Wouldn’t it be great to try on your apparel design before spending the money to create it?
On the consumer side in many industries, you can see or try a sample before committing. You can go to the hardware store and get a paint chip or buy a tester paint jar and paint a patch on your wall before buying a whole gallon. You can taste a sample at the grocery store before purchasing. Even in fashion, you can try on a dress before deciding to buy it. When it comes to your fashion brand creating a new product, though, you don’t have that same luxury.
The end customer gets to try before they buy because the product already exists. When you are designing a new garment style, though, the product doesn’t exist yet. You can’t see the final thing until after the work has gone into developing it. Yes, you can imagine what it will be like – and this is a creative skill all designers have – but imagination and reality aren’t always identical. You could go through all the work of developing the design and it might not turn out how you envisioned.
This is the dilemma designers face. How do you know exactly what you want when you can’t see the final garment yet? You could just start sampling, but “I’ll know it when I see it” is an expensive strategy of guesswork and frustrated communication. Instead, use reference samples to confirm and articulate your vision. Reference samples, in a way, let you try before you buy – even as a fashion brand.
There are two places in development where reference samples are particularly helpful in clarifying what you want. Both these places bridge the divide between the idea and the reality of your design.
What YOU think you want versus what you actually want
This is the area that most designers neglect to think about, but I think this is where the true value of reference samples lies. You can be super sure about what you want, but when you see it, you might not like it.
Have you ever loved the paint swatch, but hated the color once you painted the whole wall? Or thought you liked a dress, only to try it on and realize it wasn’t quite right? Just the other day my husband and I were at a new restaurant and he ordered one of his favorite sushi rolls – a spicy salmon roll. He got exactly what he ordered, but it wasn’t what he expected. The ratio and texture of the fish and sauce was different than the place we usually go to and he didn’t like it.
We think we know what we want, but it isn’t always exactly what we have in mind. This is not uncommon in fashion. Designs get dropped from the line half way through development because they aren’t turning out how the designer expected. Sometimes you have to try it to know for sure, but it can get expensive to do that with every garment idea. Reference samples stand in this gap and help you confirm that what you think you want is actually want you want before developing the idea further.
You likely won’t be able to find a reference sample that mirrors every aspect of what you want for your design, but you can reference different samples for different elements. Think of it as trying on each detail of your design separately.
Say you want to make a loose-fitting shirt. How loose fitting? Find a reference sample that has the fit you are going for and try it on your fit model. Is that actually the silhouette you had in mind?
Say you want to make a dress design and are thinking you want it in jersey fabric. Find a reference sample of a similar style in that type of jersey fabric. Does it have the drape and feel you envisioned?
If yes, great! You can start development of your design confidently. If the reference samples reveal that detail isn’t what you want, that’s also great! You’ve saved yourself from wasting time and money on a direction that didn’t yield the look you have in mind. You can tweak your design now before starting development.
Reference samples aren’t just for things you like, though. You can use them as a reference for what you don’t like as well. Part of being sure of what you want is being sure of what you don’t want. In either case, you are defining your idea and tying it to real items that can be measured, inspected, and tested out with very little risk or investment.
Once you are confident that what you think you want is actually what you want for your design, there is a second use for reference samples.
What YOUR PATTERNMAKER OR FACTORY thinks you want versus what you actually want
Being clear in your own head about what you want is the first step. Communicating that vision so that others understand it too is the next. Reference samples help with this as well.
When you describe something that doesn’t exist to someone else, they build a mental picture. Even if you are super detailed in your description, the other person’s mental picture won’t be the exact same as yours. Then, there are different understandings of terms. ‘Fitted’ to one person might be too tight for another. ‘Soft’ is subjective. Everyone brings their own personal experience and understanding to the words we use. When relying on words alone, outcomes can be misaligned.
Reference samples make sure everyone is on the same page about what you want. If you want ‘fitted’, a reference sample is a concrete example for your patternmaker or factory of exactly what fitted means to you. If you want the fabric to be soft and lightweight, a reference sample can show that. If you want a certain neckline finish, a reference sample explains that to your factory or seamstress in a tangible way that transcends language.
When you can show examples of what you want, there are fewer misunderstandings, fewer needed samples, and fewer product development delays.
Referencing expectations
Reference samples mediate the relationship between creative vision and reality. They are the closest we can get to trying on the actual product before it is created. They clarify what you actually want — first for you as the designer and then for your patternmaker or factory.
Reference samples draw the expectations out of your head and ground them with a tangible meaning. This is the real power of reference samples. They aren’t just as a starting point for garment specs or style inspiration, they are a sounding board for the design you actually want.