Design Brief...

·         Concept

Entitled ‘Classical Beauty’, my range will feature six outfits inspired by the Victorian era. I will be specialising in women’s race wear and occasional wear. I am inspired by rustic oil paintings of the time, Pygmalion, edgy images that play on light and dark, red carpet glamour and Victorian inspired hairstyles and images. I love the fall of beads and way feathers can be sculptured and softened.

·         Market

My range will cater for women sized 8-20, aged between 18-50. She will be an elegant and sophisticated woman with a taste for the traditions of racing. Often found in the reserved marquees or members lounge she is well-known and has a good reputation. Financially she is middle to upper class. She is lady-like and bantering is one of her highlights.

If she is married she is so happily with a couple children. While her children are growing she entitles herself as a housewife and the husband becomes the only income earner, however once her children are old enough she will enter the work force once again. When working she earns similar to her husband at $60,000+ per annum.

This range also caters for the young and adventurous singles.

If she is single she likes to mingle with other singles. She is fun and a little flirtatious but remains in good taste in respect for her peers. She is living away from home in a city view apartment and works full-time. She earns between $50,000+ per annum.

·         Fabric and Trims

I will be using woven fabrics in all my designs. The use of chiffon for sheer and light layers, while the mains of the garments being constructed with charmuese and satin crepes. Ideally I would like to use silk however with so many circular skirts in my designs this would prove quite expensive to me and the customer. Some nice polyester is available which I will scope out. Also with trims chiffon ruffles and floral trims will be used with maybe an accent of pearls and beading.

·         Trends

I won’t be following the current trends in my range as I am using the Victorian era as my inspiration. I will be modernising my designs a little so they are less matron looking and more youthful. The season I will be designing for is Spring, as the parade is during the Spring Carnival. I will also be designing hats to parade with the outfits, to suit the theme. The colour them I will be using includes jewel colours for the more elaborate and expensive design, however the simpler more inexpensive dresses will be either black, cream or a mix.

The era that I am designing for is when people still got along via horse and carriage, they way they dressed was most modest compared to now and going to the races was only open for the extremely wealthy and well dressed. Etiquette was of the upmost importance and morals were followed religiously. I would like to incorporate this as a message in my range that we can go back and relieve that time, again and again.