Thursday 29 September 2011

CAD systems in Designing and Apparel Production


Computer Aided Designing (CAD) is a mainstream tool; companies that hope to compete in the fashion market place, especially at the mass level, cannot prosper without some level of CAD technology. And for an aspiring designer it is an added advantage to have basic knowledge of Fashion CAD.  In textile designing CAD systems, a motif can be designed, resized, recolored, rotated, or multiplied depending on the design goal. Some garment designers are more comfortable drawing fashion illustrations using CAD rather than by hand drawing and coloring. Fashion Illustrators are often trained as graphic designers.


The CAD course at VogueInstitute of Fashion Technology provides a platform for students to get trained in CAD programs like Auto CAD and CorelDraw for drawing, paint program like Adobe Photoshop, and Lectra. Each program will have its own particular functions, but in most cases, for representational purposes, a student will be able to achieve the results with a combination of drawing and paint programs.

Some advantages of CAD-
Making a pattern for a style takes about an hour and the grading process assuming there are five sizes would take another hour. Using a CAD system will reduce the time spent on making the patterns. Patterns once created for a particular style can be stored for eternity in space saving hard disks or floppies instead of storing physical patterns. And just imagine storing physical patterns and retrieving them after a lot of searching only to find they are defaded or torn! One can imagine the waste of time, space and cost when a company is dealing with thousands of styles. There are variations of CAD systems available for apparel production. Lectra’s CAD solutions, for example, focus on the product development lifecycle, from creation of the product to fabric cutting.


Supposing a designer wants to redesign one of the core products, he need not have to start from scratch. He can start with the silhouette developed last season, retrieve it from his design database, redevelop it in minutes, automatically update the collection database and push it directly to the supplier with all the specification data.

Monday 26 September 2011

Textile Designing


Textile designers are responsible for creating two dimensional patterns that appear on a variety of different fabrics. Textile designers, sometimes referred to as fabric designers are involved not only in clothing and carpet designs but upholstery, too. The field encompasses the actual pattern making as well as supervising part or all of the production process.
To become a textile designer, a person needs to have strong fashion sense, research skills, and design skills. An interested person will need to constantly research the market for trends and keep up-to-date on developments both in style and on manufacturing end. Textile designers work within and alongside industries such as  interior design. They may also move into designing paper goods, ceramics or other items that require patterns. Textile designing encompasses not only drawing skill but business savvy and customer relations as well.
A student interested in textile design should consider a degree in textile design from a university. Alternatively, she/he may consider an art degree or an associate degree in computer related field. Computer aided design skills (CAD) skills are important, since the student will need to both sketch her designs by hand and recreate them in computer. Understanding color theory and key design principles is also important for a textile designer.
So anyone who wants to become a textile designer should keep a portfolio of her work. This portfolio usually includes hand drawn sketches and patterns, and any  finished or sample products.
The degree course (Fashion and Apparel Design) and diploma course for fashion designing are available at Vogue Institute of Fashion Technology. The fashion design training institute prepares aspiring designers  for careers in the textile and garment design fields and general fashion design.


Friday 23 September 2011

Fashion Illustration


The fashion industry is mostly hard work with a little bit of glamour thrown in for spice. The industry is 99% hard work and 1% glamour. It can be a really rewarding career option, and there will be glamorous moments, but you're going to have to work for them! Technical training and creative schooling in the fashion arts will provide an invaluable foundation for a future in the industry.
For an aspiring designer, fashion illustration forms the foundation for building his or her career. A training course in illustration will develop the skill needed for fashion drawings and students will learn to draw using a broad range or art media and techniques from hand sketching to sketching using graphics software.
Before manufacturing a costume or an accessory the first thing a fashion designer prefers is to see a visual picture of what is to be created. A fashion illustrator does this by means of his or her drawings. There are specialists who create eye catching fashion illustrations are called fashion illustrators. The fashion illustrator works in a specialized area of advertising and marketing, producing drawings for promotional magazines and newspapers as well as publicity material for catalogue and stores. Fashion drawings are also used for window displays and exhibition stands!

A beginner needs to study the anatomy of human body, the human figure proportions in 8-heads. For fashion drawing, the proportions are exaggerated for glamour purpose. In fashion sketches, it is also essential to know how to draw fabric and more importantly know how to draw the folds of clothing. The lighting effect, shading depth will enhance the quality of sketch and gives a three dimensional illustration.
When sketching a design on a croqui (drawn body form), the designer is not making a pretty work of art. Instead, this drawing will be the focal point of discussions between himself and his pattern and sample-making team. Because of this, the sketch must be precise. A wrongly-placed waistline or strangely-drawn crease can mean several different things in reference to fabric type, seams and draping.
Let us be completely frank: you don't need to be able to draw a pretty face; but you do need to be able to effectively communicate your designs visually, on paper, to the media, to your contractors or to a pattern-maker. Proper use of visual communication will allow you to transplant your design concepts into the minds of other people at your firm, or on your team. Again, this is a good example of why a formal fashion education is essential. Offered with a variety of other courses, fashion illustration will be one of the courses accessible to you at Vogue Institute of Fashion Technology.

