Fashion Design: Introduction to Hand Drawn Technical Flats

One of the most useful skills you can possess as a fashion designer is the ability to draw technical fashion flats, which illustrate a garment's proportions, material breakdown, and seam construction. Learning how to draw technical flats will vastly improve your fashion design communications, whether you are simply designing for fun or looking increase your value as a designer for any fashion house. 

I learned how to draw technical flats while training under Marc Jacobs early in my career and I continue to use this method on a daily basis when laying out collections for my own menswear label. While this form of fashion drafting may be considered "old-fashioned," drawing technical fashion flats by hand is a skill I make sure all of my designers, from senior level down to interns, are well versed in. 

What You'll Learn

As a designer, your drawing ability is your language; it is how you communicate your ideas from your mind to colleagues and customers. This class will help you clearly illustrate your fashion designs in an organic and professional way through the use of technical flats. We'll cover:

• Sketching Initial Concepts. How to get initial concepts on to paper through sketch exploration.

• Drawing Proper Proportions. How to create a more refined, proportional sketch using vellum paper on top of a croquis or "sloper." 

• Defining Details. How to include the top stitch and detail to illustrate construction of the garment.

• Rendering with Markers. How to use various shades of grey to illustrate material breakdown for the garment.

• Creating a Layout. How to generate a full scale paper technical drawing of the design to analyze proportion and contruction.

What You'll Make

As a project you will create three technical flats of your own that illustrate the lessons we are covering in the class. At each stage in your process you will have the opportunity to share your work with the rest of the students enrolled in this class to receive feedback and high fives for your wonderful work. I look forward to seeing what you come up with!

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