Color and Design. Tutorial

6. FASHION AND COLOR: LEATHER AND FUR

Fashion is the top priority of clothing makers. The word “fashion” comes from the Latin “modus”, which literally translates as a measure, method, rule, prescription, and image. Each of these meanings conveys the essence of this term.

Fashion characterizes a short-term change in the external forms of clothing and a change in its patterns. Fashion changes over time depending on the socio-political, material, cultural and aesthetic level of development of society, the improvement of technology and production. Simultaneously with the change in fashion, the texture of the semi-finished fur product used for the manufacture of fur products is modified. New types of fur are produced. The manufacture depends on the method of processing of the fur hair. New fur product imitations and their color range are expanding.

Models of fur and leather products of mass production are developed taking into account the functionality of clothing. They should always be fashionable, elegant, and meet the aesthetic requirements for both fur and leather clothing.

Aesthetic requirements for clothing made of leather and fur are developed according to style and fashion.

The style reflects the character of the era, its artistic taste. It determines the fundamental changes in the external forms of household items and clothing. The styles of ancient Greek, Romanesque, Baroque, Rococo and others influenced the objects of material culture, their shape, color, size, proportions, etc. The modern style is characterized by conciseness and clarity of forms. Each style can have some variations in the design of clothing, which are associated with the natural desire of people to update it in accordance with constantly changing everyday and aesthetic needs.

Fashion develops and changes cyclically. For example, the cycle of fashion for fur clothing is approximately 30–40 years. With each new

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fashion cycle all lines of the silhouette and details of clothing change gradually, and if they are repeated, they have a different direction. The fashion development for clothes made of fur and leather is much in common with the fashion development for clothing. For example, the change in the silhouette, volume, length of the product, proportions and assortment of products (coats, short coats, jackets) may coincide. However, fur is always popular in the market. Fashion development for clothes made of fur and leather is a complex task for designers required a special approach.

In different periods, one or another type of semi-finished fur products could be considered as fashionable or unfashionable furs. For example, in the middle of 40s, clothes made of red fox and gray astrakhan skins had almost no demand. The skins of the fox were dyed black, and a badger hair was attached to create an imitation of a silver fox, collars and boas from which were very fashionable at that time. In addition, the skins of the red fox with defects in the outer hair were sheared and dyed black to look like a seal, which was also fashionable.

In the 70’s, red fox skins were popular and became a fashionable type of fur. Currently, products from this beautiful fur are in high demand.

The demand for different types of fur depends both on how fur products are attractive and on the product availability. In addition, the product price is very important for customers.

It is known that the cost of a fur semi-finished product in a fur product is approximately 70 % of the cost of the finished product. Therefore, fashion designers have to take into account economic requirements during the product creation. They have to choose carefully a semi-finished fur product, determine the consumer category for which a particular product is designed, and minimize fur consumption by combining it with leather, knitwear and other materials. In contrast, when

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clothes both in silhouette, construction, and composition using complex methods of cutting skins and their various arrangements in products.

There are the main principles of design and industrial development of fashion and the development of assortment groups of fur and leather semi-finished products. They are based on the practical and economic requirements relating to the production and use of fur and leather clothing.

Color is a very powerful compositional tool. Color can enhance, emphasize the compositional decision of a designer. Color can also distort and even visually destroy the form. Color can create visual illusions which are widely used in clothing modeling. The painting principles of the product must be consistent with its compositional structure, volumetric and spatial structure, tectonics, proportions, scale, rhythm, etc.

When linking the color scheme with the volumetric-spatial structure of a product, two color systems can be used: the system that unites colors and the system that dismembers colors.

A unifying color scheme is used when a product or its part consists of a large number of various elements, the visibility of which is compositionally undesirable.

In contrast to the previous scheme, dismembering coloring is designed to highlight, emphasize any element or group of elements in composition.

Uniting and dismembering color schemes are usually used in a complex manner. They are to correspond to the functional purpose of both a single element and the entire product.

For one-piece clothing, the borders of the color must match the borders of the clothing form. Typically, a one-piece dress without visible joints is sewn from a material of the same color, except when the material plays a purely decorative role.

The product size affects the perception of the lightness of clothing. There is a rule: the larger the object, the lighter the color scheme. It greatly facilitates a massive bulky product. This rule is widely used to

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create clothing. On the other hand, a monochromatic color enlarges visually the object. Therefore, in such cases, nuanced harmonies with the inclusion of achromatic tones are appropriate.

In addition to size, the shape characteristics should be taken into account. If the object has clear, pronounced (active) forms, low-saturated light colors are recommended. On the contrary, for products with rounded, smooth “inactive” forms, more saturated, bright colors should be used.

If you need to emphasize the dynamics of a thing or, conversely, its calm character, you may follow the opposite recommendations.

The color should reveal clearly the tectonics of the product, i.e. reflect the distribution of material inside the object and its design. In such cases, it is advisable to use more saturated color for the main elements in accordance with the color of the rest of the clothing.

LECTURE QUESTIONS

1.What is fashion?

2.What is style?

3.How often is the fashion cycle for fur clothes repeated?

4.What is the cost of the fur semi-finished product comparing with the finished product?

5.What is the difference between a unifying and dismembering color scheme?

6.What characteristics of the finished product may affect the choice of color for it?

LECTURE VOCABULARY LIST

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