Potential of Illustrator in the Fashion Industry

Illustrator and the Fashion Industry

Adobe Illustrator is a computer programme which allows you to draw and create images on digitally. This can be used in architecture, graphic design, and also fashion illustrations. Personally I love using the software for fashion illustration as I feel that it produces a neater and cleaner piece of work and allows room for change. 

Here is a design which I drew on illustrator recently.

As you can see. Above I have used illustrator to create a fashion illustration of one of my final designs of a recent project. I drew the fashion illustration using the pen tool and brush tool and have added a pattern. 

The reason I feel that this software is good for the fashion industry is because it has flexablility. What I mean by this is that you can create patterns for garments, resize the pattern, add to a garment, and play around with proportion and scale, as well as having the flexibility to create whatever garment you want and edit this in the process which can help with development. 

Laser Cutting in the Fashion Industry

Laser Cutting

Lela Rose

 Spring Summer 2007

Ready to Wear

http://www.vogue.co.uk/fashion/spring-summer-2007/ready-to-wear/lela-rose/full-length-photos/gallery/183633

As you can see above, there is an image of a garment by Lela Rose in her Spring/Summer 2007 collection, where the detailing has been made using a laser cutter. 

Laser cutters are machinery that cuts into a surface, which provides a cleaner and more accurate cut towards a higher quality finish.  Laser cutting works better on synthetic fabrics due to the plastics in these fabrics melting creating a sealed edge that will not fray, whereas more natural fabrics will singe by the heat holding the fibres in place. 

Laser Cutting Machine

Above are two images that I have created using illustrator. They are laser cutting examples that can be used on a garment. You could put this design on the bottom of a skirt to cut out or on the neckline of a top or a dress. You could also use this on a waistband. 

When creating this, I used guides and rulers to make the pattern the same, and then I used the pen tool to create a filled shape. When creating these, you have to make sure that you do not use too many bezier points due to the laser struggling to cut the fabric and it may take a while. 

Above are the laser cutting designs placed on to a dress. as you can see I have played around with the positioning, to the waistband and hem. 

Final Design for Fashion Illustration Project

Above is my final design for the last project that I have done in my studies. I created this using illustrator and have shown a front and back view of the garment in which I have decided to make.

To make this I have used the pen tool to create the outline and the face, but to create the gingham crosses I clicked on show guides, and show rulers and used the line tool to create some lines which were equally spaced.

Overall I feel that this has worked really well and shows that my drawing is improving, it took me slightly longer to draw this one and I think that shows in the work that I have produced.

Photoshop; What is it Capable of in the Fashion industry

Below are two videos illustrating what the process is in the fashion industry to make a model look good, and also how it may not even have to be a real life model in order to make a good picture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUF2zbgBXwE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9j656_RiO0k

Below is an image that I edited myself. The picture on the left is an unedited image of me, the image on the right is my edit on the picture. As you can see I am not a professional and doesn't look as up to standard as a professionals edit would, but this illustrates how much work goes into each edit.
Firstly I edited the eyes, lips, and hair using the brush tool and overlaying the layer in which I was changing the colour on. I then airbrushed my face and neck to get and even tone. I then took it a step further and removed flaws in my skin (such as moles), using the spot healing tool. Finally i tanned my skin more so I didn't look so pale using the adjustments tool in the image drop down menu. 

Original Image

Edited Image

In the fashion industry, models have to look tall, thin and have what is classed as 'beautiful features', such as straight white teeth, high cheek bones and big bright eyes. However, models are not perfect so once a photo shoot has taken place, it is then edited to make the models features more like this cliché. Most people are against the look of models in images and this has raised issues in the media due to the pressure of looking like these models. I feel that the videos I have posted have allowed the public to realise that even models need editing. So why as a business do we edit our models? Well, I feel that this is due to the idea of clothes looking better on an elongated model. As a fashion student I agree with this, in order to sell garments, they need to be shown on a tall model, this doesn't have to pressure people to look that way, it just a business choice. The choice of model is a tool of marketing to show the garment in its best light, this image does not have to reflect the everyday customer.

I feel that photoshop is a great tool for making this possible and is used daily in the fashion business. 

Drawing in the style of Patrick Morgan

 Patrick Morgan 

http://patrickmorgan.co.uk/

Here I have created an illustration in the style of Patrick Morgan.

Patrick Morgan is a digital artist who above has done some illustrations for Tom Ford. I like how he has got a background colour and the image is drawn onto that. I also like how detailed the drawing is and the use of shading has made the image very interesting.

As you can see I have drawn my own version of this. I have taken it from the brief that I was given in a project of using gingham to create a dress.

I feel that this style isn't strong enough for me as I am not too good at drawing human proportions, I feel I am better at drawing features on their own. 

Experimenting with Flowers on a garment

Above is an illustration and four potential dress ideas using the flower that I drew on illustrator using a picture that I took. As you can see, you can play with the scale and proportion of the textile pattern to create other patterns. This is part of the developmental process and I have illustrated this above.

Flower Drawing Using Illustrator

Above is a drawing that I created using illustrator. The reason that I drew a flower was due to the idea of using it as a textile design on a garment. I took this picture in my garden and thought that it was a very good image to use for textile design as the thread could portray a scratchy effect on the material.