Design Process
Find Inspiration – Before Tom Ford starts any collection he must get inspired first, he walks around with a notepad drawing and writing possible designs he could use for his next collection and even keeps a notepad on his bedside table so he can note down ideas if he was inspired during the night. For men, he is his own source of inspiration. He designs products based off his own needs like what he is missing from his own wardrobe. For women, his models are his source of inspiration. He is inspired by women with a very strong personal style and are unafraid to make bold fashion choices. But besides from getting inspired from the world and himself most of his inspiration comes from films. If a film captured his attention he would watch it over and over trying to figure out the mood so he can capture the design. Then he would ask himself questions like: How does the outfit match the character? What is the character’s job? Where is the character going? How does the design of the clothing connect with him?
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Research – Tom Ford does carry out research when creating his work it includes looking at different fabrics and designs that he could use. For example if he is creating a winter suit he would want the fabric to be warm, so he would have to research which fabrics are thick providing warmth and insulation. He would select a number of fabrics and lay them out it in his office then he and his colleagues would walk around feeling the fabric and deciding whether they wanted to use them in the prototyping stage. He also researches what designs have sold well in the past and sees if he can recreate them without copying them and if he can improve any designs that weren’t popular in the past. He doesn’t just look at his own previous designs he looks at other designers that he likes and sees if he can use their idea and put his own modern twist on it.
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Sketching & Prototyping – Tom Ford sketches everywhere he goes, if he likes what someone is wearing or sees a striking design he sketches it down in his notebook. He sketches different angles of clothing and annotates what he would change and how he could improve it. He also sketches the same pieces of clothing but with different patterns and colours on it and sees which designs work well with different clothing. Not all designs Tom Ford sketches down are built into prototypes, before building he has to look at the logistics. He questions whether the shape of the design is realistic, whether the purpose of the piece of clothing matches how it looks and whether it will capture the attention of the target audience. After finalising the sketches he and his colleagues start to create his first prototype often by hand.
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Experimentation – The first prototype is never the final design sent to the manufacturers. Ford first experiments with different types of stitching, designs, colours, shapes and how it looks on people. One of Ford’s models would try on the first prototype and they would walk around critiquing the shape, colour and how they work together and if it is balanced, cutting and ripping items off he doesn’t like and noting down what it might need. The process for a shoe would include him looking at the balance of the heels to the toe, is the weight balanced, and is the design consistent. This process goes on for quite a while until Ford is one hundred percent satisfied with what he is looking at.
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