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Cat ladies are crazy…trendy!

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I just started a four week workshop called Designing Textiles for Fashion: Women’s Activewear through the Pattern Observer.  Every time I say “activewear” I have to sing it just like this. I am one of those people who wear activewear for working out, pretending I’m going to yoga class as well as binge watching Netflix. As an avid athleisure consumer, I think it is important to learn about this niche textile market.

In the first part of the course, we are learning about trend identification. I’ve been checking out the looks coming down the runways right now and have come up with some fun and funky trends. The first trend I noticed is, and I’m not kidding, cats. Stella McCartney, Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci  and others are strutting their fierce feline stuff. See it to believe it on my Cat Fancy Pinterest Board! 40 is the new 30, navy is the new black, and cats are the new owls.

Now the challenge is to take this feline inspiration and translate it into some patterns for the activewear market! Stay tuned for two more trends from the 2016 runways.

Cat-Fancy-2016-Trend

Trend board photo attributions (clockwise from top right)  https://www.flickr.com/photos/hypocoristic  https://unsplash.com/photos/HKn3U7bSXsQ  https://www.flickr.com/photos/maiac/  https://unsplash.com/photos/a7bdqjeG6M4  https://www.flickr.com/photos/torley/  https://www.flickr.com/photos/wsk/

 

Into The Woods mood board

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Into-the-Woods-Moodboard

I’m doing a new challenge over at the Textile Design Lab to create a collection to add to my portfolio. The theme is Earthed and I’m a little out of my comfort zone with these colors. But I’m up for the challenge as comfort and growth aren’t really besties anyway. So I’m heading into the woods to see what I can create. I’ll keep you posted.

Robin

PS- All photos in the mood board are from the amazing free photo resource: Unsplash

Ideal Customer

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Ideal-Customer

I’ve got my destination inspiration of the Greek Isles and I’m going to incorporate some citron green into my patterns. The destination inspiration provides a loose framework that will guide my process. There will be a strong influence from the sea and beach landscapes, organic shapes and an overall mellow and relaxed vibe. Okay, great. But who am I designing for? Who is going to put these patterns in their house? Picking an ideal customer is immensely helpful for the editing process in design. My ideal customer is the third anchor that I will keep coming back to as my patterns develop to keep my collection on track.

My time in the Textile Design Lab taught me what to look for in an ideal customer. Where does she live? Where does she shop? What is her style?What items would she buy with your patterns on them? I get to pretend I’m an author. I like that, because I don’t have the talent to actually be an author.

My ideal customer for this collection is Samantha. She is 3o something and lives in Santa Cruz, California. She loves the ocean and runs along the coast every morning with her mutt, Buster. She is adventurous and her home reflects her travels. Her style is eclectic but modern and she is not afraid of a little color. She likes to shop at Anthropologie, Etsy, West Elm and Fab.com. She is looking to redecorate her bedroom and turn it into a relaxing coastal sanctuary. Now, what would Samantha buy?