Does anyone know about designing dresses?

Question

A friend of mine asked me to help design her wedding dress, bridesmaid dresses, and flower-girl dress. I said sure. The problem is, I can't put my ideas on paper and I can't find a good site that helps with designing. Any ideas?

Answer 1

As with all designing.  Scribble, draw, research.

Look at lots of popular dress designers, maybe buy some patterns and cut and paste a certain way.  Figure out what features are flattering on what body types.

Iterate!  And I mean lots of iterations!

Make models, draw, keep a sketchbook with your thoughts and ideas!

What types of materials, stitches are appropriate, etc?  What will the weather be like on the day?  If you are planning a July wedding its best not to have sleevs or a floor length gown!  Play with colour and pattern, etc.  Just play and have fun, enjoy the design process as much as you can, that will make it go smoother.

Answer 2

First, you want to be sure that how you design the dresses takes into account the body types of the bride and all the bridesmaids.  For best results, she'll want to have the color scheme and theme put into the dresses, but NOT have every bridesmaid wear the same dresses.  A girl who is 5'1", 150 pounds is going to need something very different than someone who is 5'9", 125.  You want every woman to feel pretty on that day, and the bride to feel exquisite on that day.

I'm guessing that that the reason she wants you to do this is that you're very artistic and known to have a good eye.  I wonder if it's enough for you to shop for her/with her and simply "know it when you see it?"  People go to school to do what she's asking you to do, and since representing your ideas in an illustration is the first step in the fashion design process, and that step is thwarting you, maybe you have great potential but not the academic knowledge to do it this way.

If you're finding yourself excited by the process though, I'd definitely suggest you go to school for fashion design.

P.S.  If you have a long time before this wedding, what you might do is go to the art/design/fashion design of the local community college and take a class for one semester in fashion illustration.

Answer 3

It's all about being creative; looking in magazines, stores, window shopping etc.,putting different looks together.

Answer 4

Ooh...I love designing dresses for a hobbie....But I'm not very good......I don't have much experience.....(I'm only 14)...But what you can do is to visit websites with wedding gowns and choose the parts she likes on each of her favorite gowns....Then you draw the parts together leaving out the ones that don't fit the dress as a whole well....Then, you have a rough idea of a dress she would really like......try to look through magazines and cut out the dresses you like...Then past them together and see what you get....Maybe it'll look good...Maybe not......Just experiment.......I would normally just draw them, but this is the Internet........so I just gave you two easy ideas that you could do......Just be creative and make the elements of the gown go together in harmony so that the dress doesn't look like something that was thrown on using different materials and designs......

I hope I helped!

♥Froggy