Art as a Source of Inspiration in Fashion Design

Abstract

Inspiration has an important place in the fashion design process. In a fashionable way, the qualities that the designer is influenced by is the research result for his inspiration. The design elements and principles help in interpretation of the design to convey the design details in the mind of the designer onto paper or fabric. In this work, a collection of inspirational ‘art’ was examined to determine how artwork is reflected in the design elements. Ten fashion design students created a collection of five pieces, based on an artwork. Dress designs were investigated with descriptive analysis technique and the categories were created using design elements for evaluating the visuals in valid form. Colour, texture, ‘rate and line’ and press and decoration were the design elements that benefited in the stage of reflecting inspiration. This is important for the fashion designer to utilise art as a source of inspiration. Keywords: Fashion design, design elements, inspiration in fashion design.