Business, Design & Style
Developing a Collection
Lesson time 19:52 min
A collection is more than just a series of garments. Marc shares his philosophy on what makes a cohesive collection.
Students give MasterClass an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars
Topics include: The Process of Making a Great Collection • Create Consistencies With Eclectic Choices • Tell a Story With Your Collection • The Editing Process • Commercial and Seasonal Considerations for Your Collection • The Grunge Collection
Teaches Fashion Design
In 18 lessons, iconic designer Marc Jacobs teaches you his process for creating innovative, award-winning fashion.
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Building a collection comes from working on fabrics, developing fabrics, working on trims, working on embroideries, sketching, correcting patterns, correcting muslins. It comes from choosing, thinking about proportion, working on proportions, working-- for us, it comes from working on accessories-- how important the accessories are to the collection. So whether they dominate, whether they compliment, whether they do both. For me, a collection isn't complete without the knitwear. It isn't complete without the handbags. It isn't complete without the shoes, sunglasses, jewelry. So there's a collection of clothes. But what we show is a collection, is a collection of ideas that are executed and that take form as clothing, as accessories, as makeup, as hairstyles, as shoes, everything. It's the whole that becomes the collection. I would say that although some collections start out the same way, not all collections start out the same way. We do start by looking at fabric. Sometimes, we respond to the season that came before it. And I sometimes am very adamant about like, oh, we can't do what we did last season. Or we should react against it. In fact, that's usually part of the discussion that myself and the designers always have, is let's not do what we did last time. So if it was all black and dark, then next season, it should be something other than black and dark. But that's not a rule. And it's not always the way it goes. But it often starts that way with a discussion of, let's do something else. And that something else usually is color and fabrics. It may be the approach. It may be the proportion. And it usually is all of the above. [MUSIC PLAYING] It isn't the most linear journey I can think of because while we're working on fabrics and while we're working on colors, we're also working on embroidery ideas. We are also creating little samples and little swatches. We're also doing research about things that we're interested in. So these things don't happen in compartments. They kind of happen simultaneously. Now something might take precedent. One thing might take precedent on a given day over another. Some days, fittings are what we do most of. Some days, researching takes precedent. But basically, a little bit of everything goes on every day. There is a bit of sketching. I mean, once we've spent a certain amount of time on the fabrics and the developing of the fabrics, the choice of the colors, then we kind of start honing in on the details, the embroidery. Looking again and constantly. I mean, the research sort of never ends. And even during the fittings, once we start the fittings, that sometimes triggers other ideas and other things that we then explore. So it's a kind of constant volley. And I would say after the first few weeks of really concentrating on fabrics, the pattern makers become ...
About the Instructor
Marc Jacobs’s infamous grunge collection got him fired. It also won him the CFDA Womenswear Designer of the Year Award. In his first online fashion design class, the 11-time CFDA Award winner teaches his hands-on process for creating clothes that push boundaries and set trends. Learn Marc’s construction techniques, how he creates unique shapes and silhouettes, and how you can develop your own ideas from the first sketch to the final piece.
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Marc Jacobs
In 18 lessons, iconic designer Marc Jacobs teaches you his process for creating innovative, award-winning fashion.
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