Styling Features in Apparel

Silhouettes
Necklines
Collars
Waistlines and Waistbands
Sleeves
Cuffs
Yokes
Pleats
Pockets
Plackets

Principles of Design

• Unity/ Harmony

Unity is when all elements of design work together harmoniously to create a successful visual effect for a single concept, depicting a sense of completeness. Here all parts of a design are related in a regular, orderly arrangement to result in an overall pleasing visual. Unity may be achieved through:

1. Repetition- Repetition reemphasizes visual units, connecting parts and creating an area of attention.
2. Continuation-  Continuation means that something (a line, an edge, a curve, a direction) continues from one element to another. The viewer’s eye will follow the continuing line or edge smoothly from one element to other and the mind will group the elements because of this connection. Implied lines are one example of continuation.
3. Proximity- Proximity is based on grouping by closeness; the closer elements are to each other, the more likely we will see them as a group. It is one of the easiest ways to achieve unity.
4. Alignment - Alignment consists of arranging elements so that their edges are lined up. The common alignment allows the eye to group those elements together. A grid is often used to create unity through alignment, not just in a single design but also between related designs (the pages of a magazine or book, for example).

• Variety

Variety is the use of several elements of design to hold the viewer’s attention and to guide the viewer’s eye through the design. It could be thought of as a complement to unity and is needed to create visual interest. Without unity, an image is chaotic and "unreadable;" without variety it is dull and uninteresting. Good design is achieved through the balance of unity and variety; the elements need to be alike enough so we perceive them as belonging together and different enough to be interesting. 

• Emphasis /Focal Point

Emphasis id the quality that draws attention to a certain part of the design. It could be achieved through:

1. Contrast- Contrast of line, colour, texture or shape creates an emphasis on the design. Unusual shapes, lines, contrast colours arrest by the eye by virtue of their individuality.
2. Isolation
3. Placement- Emphasis may be achieved by placement of a focal point that draws one's attention, by leading the eye in the direction of the most important element on the garment.
4. Concentrating or Grouping-  Emphasis may be achieved by grouping of a certain design part in one area such as rows of stripes, tucks, gathers, ruffles, buttons or trim, etc.
5. Absence of focal point

• Balance

Balance is the distribution of elements across a design to achieve a visual equilibrium. It is the visual attribution of 'weight' from a central area to imply a sense of equilibrium. Large or bolder elements appear to be heavier while smaller elements appear lighter.

1. Symmetrical Balance - When the left and right (or upper and lower) halves of the garment are bilaterally symmetrical. The elements are placed in an even fashion in the design. These types of garments are least expensive for mass production, unlike others where every part of the garment has to be cut and handled differently.
2. Asymmetrical Balance -  When the left and right halves of the garment are not symmetrical.
3.  Radial Balance - When major parts of the garment design radiate from the central part of the garment, creating a sunburst.

• Proportion /Scale

Proportion refers to relative sizes or scale of the parts of the design. Garment designs should be related to the structure and proportion of the human body. The golden mean equations are used to produce garments that may be divided visually into 3:5, 5:8, 8:13 horizontal sections. This is because, the body proportions have 3/8 of total figure from the waist to top of the head and the remaining 5/8 of the body is from the waist to soles of the feet. A surprising aspect of proportion is the way ideal proportions can vary for the human body itself. Styles change in bodies as they do in clothing. Prior to the 16th century, for example, the female body ideally had large hips and belly. Only later was a small waistline stressed.

• Movement

Movement is the path the viewer’s eye takes through the design, often to focal areas. Such movement can be directed along lines edges, shape and color within the design.

• Rhythm/Pattern

Rhythm is used by repetition of one or more design elements to create a feeling of organized movement.When depicted in a visual, the design seems active. Pattern is the repetition of an object or symbol all over the design.Variety is essential to keep rhythm exciting and active, and moving the viewer around the design. Rhythm is broken when lines, trimmings, or fabric designs are not matched at the seams or at other construction points.  Fabric’s designs with widely placed motifs may lack rhythm. Rhythm could be depicted through:

