Fashion design class by Google

Today marks Google’s venture into the Fashion world and what an entry they have made. A couple of words before you roll your eyes. Google does not design or sell you Fashion. Google rather uses their technology to help users search visually through millions of styles found on the web, it collaborates with designers, celebrities, stylish bloggers and e-retailers to bring you the visuals. Boutiques.com is the name of the new website that allows you to set up a profile or so called “boutique”. Think of it as your personal shopper! You communicate a variety of preferences such as favorite silhouettes, colors, print preferences and style. While browsing the sites visuals or boutiques by others you can further customize to narrow your search by prize, sales, free shipping or of course only luxury items. Now why did I call today’s blog entry a “Fashion design class by Google”? 1. For starters the websites that collaborate with Google should already be bookmarked by you to stay ahead of the trends and what is currently going on in the fashion world. Here are a few: Polyvore.com , Couturious.com, Weardrobe.com, Lookbook.nu, Modcloth.com 2. While exploring existing boutiques you will notice that there is a short written note about the inspiration behind the boutiques. Learning how to combine visuals with the written word is very important. At each midterm and final I have my students explain the inspiration behind the color stories, who their customers is or how they came up with the silhouettes that they are using. Here on Google’s Boutiques.com you find many different inspirations describing trends, customers or a Fashion designer’s philosophy. 3. When customizing your own boutique you are choosing from a variety of style, silhouettes, colors and prints. While you might have a very precise idea of what you like, this is a great way to refresh your memory of all the other design options that you have. Imagine that you are giving a freelance job to create a line sheet in Illustrator for a certain target group. You could simply use these boutique features to do your research on your customer. You will be able to receive visual inspiration for your flat sketching project.

4. In my Photoshop for Fashion Design class, I teach my students how to create  Fashion collages, trend-boards or so called mood-boards. While browsing through the shoes, clothing, bags or accessories section of the website you will find visual inspiration that either consists of one picture or of a collage. Here these visual inspiration will take you to the linked sites that Google works with and then most likely further to the actual sale of the item that you would like to buy. In the Fashion Industry your visuals will help you communicate your vision to your colleagues, boss or even a buyer. It’s like a mini commercial that sells a dream. Learn how to do this and you will be able to sell your design to whomever you need to convince of your talents. Now go and explore and let me know what you have learned or if you scored something fabulous.