The other day I was thumbing through the latest copy of Vogue Magazine (which arrived in my mailbox shortly after it arrived on the newsstands in NYC ~ a rarity in itself!) and I found this great skirt. Bells and whistles went off in my head and I knew I had to create my own version of the skirt!
It led me to wonder...how do other people get ideas to create? Does a picture set off the creative bells? Does a piece of fabric? A trim or embellishment? A pattern? What drives you and me to want to turn a piece of fabric into a fantastic three dimensional garment?
In my case, it can be literally anything. One fall when my girls were small, I use to walk them to school everyday. That particular October the leaves turned dazzling colors of gold, orange, red and brown. Those leaves inspired me to create a beautiful dress and jacket out of a winter green wool crepe and a rayon challis with a leaf print that had the colors of the fall leaves that I had seen in it. I used the print for the bodice of the dress and accents on the matching jacket. It was one of my favorite garments for years. Other garments have been inspired by buttons, pictures, a garment seen on someone else that I just wanted to tweek a little, a color, whatever!
So what inspires you to create? What drives you into your sewing room/area/nook to make your latest and greatest? What sends you into a sewing frenzy?
I'm afraid I'm a pure copycat. Designers are inspired by nature, by architecture, by random assemblage of various things.
ReplyDeleteMe, I'm inspired by other people's clothes. Sometimes by pictures of clothes, but more often when I see a garment that hangs and moves beautifully...I'm off to see if I can somehow do that.
So I guess envy, rather than creativity, is at the heart of my creating...
i found your blog via pattern review -- what fun to read! i'll be checking in regularly now (and adding you to my hit list). i'm inspired by photos of clothes, whether in magazines or something someone else has made. sometimes i'm inspired by the fabric -- it'll 'tell' me it needs to be a jacket or a skirt. for quilts, i'm usually inspired by a color or a particular fabric.
ReplyDeleteI am inspired by other people's clothes; pictures of clothes in Vogue, Glamour, Style, or other fashion magazine; sewing magazines like Stitches or Vogue Patterns; websites, reviews on Pattern Review; window shopping in department stores and going yikes, the price.
ReplyDeleteI go into a fabric store and see several fabrics that catch my eye and then I start designing what it could be.
I'm often inspired by just one detail of a designer garment, or by a general impression the whole will give me. The couture shows are the best, because they are the rawest, and yet the most refined ideas we're likely to see.
ReplyDeleteI think I'm driven to the sewing room by the somewhat obsessive need to get my hands on the fabric and make it do something.
(Of course, I love clothes too!)