Sunday 18 September 2011

A GLANCE OF PAST AND FUTURE OF GARMENT INDUSTRY


The much awaited quota phase out by 31-12-2004 has opened a new chapter in the history of international trade which is growing substantially post 2004 which necessitates substantial involvement of productivity & quality. The estimation of the value of International apparel trade by 2010 showed a wide gap. As per the estimates of K.S.A. (KURT SALMON ASSOCIATES) the global apparel trade was predicted to touch U.S. $200 billion in year 2000. Where as the study “ India The Growth Imperative” (Mc Kinsey 2001) predicted it at U.S.$ 415 billion. Over 80% of the world’s population will live in the developing countries. i.e. 5.94 billion vis-à-vis 1.32 billion that of developed countries ( As per AAMA predictions). Indeed the global apparel trade has surpassed U.S.$ 415 billion in the year 2010. Many developing countries like India & China that were major apparel exporters have become major markets for ready to wear apparel.

         In this context importance of productivity & quality in apparel industry will be going to have very good importance. So, Indian garment industries should focus on productivity strongly in order to bring up productivity. At present as compared to international market demands the scenario of Indian garments is not much satisfactory; when compared to the productivity levels achieved in Western countries & U.S.A. The efforts of apparel manufacturing industry in Western world to improve productivity did show substantial results. This was made with the development of many specialized machines & equipment for various applications in the apparel manufacturing. The objective was to reduce the labor content of the apparel products to the least possible level in order to make the products cost competitive.
      The U.S. apparel industry established that with the modern machines & best possible methods, a dress shirt could be produced in about 12 minutes of direct labor input. As per survey conducted by K.S.A. in 1990 the productivity levels achieved in countries like Germany, U.S.A., France & U.K. were 250% more than least productive countries. The productivity ratings of Indian garment industries stand at 50%, which is quite low, & have to be improved and brought up; in order that Indian garment industries can compete globally in the context of Quota phase out . But Indian garment industries have an edge over competiting other Asian countries, i.e. Indian garment industries are capable of producing high value added garments by means of enriching the garments with a lot of different surface ornamentation. Thus they can afford to take small orders also which our competitors, other Asian countries can not do.
The following equation will be the revival kit for Indian apparel manufacturing companies.  
M.E. + E.M. +MO.E. + EN.M. = H.P. + E.Q.C.
(Modern equipment + Engineering methods + Motivated employees +Enlightened
Management) = Higher productivity + Effective quality product.)
       Modern machineries has to be employed, & Industrial activities such as Method engineering, Work study, Time study & motion study has to be focused. The worker’s work place has to be ergonomic and should have proper lighting, ventilation and seating arrangements, so that they enjoy their work & do not suffer from work related health problems and care should be taken that labor force becomes motivated employees. Also the labors & staff should be trained properly before allocating work to them. After all employees are backbones of a company.

http://www.voguefashioninstitute.com
info@vogueacademy.com

Wednesday 14 September 2011

Fashion designing Skills - An Art, Design and Management


The much awaited quota phase out by 31-12-2004 has opened a new chapter in the history of international trade which is growing substantially post 2004 which necessitates substantial involvement of productivity & quality. The estimation of the value of International apparel trade by 2010 showed a wide gap. As per the estimates of K.S.A. (KURT SALMON ASSOCIATES) the global apparel trade was predicted to touch U.S. $200 billion in year 2000. Where as the study “ India The Growth Imperative” (Mc Kinsey 2001) predicted it at U.S.$ 415 billion. Over 80% of the world’s population will live in the developing countries. i.e. 5.94 billion vis-à-vis 1.32 billion that of developed countries ( As per AAMA predictions). Indeed the global apparel trade has surpassed U.S.$ 415 billion in the year 2010. Many developing countries like India & China that were major apparel exporters have become major markets for ready to wear apparel.

         In this context importance of productivity & quality in apparel industry will be going to have very good importance. So, Indian garment industries should focus on productivity strongly in order to bring up productivity. At present as compared to international market demands the scenario of Indian garments is not much satisfactory; when compared to the productivity levels achieved in Western countries & U.S.A. The efforts of apparel manufacturing industry in Western world to improve productivity did show substantial results. This was made with the development of many specialized machines & equipment for various applications in the apparel manufacturing. The objective was to reduce the labor content of the apparel products to the least possible level in order to make the products cost competitive.
      The U.S. apparel industry established that with the modern machines & best possible methods, a dress shirt could be produced in about 12 minutes of direct labor input. As per survey conducted by K.S.A. in 1990 the productivity levels achieved in countries like Germany, U.S.A., France & U.K. were 250% more than least productive countries. The productivity ratings of Indian garment industries stand at 50%, which is quite low, & have to be improved and brought up; in order that Indian garment industries can compete globally in the context of Quota phase out . But Indian garment industries have an edge over competiting other Asian countries, i.e. Indian garment industries are capable of producing high value added garments by means of enriching the garments with a lot of different surface ornamentation. Thus they can afford to take small orders also which our competitors, other Asian countries can not do.
The following equation will be the revival kit for Indian apparel manufacturing companies.  
M.E. + E.M. +MO.E. + EN.M. = H.P. + E.Q.C.
(Modern equipment + Engineering methods + Motivated employees +Enlightened
Management) = Higher productivity + Effective quality product.)
       Modern machineries has to be employed, & Industrial activities such as Method engineering, Work study, Time study & motion study has to be focused. The worker’s work place has to be ergonomic and should have proper lighting, ventilation and seating arrangements, so that they enjoy their work & do not suffer from work related health problems and care should be taken that labor force becomes motivated employees. Also the labors & staff should be trained properly before allocating work to them. After all employees are backbones of a company.

http://www.voguefashioninstitute.com
info@vogueacademy.com