Design stage again

I feel as if I’m finally getting a chance to sit back and breathe after the frenzy of launching the Spring collection, and it’s already time to start planning the Monsoon collection. The Summer collection is in production right now, and the Monsoon collection should come out in September. I’m trying to work towards planning each collection a year in advance, but clearly I’m not there yet.

One of the toughest creative decisions I have to make every time I plan a collection is ordering a large quantity of fabric based on a small swatch or a photograph. With mill-made fabric I usually have the chance to see and test one metre of the fabric, but the colour options are usually tiny swatches of 1 inch by 1 inch. Sometimes it’s hard to tell what an entire garment in that colour will turn out based on a tiny swatch or a shade chart. With handwoven fabric I usually see a sample of the fabric weight (the thickness/transparency, and how closely the yarn is woven) but the colour combinations that I choose are risks I take. I never get to see what it is like until it is woven, and like it or not I have to buy the entire thing. Then there are crafts like block printing and tie-dying. These are usually safe bets unless I’m asking for a colour combination that is unusual. Hopefully someday I’ll be able to order larger quantities that allow for me to experiment first- like a sampling round that large export houses get to do before they begin their real production.

Anyway, I visited a shibori supplier in Santiniketan last year and took some photographs. She is probably my only supplier with whom I can communicate an entire order via email. I’m going to order some shibori fabric with this pattern below. You’ll have to wait for the collection to come out to see what it looks like on the garment.