DIY Clothes Design – How To Create Stand-Out Outfits
Homemade clothes don’t raise eyebrows unless they scream “homemade.” Most people who make their own outfits aim for something that stands out – whether with a beautifully crafted personal style or by rivaling garments you might see at Fashion Week. Not sure how to achieve this? Take a few tips from top names in the fashion industry.
Photo by Charlota Blunarova on Unsplash
Learning From Marc Jacobs
New York-based designer Marc Jacobs shared powerful tips for DIY clothing design with MasterClass. Once Louis Vuitton’s creative director, Jacobs is now the head designer for his own label. According to the multi-award-winning designer, the most important thing you can do is learn the basics of the craft involved in designing and making your own clothing. This includes, among other elements, learning how to use sewing patterns, making your own patterns, embroidery, garment construction, and identifying the drape of different fabric types.
Don’t limit yourself to theory – put your knowledge into practice. A heavy-duty sewing machine can be incredibly useful for making clothes. Apart from durability and their ability to tackle a range of different fabrics, the weight of these machines means smoother sewing and no skipped stitches. Jacobs recommended running fabric through the machine and then changing the stitch and stitch tension to see how this changes things up. Armed with that knowledge and the wisdom of experience, you can gain a deeper understanding of the designs that complement your personal style.
Jacobs also recommended learning the history of clothing design and fashion, as the industry moves in cycles. Designs from decades, if not centuries ago, often inspire modern trends. Some of the most influential figures to research include Coco Chanel, Rei Kawakubo, Vivienne Westwood, and Elsa Schiaparelli.
Design-Centric DIY Tips From Vogue
Usually associated with top-level fashion, Vogue has previously championed DIY clothes by sharing design-centric tips for those who make their own clothing. Some of the publication’s stand-out tips were powerful reminders not to forget about embellishing your clothing and to craft your own accessories. Learning basic embroidery skills, as suggested by Jacobs above, can help you put one of Vogue’s tips into practice, which is to use personalized embroidery on your clothing. Tees, sweaters, and items made from denim are good starting points.
Other tips include adding beaded fringes to shirts, experimenting with tie-dying fabrics, and transforming sandals by wrapping bandanas around the straps and embellishing them with pearls, rhinestones, or embroidered ribbons.
Stand-out DIY clothes design doesn’t need to be overly complicated. Sometimes the simplest of suggestions can make a massive difference. The trick however, is to do it well, and that takes practice.