1. Repetition- Rhythm 
could be achieved by repetition or regular repeats of motifs of design, shapes, buttons, tucks, pleats, laces, edgings, color, textures, fabric designs etc. This can be done with all parts having the same shaped edges.
2. Progression- Rhythm is also created by progression or by gradation. Gradation implies a gradual increase or decrease of similar design elements.The gradual changes provide continuity while giving a feeling of movement.Example: Colours can go from light to dark or textures from fine to coarse or vice versa,shapes may range from small to large, and lines may range from thin to thick.
3. Transition- Transition is a fluid rhythm created when a curved line leads the eye over an angle.The curved lines of transition cause the eye to change direction gradually rather than abruptly.Transitional lines and shapes sweep and glide over the figure in an undulating rhythm leading the eye gracefully and easily from one area or direction to another. It is found in dropped shoulder designs, puff sleeves and cap sleeves, etc.
4. Radiation- Rhythm by radiation creates a feeling of movement in different directions. This organized movement originates from a central point of gathers, folds, tucks, darts, pleats and lines. Direction of radiation may be in a similar or one direction, opposing direction or both the directions, several directions and all directions.
5. Continuous line movement- This type of rhythm is obtained by flowing lines of trims, bands of colour, fabric designs etc, which make the eye move in a continuous line.This movement also unifies the garment design bringing about harmony.

Elements of Design- Texture

Texture is the way a surface feels or is perceived to feel. Texture can be added to attract for repel interest to an element, depending on the pleasantness of the texture. Most textures have a natural feel but still seem to repeat a motif in some way. Regularly repeating a motif will result in a texture appearing as a pattern. 

Textures are of two types- 

Tactile texture (3D): The actual three-dimension feel of a surface that can be touched. Painter can use impasto to build peaks and create texture

Visual texture (2D): The illusion of the surfaces peaks and valleys, like the tree pictured. Any texture shown in a photo is a visual texture, meaning the paper is smooth no matter how rough the image perceives it to be.

In fashion, texture plays the role of surface quality of garments (how it looks and feels) - Roughness, smoothness, dullness, glossiness, stiffness, softness.

¡  Bulky fabrics

Add visual size (make one look bigger)

Can disguise a flaw

Can overpower a small person

¡  Smooth, flat textures

Make one look smaller

¡  Shiny textures

Make one look bigger, as they reflect light

¡  Dull Textures

Make one look smaller, as they absorb light

Elements of Design- Colour

Colour is one of the most powerful elements of design. There are basically two theories that explain how colors work and interact. The light, or additive theory deals with radiated and filtered light. This theory’s principles suggest that the perceived color results from the mixing of different colors of light. Principles of color addition have important applications to color television, color computer monitors and on-stage lighting at the theaters. The pigment or subtractive theory deals with how white light is absorbed and reflected off of colored surfaces. A colored pigment, blue for instance, absorbs most of the frequencies of light that are not blue, reflecting only the blue light frequency. Because all colors other than the pigment colors are absorbed, this is also called the subtractive color theory. We will be investigating from the pigment theory perspective here.

Dimensions of Color

Hue is the name of the color (eg Red, Blue). Each hue is a different wavelength of light.

Value is the lightness or darkness of a hue (eg. Light blue, navy blue etc.). A lighter colour is also known as ‘tint’. To achieve this white has to be added. A darker colour or a ‘shade’ could be achieved by adding black to it.

Intensity is how bright or dull a colour is (eg: black and grey). Intensity is brightest at its full purity. To reduce intensity of hue with least alteration in value, a small amount of its complement is added.

Colour Wheel

One way of arranging the colours in the solar spectrum is the Colour wheel.

The primary colors are red, yellow, and blue. They are called primary because they are not mixtures of other colors. Rest all colours could be derived from mizing these three colours in different proportions.

Mixing any two primary colors results in a secondary color.

Tertiary colours- These are made by mixing a primary colour with an adjasant secondary colour. Example red-orange, red violet, yellow-green, yellow orange, blue-violet, and blue green.

Colour Schemes

Colour schemes are descriptions of color relationships. Some of them are:

Achromatic: Black, white and the grays in between. There are no possible color contrasts.

Monochromatic colour scheme is based on one hue. This is like achromatic, but with one dominant hue-a single spoke of the color wheel. Red, black and white is a common example.

Analogous are hues lying near each other on the colour wheel, red-orange, red-purple.

Complementary colours are placed directly across from each other on the colour wheel. Example: Orange & Blue, Yellow & Violet, Red & Green, etc. They are used together provide extreme contrast. More harmonious effects can be achieved by using colors that are close together on the color wheel.

Double complementary or Split complementary colour scheme is  two adjacent hues and their complements.

Triad is formed when three hues equally spaced on color wheel are taken together (eg: red, yellow and blue).


Discord is where opposite colours are together and one is a tint, so that the original tone of the hue is different.

Colour Temperature

Warm Colours & Cool Colours - Another way to organize color is by color "temperature." Colors are either "warm" or "cool." If we divide the color wheel vertically through the center, splitting yellow and violet, the red, orange side is warm and the blue green side is cool. 

