Fashion Illustration

 Fashion Illustration 
Fashion Illustration can be considered as one of the fundamental components of fashion design. It is a media that is used to present the designs for the said field. It can be considered as one of the important tools in fashion design with the role to help visualization. Due to the fact that it is a combination of fashion and illustration, it can be considered as an art in itself. It can be presented through different forms, media and surfaces but the most commonly used is through paper (Borrelli, 2000a; Kawamura, 2005). Though fashion illustration can be considered as one of the most vital element of fashion design, there are concerns that it is becoming a dying art which is on the verge of becoming extinct and continuously decreasing importance. This is the main issue in focus in the study that was conducted. Included in the main objectives is to be able to present an overview of fashion illustration along with its role in the field of fashion design. Through the research, the evolution of the fashion illustration is also one of the important issues that were considered. Along with the evolution is the issue on the dying state of the art of fashion illustration that can be based on different factors and varying perspectives. Basic Knowledge on Fashion Illustration There is certain basic concepts that are being given focus in the study of fashion illustration. One is the construction of the figure in the paper and other surfaces used. The design of the clothing along and the measurement of the figure are essential to the field. Rules govern both the female and the male figures. The main element of a fashion illustration is the croquis. It is a human figure used on fashion drawing wherein the clothes that are designed are plotted. Based on the study of human figures, it basically measures eight head lengths. It can be considered as the normal proportion of the body in height. In fashion design though, the legs are made longer making the height of the Fashion Illustration 3 drawings measure up to nine heads. This technique was accepted in the art of fashion illustration to be able to present a dramatic effect specifically on the design of the clothes. Other basic techniques such as slender waist and squared shoulders are also used (Threads, 2002; Udale & Sorger, 2006). Croquis can be considered as a drawing or sketch that can be made on a short duration of time. This is then important for capturing models and subjects in motion or in pose that lasts for short period of time. It basically captures the important aspects of the pose. The creation of this type of drawings can be considered as basic necessity in other field of art such as painting and more essentially fashion design (Udale & Sorger, 2006). With the fashion design business as the major focus of fashion illustration, it can be considered to have a major role specifically in the presentation and in cases of communication of the design and even marketing (Griffiths & White, 2000). These can be considered as the major roles of fashion illustration. Through the course of history and the development of technology though the face of fashion illustration changes and develops (McKelvey & Munslow, 2007). These modifications then are the main reasons for the being characterized as a dying art. Literature Review Fashion is perplexing, intriguing, irritating and, above all, compulsive. Like it or not, fashion exerts a powerful hold over people-even those who eschew it. While reactions to fashion are ambivalent, there is no doubt that clothes matter. The old adage that clothes make the 'person' still counts, while the wrong look for a particular occasion can have disastrous consequences. Histories of fashion and records of western clothing systems are usually centred around high fashion (haute couture or elite designer fashion) which become designated retrospectively as the Fashion Illustration 4 norm of fashions of the moment. Hence, the mini-skirt stands for the swinging 1960s while tightlaced corsets epitomise the Victorian era. Yet fashion behaviour is far less exclusive, more pervasive and more perverse than the world of high fashion can accommodate. Everyday fashion (dress codes, a sense of fashionability) does not simply 'trickle down' from the dictates of the self-proclaimed elite. At best, a particular mode may tap into everyday sensibilities and be popularised. Often, street fashion ignores designer innovations or belatedly takes up only certain elements. Meanwhile, designers are constantly searching for new ideas, themes and motifs from historical dress, non-European dress, popular culture and subcultures. Like birds of prey, they rob the nests of other fashion systems in a process of appropriation and cannibalisation. These stylistic motifs are then reconstituted in a process of bricolage, the creation of new patterns and modes from the kaleidoscopic bits and pieces of cultural debris. Everyday fashion plays an important role i