It is an applied art and the process involves the creation of lifestyle and wearing apparel. This art mirrors the cultural and social influences of the time. Designs are often worn and created to represent a specific set of individuals or a group of them.
Fashion Design is not an art that is beneficial for the fashion industry only; it has been helpful to the historians too in their process of identifying the social and cultural influences on the people of a particular era, based upon the fashion design of the age.
Fashion Design has been known to have a correlation with status. For instance in Rome, the Toga was initially worn by everybody but later it became an exclusive for the true citizens of Rome. Street Wear or Fads should not be confused with fashion design. Fashion Design covers all the categories ranging from uniforms to any type of head gear and this is not restricted to the Western civilizations only.
If we try to understand fashion design technically then all clothing created for a purpose comprises of fashion design. Like a monk’s costume is also a type of fashion design since it reflects his culture. The changes in clothing over the time are dictated and delineated over the time through fashion design.
The 20 th century saw fashion design growing from serving a practical purpose to becoming art. The first fashion designer that can be traced was Charles FredrickWorth. (1826-1895). This man was not simply a dress maker like his peers but designed clothing rather than simply making them.
Worth was successful because he has the ability to dictate to his customers what they should wear rather than like the other dressmakers who simply made what the customers asked them to. The customers started attaching labels to his work on knowing that they were from the house of Worth. Thus he became not just a label but also a brand name.
During the early 1900s many dress making houses started hiring artists for designing garments. The images were presented to the clients and if approved they would go into production so the drawing fetched money for the house. The approving of the sample cost less money to the house in comparison to the preparation of a sample piece.
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