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72 FORM, FIT, AND FASHION
Text
Chapter 6: Mood Boards and Library
Mood or inspiration boards can be described as posters that map out the fash-
ion designer’s mental process in developing a collection. They help to direct
and explain style, allowing anyone to imagine the effect that the designer is
attempting to create. Assembling mood boards digitally is efcient, but must
be weighed against the benets of displaying tactile, three-dimensional com-
ponents with which people can interact. The physical sensation of seeing how
a fabric drapes, reects light, and feels to the touch has much greater impact
than looking at it as a at picture. The organic visual format allows the eye to
scan at length or in brief, or to jump around the board at will. Moreover, the
combination of photographs, sketches, texts, and color and textile swatches
becomes a design in itself.
Fashion designers use the board both to develop concepts and to communi-
cate with colleagues and clients. Just as magazine editors will often dedicate a
wall to planning the ow and big picture of an issue, designers will post all their
sources of inspiration on a board to look for connections and contradictions
and to step back and see how it reads as an overall message.
To generate their mood boards, designers often start with the resource les
they will have already been compiling. Most designers will nd that they require
additional reconnaissance work specic to the collection or project at hand.
This is not an area where designers should skimp or simply make do with what
they have. A sense of freshness cannot be faked, at least not for any length of
time. Designers will only achieve that latest, greatest version of their style by
bringing in a constant ow of new stimuli.
Photographs by Tracy Aiguier.
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Text
Tonal Theme
Black-and-White Theme
Vibrant Mood Theme
Photographs by Tracy Aiguier.
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72 FORM, FIT, AND FASHION
Text
Chapter 6: Mood Boards and Library
Mood or inspiration boards can be described as posters that map out the fash-
ion designer’s mental process in developing a collection. They help to direct
and explain style, allowing anyone to imagine the effect that the designer is
attempting to create. Assembling mood boards digitally is efcient, but must
be weighed against the benets of displaying tactile, three-dimensional com-
ponents with which people can interact. The physical sensation of seeing how
a fabric drapes, reects light, and feels to the touch has much greater impact
than looking at it as a at picture. The organic visual format allows the eye to
scan at length or in brief, or to jump around the board at will. Moreover, the
combination of photographs, sketches, texts, and color and textile swatches
becomes a design in itself.
Fashion designers use the board both to develop concepts and to communi-
cate with colleagues and clients. Just as magazine editors will often dedicate a
wall to planning the ow and big picture of an issue, designers will post all their
sources of inspiration on a board to look for connections and contradictions
and to step back and see how it reads as an overall message.
To generate their mood boards, designers often start with the resource les
they will have already been compiling. Most designers will nd that they require
additional reconnaissance work specic to the collection or project at hand.
This is not an area where designers should skimp or simply make do with what
they have. A sense of freshness cannot be faked, at least not for any length of
time. Designers will only achieve that latest, greatest version of their style by
bringing in a constant ow of new stimuli.
Photographs by Tracy Aiguier.
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Text
Tonal Theme
Black-and-White Theme
Vibrant Mood Theme
Photographs by Tracy Aiguier.
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