Inside the designer's mind -take one

Have you ever wondered how designers come up with the colors they use and their various combinations of fabrics, trims, buttons, etc.?

Here's a quick look inside the mind of this designer, as I take you along with how I chose the colors for a bolero or shrug I recently showed on the runway.

I wanted to work with magenta and black for my base colors, and happened to have the silk available for that. Now, traditionally, the accent color you would put with magenta and black would probably be gold. I had gold thread, and I thought about using gold. But, I also had a bronze metallic thread to hand and so I thought: Why not use bronze? Although bronze would not be the traditional accompaniment to a color like magenta, both are reddish colors and have a warm glow to them. I decided, if done right, this pairing would actually work quite well.

The first photo (at top) shows the raw materials, before I actually started work, and the second picture shows a section of the finished garment. Another decision I made, rather than doing a full applique stitch, where all the stitches would be close together, was to instead use a zigzag stitch and make the finish a bit more edgy, since 'edginess' is something much sought after in fashion these days.

Another objective for my design was to create a piece that could be worn winter or summer. In the third photo, you'll see the bolero paired with black in a more wintry look. And, then, in the fourth photo, you'll see the bolero paired with a strapless magenta dress. The necklace also features beads that are magenta and black.

Of course, there's no such thing as something entirely new in fashion and I'm sure the pairing of magenta, black and bronze has been done before.

Sometimes, though, the person who comes up with a new idea isn't the one who necessarily gets the credit. I was amused to read in the Summer 2010 H&M Magazine that "neon colors are back on the catwalk". And, on page 12, the article elaborates: "Marc Jacobs is using splashes of shocking pink to give his ladylike tweeds a street feel..." As it so happens, I paired hot pink trim and buttons with a gray menswear tweed in 2009 and showed a jacket on the fall runway with this pairing. You'll see my take on this color combination in the fifth photo! Now, who's copying whom?!!