The Ask.
Choose a brand in the luxury/designer market and develop an inspired denim collection.
Meet the Team
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Anjali Arapirala
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Sadie Kinzer
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Khristian Settle
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Ruby North-Sandel
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Julie Bernardez
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Nick Papakostas
The Process : Creating the Collection
Star of the Show: Denim
One of the main objectives of this project was to gain a deeper understanding of denim and cotton: the textile, technical components, finishes, embellishments, natural DNA and ideate on novel methods of transforming denim. This class, “Line Development”, is sponsored by Cotton Inc. - the research and marketing company representing upland cotton. Since denim is a textile made out of cotton, this went hand in hand. The best way for us to dive into this world of denim was to play the role of a line development team for a brand and go through the process of creating a denim collection.
Choosing the Brand
When the team got together, one of the first tasks for us was to figure out what luxury/designer brand we wanted to create a denim collection for. The decision was simple for us: Schiaparelli. Almost all of us had Schiaparelli at the top of our list. This project is about creatively using denim, and what is a brand that is more transformative than Schiaparelli? Especially with Daniel Roseberry’s creative direction of the brand- it spoke to us.
Brand Concept
Coming to the final iteration of our collection was definitely… a process. We had a few forms of what the concept for this collection was going to be. With the feedback from our professors, we kept working at it and tweaking it. From the beginning, we knew we wanted to use Daniel Roseberry’s Plano, Texas roots as a basis for the story of the collection because it goes perfectly with the “all-American” nature of denim. Continuing the theme of “roots”, we also wanted to honor the legacy of Elsa Schiaparelli, the creator of Schiaparelli. With this in mind, we came up with: Plano by Schiaparelli, a love letter to the dual heritage of Plano and Paris.
It’s all in the details.
Before we dove into creating the designs, we had to nail down a few key aspects of our collection: the colors, textiles, trim and finishes we were going to incorporate. Following the path that Daniel Roseberry has set for Schiaparelli, we knew we wanted our line to be inspired by nature.
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The color palette of Plano was carefully selected to reflect a story of dual heritage. The combination of sky blue and dark denim are used to represent the traditional washes of American denim. Schiaparelli’s own Shocking pink is used in homage to Elsa Schiaparelli and her groundbreaking history. Jet Black, Bright White, and Gold Coast are staples for Schiaparelli and are used as neutrals in the collection.
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The textiles in this line are very denim heavy with a few knit fabrics to add dimension to the collection. Plano leans heavily on denim because of its significance in American fashion history. All of our cone denim is made out of 100% cotton and is used in dark, medium, light, and colored washes.
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All of our finishes and dye utilize Cotton Incorporated technologies. We chose to use storm cotton and trans-dry due to their ability to repel and spread moisture across the fabric and natural stretch for a little more comfort. We use an Avitera dying technique in many of our looks and a Potassium permanganate discharging technique that gives us an ombre effect that’ll be seen in the collection.
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Since it’s Schiaparelli, we had to add a motif that would make the collection a little weird and unusual, so we decided to go with: bugs. We got some pushback from our professors at first because the bugs just seemed odd, but we fought for our bugs. It was the perfect way to strangely portray our nature theme and we found a picture of Elsa Schiaparell wearing a sweater with a giant bug brooch pinned onto it, so it just felt meant to be. The specific bugs we chose are beneficial to the health of cotton plants. Gold insects are used as snap buttons, appliques, and belt buckles to convey the importance of insects in nature. Other nature motifs include: horses and the rare pink Texas bluebonnet. It wouldn’t be Schiaparelli without the use of body casting so gold plated brass will be seen in the collection.
Time to Sketch
After establishing the foundation of our collection, it was time to create some designs. For the process, each of the team members had to draw five sketches, leaving us with 30 looks in total. This part of the project made me a little nervous because I don’t have much experience with sketching with a croquis on paper. It was fun though, I enjoyed being able to be creative and come up with looks, and it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. After we combined the 30 looks, we presented them to an outside industry critic, and he chose eight looks out of the 30 he thought should end up in the official collection.
Finalizing Designs
With our eight final designs solidified, we had to bring them to life from our sketches in steps. Our amazing lead designer, Khristian, re-drew our sketches with a little more pizzazz. In addition, we had to create flat sketches of our looks with Adobe Illustrator using the pen tool. It took a second to get the hang of it and to create clean lines, but after a few tries it became more natural. One key aspect of creating a collection is putting together a line sheet. Our colored flats came into play here.
Working with CLO 3D
To take our renderings of looks to the next level, we used CLO 3D. This is a 3D garment design software, and it gave us the ability to truly bring our collection to life. This is a software that I wasn’t familiar with and never have used before, and I realized there are new challenges that come with developing something that’s 3D. But, I am grateful to have had this opportunity to learn because it produces such compelling results when done correctly. Our team’s designer and CLO 3D expert, Khristian, rendered our designs below.
P R E S E N T I N G
P R E S E N T I N G
The Process : Promoting the Collection
Marketing Plan
Once we had our collection finished, the next question was: how are we going to sell it? Our task was to create a marketing plan that covers all the bases. Our foundation for the story of the collection is that this is a love letter to Plano and Paris from Daniel Roseberry. Our slogan for the collection is “P.S. I love you”. Generally, P.S. is a common abbreviation used in letters, but it especially worked out for us because it also serves as an abbreviation for Plano by Schiaparelli.
Tags and Packaging
Using social media is a key piece of marketing that is utilized for this collection. The collection will first be teased on the account using 3 posts that show a denim envelope being opened with a letter that says p.s. I love you. The promotional video as well as a post about our work with Cotton Incorporated and Textile Exchange will be shared. The collection will then be fully launched on the account through a series of process photos and the final looks on models.
Collaboration
There is no better person to represent Daniel Roseberry’s upbringing and hometown than his sister, Liz Roseberry. Liz Roseberry is a talented jewelry designer who makes fun, unique earrings. Following her style, we wanted to create a pair of earrings with her for the Plano Collection. These earrings have gold and shocking pink beads and the flowers are inspired by the cotton flower.
Store Layout at the Place Vendome
Collection Showcase
We would like to cordially invite you to the Plano Derby, a showcase. While geographically Plano and Paris couldn’t be more different, they share a great love for horses. For the Debut of our collection to the world, we will be hosting a showcase located at our Paris storefront in the Place Vendome. This derby is inspired by the Grand Prairie Texas raceway and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, merging the American derby and classic French horse racing. During the showcase the collection will be displayed on live models.
Thus we conclude the story of an American designer who has taken his small town charm to the world of haute couture to challenge what it means to be bold.
P.S. I love you.
The Outcome
As this class was sponsored by Cotton Works Incorporated, there was also a competition aspect: the group that creates the most cohesive and well-rounded collection will recieve the Cotton Works Grant. After presenting to panel of judges, which included two industry critics and the senior vice president of Cotton Incorprated, my team was awarded the grant. I already felt so proud of the collection that my team created, but winning was just the cherry on top.