INTRO FASHION…

I came to Italy to work as fashion designer. Not NYC. Made in Italy appealed more. The fascination of Ferre’, Armani, Basile… ever hear of that line?… pulled with more fashion force. No FIT, no Parson’s. Taught myself to sketch and make patterns, a 2-D architecture. Learned to sew. My mother’s Singer sewing machine scared me. A noisy, vibrating contraption destined to run out of my control. Preferred hand-stitching, if I had to construct an outfit. Faster. Born with nimble fingers. Liked the challenge to slip the needle & thread precisely and consistently stitching pieces of fabric together. Drawing was the most fun and liberating. Piles and piles of sketch books filled with clothing ideas exploding from the simple means of 2B pencil running across a piece of paper. More on that…

I love the story about Christian Dior…. he would go to Montecatini, Toscana for la cura termale before embarking upon the next collection. Invariably, he would bring along either une muse adore or, une vendeuse en chef for company, inspiration and confirmation of the next collection’s direction. A hot bath would be drawn pour le Monsieur, a board placed across the tub with a set of soft sharpened pencils and a stack of paper and into the caress of the hot, frothy water would slip le Monsieur to pass his time soaking and what? To doodle. Just doodles. Apparent non-sense. The pencil would guide M. Dior’s right hand to decided. What kept cropping up time and time again would then have to pass muster over drinks & dinner with whomever was present. Another bath, another session of doodling. The next step was to transform the selection of doodles felt to bear fruit into actual sketches of outfits. Before catching the overnight train back to Paris, M. Dior would have a portfolio full of drawn outfits to show and converse with his aides & technicians back in his Parisian atelier. It was these magicians who would work up into muslim the costumes for the basis of the new collection. I always felt an affinity for couture, its formality, hierarchy, the conversation too. And, I have found a similar spirit in M. Dior to mine to let the pencil inspire and the technicians to create.

The Italians do not work that way. No. A design is a document, first and foremost. Fantasy must instead be well thought out, every detail decided & shown explicitly. Nothing left to the imagination. Only creates doubt. The Italians have no time or inclination for it. The designer has to say all in the design. The subsequent document is passed on to the head of the factory, mock-ups made, and later, decisions taken by bosses to continue or, chuck the design and move on with other docs. Fast paced, a machine, but then, the process was to really to guarantee work in the factory.

My process was to present initial impressions of line, cut, volume. Once general choices had been made, I hankered to talk with the technical staff on their reactions, options, best possibilities for development, realisations and in what materials best suited. Much like M. Dior did. Not with the Italians. Meant I had to cull my own impressions and work up in minute details the best efforts of the design cum doc process to be immediately understood by bosses. I was forever stalled by not being permitted to discuss, talk, haggle or, to even learn from others. Just a cog in a machine of fashion. Managed to do it for 15 years.

Today, and no longer working in the industry, I sketch for my own pleasure and enjoyment, come what may. Enjoy!