When I was in college, I took a class on costume design. This was an excuse to get in front of a sewing machine. I remember learning the basics of threading the needle, putting thread onto a bobbin, sewing in straight lines and at angles, cutting fabric, and pressing open seams. Which sounds like a lot, but wasn’t, really. We didn’t really create anything.

The thing that stood out to me most from that class was an assignment to sketch different costume designs. I don’t remember the exact prompt, but for the midterm or final I ended up designing costumes for an imaginary production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream set in the Arctic. I drew the sketches and added some watercolors.

Unfortunately, I can’t find them… (will update this post if I ever do).

Nothing about this project was ever intended to go beyond the sketch stage. I still feel proud of these, and remember how enjoyable it was to think through the idea. I think truly good designs follow a concept in some way, and it’s important to me to have some defensible concept or story behind whatever I come up with, even if that concept doesn’t end up working commercially.

Sketches / Concept For First Project

I have a couple of starting concepts that could head in one of a few directions.

I bought a sketchbook at Kinokuniya intended for menswear:

I found it helped a lot with making my sketch look proportional.

Sketching The “Present Jacket”

Concept: a trilogy of jackets that represent the past, present, and future.

Fit block is highly mobile in the shoulders (no shoulder seams) and chest, a design borrowed directly from Acronym’s J28. I have no idea how I’m going to communicate this to a sample-maker or pattern-maker. Errolson, if you read this, don’t sue me (but please do subscribe). I love your work and have no idea what I’m doing.

Why does this jacket represent the Present?

  1. Unusual, unexpected textures promote an awareness of the moment. One pocket contains a hidden panel allowing the wearer to feel a multitude of different textures, from leather, to corduroy, to moleskin, to sheepskin, to cotton khadi, to nylon… all in a tonal color matching the outside of the jacket. Other details include moleskin blank military-esque patches for external texture.
  2. A detachable ‘Faraday Pocket’ blocks attention-stealing cell signal. This pocket (not pictured in sketches) is meant for placing a cell phone temporarily during a walk, or time spent with friends. I’m not 100% sure this will function, so I’ll have to test the technology out before committing to the design.
  3. Functional details allow the jacket to move seamlessly through day-to-day tasks. Subtle reflective detailing at the elbow encourages walking / getting outside safely at all hours. Ample pockets support packing a sandwich for lunch in the park, or picking up bread from the bakery.

I considered a few very different fabrics for this, each of which would change the feel of the jacket significantly. To be honest, I’m still unsure of how to proceed.

On the one hand, going with a traditional, heavier menswear fabric like a taupe or camel moleskin cotton, or a dark green herringbone wool tweed would be unexpected and provide a pleasant weightiness to the jacket. However, I worry some of the modern detailing would be overshadowed by a fusty fabric. In contrast, a cotton ventile or something thin, techy and drapey, made of polyamide, is almost too expected, and I worry that it would make this little more than Acronym-or-Veilance-lite.

The haptic panel, composed of several fabric patches sewn together.
  1. One honest concern I have is whether I’m shoehorning the design into this ‘present’ concept. Does it actually make sense?
  2. I haven’t sketched my concept for the Past Jacket yet but I’ve thought about how it might work.
    1. Now that I think about it, the Past Jacket may work better as a long coat (the way the past clings to our body, slows us down, however slightly), and this Present Jacket may work better as a shorter and more mobile jacket.
      1. And thinking more about it, the design above doesn’t really gain anything from its length, conceptually or functionally.

As always, very open to thoughts and feedback.