Red, Orange and Yellow are considered 'warm colours'. They give a feeling of advancement. 

Blue , Green and Violet are considered 'cool colours'. They tend to recede.

Metamerism

Metamerism is the phenomenon that occurs when a color appears to change when viewed in different light sources. The colors that are most likely to have metameric problems include taupes, mauves, lilacs, tans, celadons, grey/blues, greys, etc.


Colour Standards

By standardizing the colours, different manufacturers in various locations can all reference a particular standard for colour, which is numbered. This makes sure that colours match without direct contact with one another. The most common colour standards in the fashion industry are by Scotdic, Colour Solutions, Pantone, etc.

Elements of Design- Shape & Form

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A shape is defined as an area that stands out from the space next to or around it due to a defined or implied boundary, or because of differences of value, color, or texture. A form is an object having three dimensions like length, width and depth. 

A shape or outline seen from a distance is called a silhouette.It can reveal or hide a natural body contour. Full, wide shapes make you look bigger. Trim, compact silhouettes make you look smaller. Straight, tubular shapes make you look taller. Form fitting clothes reveal any unattractive contours, should only been worn by figures that are near-perfect.

Elements of Design- Line

 

If a point continues to get thicker without also getting longer at some point it ceases to be a point and becomes a line. Where a point has no dimension, a line has one dimension. It has a length, but nothing else. Where dots are about attracting attention, lines are about movement and direction. That line can be straight (although some would argue that a line can never be truly straight) or curved. Lines are used to delineate objects as in a line drawing, or used to create graphs, or used to outline areas as in a framed effect. Imaginary lines are created when two areas of different colors, textures, or values meet to create a line between those effects. Vertical lines can stop eye movement. They also equate to power and strength. Horizontal lines symbolize rest and relaxation. Diagonal lines are dynamic and action-oriented.

  

The fundamental characteristic of a line is to connect or unite. A line leads somewhere, your eye moves along it seeking one or both of its endpoints. This movement and direction makes lines inherently dynamic. A line is not attracting you to a point in space. It’s directing you toward and away from points in space.The flip side of connecting is separating. Lines not only connect elements, they can also separate elements. They can connect an element to space or separate it from space. Lines separate and join both spaces and objects. Lines can also cross barriers, protect, and support.As lines become thicker they begin to be perceived as planes or surfaces and they gain mass. To maintain their identity as lines they must increase in length as they increase in width. Changing the width of a line relative to its length has a much greater effect on the quality of a line as changing the size of a dot has on the quality of a dot. The thinner the line the more the emphasis is on the quality of direction. The thicker the line the more emphasis is moved to the quality of mass and away from the quality of direction.

Which line segment is longer?

In this, although you may perceive (like most people the world over) that the bottom line is longest, you can quickly confirm that all the lines are of the same lengths. Even armed with the knowledge that they are the same length, the bottom line still appears longer than the other two. You can achieve the exact same effect just by wearing a V-neck shirt or dress (and, theoretically,bell-bottom pants or mermaid skirts). So why does a longer torso matter?

Designers also commonly use illusions to “trick the eye” into perceiving a more flattering silhouette, such as highlighting the waist with a belt to draw attention to the narrowest part of the body. Another trick is to wear V-neck tops, which gives the illusion of a longer torso.

Which of these two women looks thinner to you?

If you think you know the answer, feel free to leave a comment.

Thus, fashion experts could be basing their judgments on basic perceptual elements like color and height. If perceptual elements influence fashion judgments, we can pinpoint why a look appears unflattering, too busy, incohesive, etc. Ultimately, judging fashion may be less an art than a science.

Elements of Design: Point

The point is the simplest element of design. It is a coordinate without any dimension or area. It may serve as a focal pointof a visual, highlighting or drawing attention to important information.

If there are two or more points, they start interacting with each other. They imply a structure. For example, if there are 2 points, immediately the eye will make a connection and "see" a line. If there are three points, one can’t help but interpret them as a triangle; the brain provides these connections. This compulsion to connect parts is described as grouping, or gestalt.

Points at different locations in space and shape and everything is changing will cause people of different visual experience. Depending on their placement/arrangement, they can produce sense of expansion, instablity, direction, vertical stretch, rhythm, etc.

The point has some of the characteristics. In designing apparel, appropriate use of point may feature a rich change. The point maybe in creative location, varied number(s), arrangement, form, colour and texture of a feature, to produce unexpected artistic effect (examples in the images above). Buttons in clothing, fabric dot patterns, decorations, accessories can be perceived as a point, however small or large they may be.