Críticas a Francisco de Toledo y Juan de Guevara

1 Colour and design

Colour and tr

ends

The choice of colour within design is quite a personal thing. We all have our own personal palettes that we like to work with – colours that we feel are exciting, comfortable, classy or fun. As a designer you may have to work outside your own range of colours with palettes you are not very comfortable with. It is therefore important to try and understand how colours work together, and experiment.

Certain designers are known for their use of colour. The Japanese designers Comme des Garçons and Yohji Yamamoto tend to use dark colours. Their collections are timeless and concentrate more on the clever cutting of a garment than a fanciful colour. Versace, however, relishes colourful collections to seduce its customer. Marni and Dries Van Noten use colour beautifully, their palettes are sophisticated and unusual. Calvin Klein is known for its muted neutral tones and Tommy Hilfiger for bold primary colours.

Certain colours such as red, navy, black, white and ivory are so basic they are always fashionable for mass-market end usage. Menswear colours tend to use these safer colours in mass-market and high-end fashion.

1 Dries Van Noten A/W07

runway show. Catwalking.com.

2 Backstage at Louis

Vuitton’s S/S08 show. Colour and design

116 / 117

2

AVA•Basics Fashion Design:Textile & Fashion D208-42 / 4239 1st Proof

SIF AVABF2 Chpt5 08.02_.qxd 3/17/09 7:14 PM Page 117

Colour >

T

rend pr

ediction

Of course, within fashion a colour does not work on its own. The designer will see the colour in relation to a surface or textile, and in the context of a silhouette or garment, and this can change the perception of the colour. For example, the quality of a colour can change in relation to certain fabrics – red can look cheap and playful in a plastic, but it can look luxurious and rich in a fine silk. Black polyester can look cheap, while black wool can look very expensive (obviously this also depends on the quality of the fabric of choice). Lighter colours show texture better than darker colours. Texture

It is important also to consider the proportion of colour within an outfit. Sometimes difficult or unusual colours are best dealt with in smaller proportions, but it all depends on the customer and trends in colour at the time. A new fashion colour (one that has not been in fashion before) may be first introduced in small amounts within a print or multicolour knit, or used as an accent (highlight) within a group of colours. The placement of a colour on the body can make certain areas look bigger or smaller. Black is seen to recede to the eye so making an object seem smaller; this principle can be used to flatter the body shape. Proportion

It is also important to consider the context in which colour is used and what it is trying to communicate. For example, in the West a red wedding dress is conveying a very different statement to a traditional white dress. Also consider how colour has been used historically for certain garments, for example, indigo denim jeans, the white shirt and the little black dress. If the colour of these staple garments is changed, do they then become faddy and not classic? Colour can help to keep product lines new and fresh. Often a garment does not change each season in silhouette or detail, but it does change in colour.

Context

AVA•Basics Fashion Design:Textile & Fashion D208-42 / 4239 1st Proof

1

2

Colour and tr

ends

Khaki

During their years of colonial rule in India, The British Army dyed their white summer tunics to a dull brownish-yellow colour for camouflage in combat. This neutral tone was called ‘khaki’. The word’s origin is mid-19th century from the Urdu term kaki meaning ‘dust-coloured’ and from the Persian word kak, meaning ‘dust’.

Colours can also be seasonal. Cold seasons tend to warrant darker colours, such as blacks, browns and sludgy colours. As the season warms up the colours become lighter and paler. They then become stronger and brighter as the sun becomes more intense. The sun bleaches out pale colours, so if you are designing for hot countries consider a brighter colour palette. Think of the colour palettes of African textiles or Hawaiian shirts. When we pack for our summer holidays we quite often take brighter clothes than we would wear in a colder climate.

118 / 119

3

AVA•Basics Fashion Design:Textile & Fashion CD308-95 / 4239 2nd Proof

SIF AVABF2 Chpt5 08.02_.qxd 3/17/09 7:14 PM Page 119

Colour referencing

Colour often needs to be consistent across various fibres or fabric types, which in turn may require different types of dye that may even be produced in different countries. For a colour of a textile to remain consistent from the design stage through development to realisation, companies often use a colour referencing system. Pantone and the Munsell colour systems are common references for colour matching, as each colour has a specific number for reference. Rather than trying to describe the colour, the number can be used to identify the hue. Pantone charts are arranged chromatically by colour family and contain 1,925 colours. They are a great resource, but they are expensive and need to be replaced as the colours start to fade, making referencing inaccurate. Looking at colour under different lighting conditions can affect the hue – an incandescent light places a yellow cast on the hue, while a halogen light creates a blue cast.

Colour and the customer

Colour is very important within fashion and textile design. When a customer enters a store they tend to be drawn to the colour of a garment. They may then go and touch the garment and lastly they will try it on to see if the fit is right.

Within a fashion collection safe colours are usually black, navy, white, stone and khaki. Buyers will often buy in garments in these colours as they are the staple colours of most people’s wardrobes. It is sometimes a good idea to offer some of the basic colours and add to them seasonal experimental colours. These colours will add life to the collection and will ideally entice the customer to buy each season’s new colours along with the trans-seasonal basics. Skin tone can also have an effect on the colour choice of a garment. Dark skin looks great against strong, bright colours, while softer colours work better against paler skin.

1 A colour palette created by

Justine Fox in response to the Chloé S/S08 collection. Copyright Global Color Research Ltd.

2 Chloé S/S08 runway show.

Catwalking.com.

3 Pantone colour book.

Colour >

T

rend pr

ediction

AVA•Basics Fashion Design:Textile & Fashion CD308-95 / 4239 2nd Proof