I have been sketching fashion all my life, in my career, as preparation for my staff to complete garments made from my ideas. I have designed everything from childrenswear, men’s sportswear to casino attire. I am now retired from the garment industry but still love to create art with fashion as an influence.  I  have done some sketches with a tangled look, which is very popular lately. Many friends have suggested that I come out with a coloring book of my original sketches of  fashion. NOW THEY ARE HERE IN MY ETSY SITE. The designs are in  black and white so you can fill in colors and ideas as you like. Some are complicated  some are  simple , for the budding designer or just the lover of fashion. in you. The single pages are now  available for only $1.00. You can buy as many pages as ypu like. Soon my book will be published with now  through my Etsy site that you can get to from this web page. Hope you can enjoy creating your own.

 

I went to a Little Black Dress show at the History Museum in St Louis MO.  It was very well done. They showed turn of the century ( 1904 on) original black dresses that were worn as mourning dresses. They were worn for a year or more. After that they shifted to grey dresses

Now our new  little back dresses are worn anywhere, even weddings.  They are go dresses for any event.  I suggest you pay attention to what part of the body you wan to emphasize, which is one of the 5 standards of Fit. A Little Black Dress needs a little help to show it off.

 

So you wonder why Couture designers show fantasy clothing at their runway shows, which are designs for the future ?   They often make similar dresses for their (ready to wear lines). This is how they make money, by continue trying to be in the news all over the world. Also  An average person can go to their local stores and find simpler versions of the hi style garments.  those items fall into what I call the Little Black Dress

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I have been designing small messenger bags of deerskin, with original edges for a year now. I am adding painted designs with an assortment of inks. I never use acrylics because they will not sink in to leather and can peal off with use of bags. Some of the inks I use are real colored ink, markers of color and fabric type inks. Then i seal the colors in with a sealer made for painted leather. See here some of my deerskin projects.  They are sold locally at the Green Door Gallery on Gore avenue in Webster Groves. I also am selling my hand blocked Ecuadorian straw large brimmed hats. I block them from woven straw cones made in Ecuador. I block them over my antique wood blocks, trim them and stitch in an adjustable headband, made of petersham  grosgrain curvable , to shape to your head.

St Louis interest groups want to help start up manufacturing here where I live. Washington avenue in downtown ST Louis was the district that created the “junior market”, like sizes 5,7,9,11. These sizes were featured for the young woman, not ready for adult MRS sizes, and had more youthful styling. We were the first city to make tight pants, not jeans, that appealed to adult girls. I actually designed at a factory in ST Louis County, that made those slacks, and other junior wear. World War 11 was over and the 50,s were coming in. Comfortable knits began to be worn also.In World War 11 soldiers wore short sleeve tee shirts for underwear, not the sleeveless kind like their fathers. Marlon Brando wore one in the movie “Street Car Named Desire” that added to the look of the times.

Lets help St Louis to make it happen again, NOW.

I am continuing this conversation talking about the manufacturing garment industry today. I realize there are people who want to enter this industry,I have loved forever. It is not an easy process. A designer can not only have some good ideas she would like to see made, she must have them produced and sold. This is what complicates things. I taught and ran a Fashion Program in West Palm Beach Florida in the community college of Palm Beach for 11 years. I taught students (wanna be designers) the skills they needed to enter this business. Find out more about my tenure there by checking about me section and my Etsy site. I worked in the garment industry as a designer for over 40 years. Now that I am retired I feel the need to teach some of the skills I used in this industry. Check all my posts and keep up with my blogging for what is to come next in my long career. One of my artist friends says the same thing that she wants to pass on some her skills she has learned and taught over the years now.

Understanding Buttons and Buttonholes Booklet

Here is a finish you need to know about if you want to be a fashion designer. Most garments need an opening so you can put it on a person. Woven fabric need seams and closures. You do need to know how to construct the garments you design, even if you never intent to sew them up yourself. Learning about buttons and buttonholes is imperative. When a patternmaker picks the size of button for a garment it includes information as to how big the button is going to be.

The garment will overlap the correct amount based on the size also. Once the pattern is made you should never change the placement of the buttons and the extension. Many sewing beginners try to change this dimension, especially if the model has a large bust. This cannot be done. Many home seamstresses do not read the button size suggested on the purchased pattern and overlap a garment too much, therefore drastically change the fit of the garment. S much to learn before you can be serious about designing. Check out my booklet for learning about Buttons and Buttonholes and how to use them in your designs. There is also patternmaking information in this booklet. This booklet may be purchased on my etsy shop johannafashionworld…all things fashion. Remember that sewing knowledge is a necessity to becoming a fashion designer. You need to understand how fabrics drape on a body and then how to engineer it so it can be mass produced. See some of other booklets like Making a knit skirt with no pattern and understanding knits, also on my web site.