From the Design Studio – Insights into Function-Oriented Design

We are currently finishing up a few design details on the g.zip line, which will form the major part of our 2011 Collection. While not yet ready to unveil the product, we have learned a lot about designing function-oriented fashions. And when I say “we”, I no longer mean the “royal we”, now we have several tailors and seamstresses working on different aspects of the designs.

Our seamstresses have learned, for example, that our designs must be made up using our patterns and not by resorting to classic garment production methods based on a sketch or even on a sample garment. The functional goals we serve are not always obvious when examining a sketch or the garment itself, and the fabrication methods used require knowledge of the functionality sought if the clothes are to be made successfully. One seamstress found that, for example, when deviating by even a small amount from the pattern, the results were less than satisfactory! Furthermore, the high precision of our designs are the result of extensive testing and the production of successive versions. For the g.zip outfits, we are currently testing the fourteenth and fifteenth versions, to give you but one example.

This resembles an engineering process more than a classic fashion design approach, as we suggested earlier. The original idea is the result of an intuitive leap, but the rest of the process is a question of refinement. In a very real way, therefore, our garments are “precision engineered” to achieve the results we have obtained.

The design process essentially consists of solving a series of problems. This is related to the fact that our garments are “multi-functional”, that is, they serve several different functional goals simultaneously. This makes for a complex design and garment manufacturing process. For example, our g.zip garment line not only allows the clothes to be transformed from one configuration to another, they also allow clothing elements to be removed and still be functionally effective. Other functional goals are also served, including ensuring a high degree of comfort, and adapting the designs to work effectively across different sizes. Our incremental approach to problem solving is what has allowed us to develop versatile garments that serve several different functions simultaneous, while maintaining an overall sense of elegance and simplicity.