Where do you find inspiration for your garments? Do you look to a specific designer, fabric, or style?
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I receive inspiration from so many visuals - first and foremost yummy fabrics then art museums, magazines, books, travel, architecture and just 'people watching'. I said visual but music also inspires me so I always have the radio or CDs playing while I sew.
Karen
I agree with all you've listed. I've put three bulletin boards in my studio to accommodate all my clippings. I also bought the inexpensive "magnetic" photo binders. Even though the adhesive is horrible for pictures, it's great for clippings. Sometimes I spend hours laying in the floor of the studio pouring over what I've amassed there. I also like the time honored ritual of retail therapy. Running my hands over the textiles, examining the construction, absorbing the trends from the displays. And finally, when I used to travel to NYC on a regular basis, just hitting the windows of a few key stores would give me a fix! My coworkers used to laugh at my solo pilgrimages to M&J trimmings. I could spend hours there! Finally TV! especially the challenges on Project Runway and the Saturday morning fashion shows (much better with the sound turned down and my favorite music rather than the inane pratter of twenty-something show hosts who clearly are clueless about garment construction).
I get inspiration in my mistakes! I've found that when I look at something I've done wrong and try to figure out a way to fix it, I often get quite creative and end up with something pretty nifty.
I collect images of colour combinations, lines, styles, and interesting things that "bite" my interest. I study fashion and architecture, past and present. I people watch. I take notes of the things that interest me. They go into my idea book. They ramble around in my head until they gel in a project, somewhere. I collect fabric, and trims that interest me on spec. When the creative urge hits, I burrow into my stash and begin. A garment detail will be worked into a pattern, or a pattern adjusted to accommodate a colour combination or trim effect that I am inspired to do. Sometimes, I just haul out an old favorite pattern, and see what I can do to update it in a new fabric with a newly learned technique! Cathy
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