Text c. History of Clothes and Design

The period of occurrence of cutting-out clothes is believed to date from the IX century.

Roman tunic is the most ancient dress tailored from rectangular piece of fabric.

The first attempts to cut clothes over the form of a human body have appeared in the East, but have not received sufficient development. More favorable conditions were in Europe when people have wished to emphasize the shapes of body.

For this purpose medieval masters of XII century made cuts on each side of dress and connected edges with lacing. But clothes were still monolithic.

It is supposed that the idea of dividing dress into parts were adopted from inventors of knightly armor.

The dress with sewn-in sleeves appeared approximately in XIII century; with collars in XIV and with pockets in XVII.

By cross seam dress was divided into bodice and skirt. New look of wear maintained with insignificant changes from XVI to XIX centuries. The bases of this dress were the skirt on the special dense cover with hoops of different sizes and corset.

New type of clothes common for all estates appeared after French Revolution (1789). The elements of folk dress striked to men's clothes (long tight pants, short waistcoat). Even tail-coat and dinner jacket descend from outdoor clothes of English peasants. Women got rid of tight corset (though it became fashionable again and preserved till twenties of XX century).

From the evidence of magazine "The Art of Tailor" (1908) the first system of cutting was invented by Frenchman Michael. In 1831 it was changed by scale system. Before clothes were made only by "patterns" which were the properties of family (father handed down it to his son).

The introduction of sewing machines in last decades of XIX century brought to raising the productivity of labor and to complication of shapes of cutting details. The shapes and design was changed, skirt was shortened and the century-old dress was replaced by practical clothes from two or three parts (skirt, blouse, jacket).

Lesson Six. Clothes Design

Text A. Fashion Design

Text B. Types of Fashion

Text C. Designing a Collection

Reading for general understanding

Text a. Fashion Design

Fashion design is the applied art dedicated to the design of clothing and lifestyle accessories created within the cultural and social influences of a specific time.

Fashion design differs from costume design due to its core product having a built in obsolescence usually of one to two seasons. A season is defined as either autumn/winter or spring/summer. Fashion design is considered to have started in the 19^th century with Charles Frederick Worth who was the first person to sew their label into the garments that they created. While all articles of clothing from any time period are studied by academics as costume design, only clothing created after 1858 could be considered as fashion design.

Fashion designers design clothing and accessories. Some high-fashion designers are self-employed and design for individual clients. Other high-fashion designers cater to specialty stores or high-fashion department stores. These designers create original garments, as well as these that follow established fashion trends. Most fashion designers, however, work for apparel manufacturers, creating designs of men's, women's, and children's fashions for the mass market. Designer brands which have a 'name' as their brand such as Calvin Klein or Ralph Lauren are likely to be designed by a team of individual designers under the direction of a designer director.

Many professional fashion designers start off by specializing in a particular area of fashion: women’s day wear, women's evening wear, men's day wear, teenage wear, sportswear and so on. A designer or a company can expand into an area similar to the one they already know. For example, a designer of women’s sportswear might expand into men’s sportswear. The designers usually produce clothes for three main categories of fashion design – haute couture, ready-to-wear, mass market.