Sunday, December 16, 2007

Ask The Fashion Professor


Hi Professor,

What does it mean when the judges/designers talk about 'cohesiveness' in a collection. For instance, one of the collections had similar colors(Sweet P, Steven, and Kit) but was called out as not being cohesive.

Thanks,
Ellen K


Hi Ellen,

Interesting question! Cohesiveness!

The judges were critical of some groups lack of cohesiveness - the 3 garments didn't look alike in some way. When designing a collection it is common to have some element that is consistent - a silhouette (slim), a fabric (tweed), a specific garment (pants), a trim (zippers), a color (navy), a trend (what I noted in brackets are some currrent ones that you'll see soon out in the real World).... Remember, the whole point is to sell product. So a line needs to show cohesion that a customer, editor, buyer, store will understand - and buy.

In terms of Project Runway - as much as people seem to feel group challenges are unfair - they are a very good predictor of success for a designer. A designer, no matter how talented, that can't work well with others and can't focus - McDonalds is hiring...

Makes good entertainment though!

Anthony