grès inspects her draping work

Draping is the process of transforming a clothing design into a three-dimensional form. The art of draping dates back to 3500 BCE, beginning with the Mesopotamians and Ancient Egyptians. Greek fashion followed with the invention of draped silhouettes like the chiton, peplos, chlamys and himation. The Etruscans and Ancient Romans invented the toga, a length of fabric that wraps and drapes around the body.

Throughout the ages, clothing was categorized as either “fitted” or “draped.” A “fitted” garment would be sewn together and worn close to body, in contrast to a “draped” garment, such as a toga that doesn’t require sewing. In today’s fashion world, both fitted and draped garments can be patterned using the draping process. Read More

Recently, Bill Gates, co-chair of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and founder of Microsoft, joined the Summit Innovation in Education in discussion regarding the future of higher education and his personal vision for how the college learning experience can be transformed through technology.

The Gates Foundation‘s current project is awarding grants to educational reformers and those looking to mitigate “inefficiencies” in the current model of higher education.  He argued for radical college reform, where students watch video lectures from premier professors as homework and in turn use class time for interactive learning activities.  Gates described the foundation’s proposed educational process as one of continual refinement, with a clear directive “to improve, to learn, make mistakes, [and to] try new things out”

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