A fashion Lookbook is a catalogue of well-styled images that convey the essence of your brand through creative storytelling.

Creating your fashion Lookbook should be a natural occurrence for a creative. Wanting to tell your story and market your products to the public is all part of building your brand.

Brand building is all about weaving stories to engage your audience.

In the highly visual world of fashion, how you communicate your design ideas is extremely important.

Once you have perfected the design process, product development and sample making, your marketing should begin in earnest. There are many eye-catching ways to entice buyers, press and customers but the most effective is a Lookbook.

With this fashion catalogue of well-styled images, you will be in a better position to sell yourself in a professional manner. The lookbook conveys the essence of your brand through creative storytelling and works in a multi-functional way. It shows your products on models, in a stylised...

Ever wondered how top fashion designers manage to create multiple collections per year? Season after season, year after year, seemingly never running out of ideas. It can look like designers have pre-agreed on a theme and are just presenting variations of it. Truth is, fashion inspiration is behind it all!

Fashion inspiration comes from various sources. Its influence can transcend time, geographical location and then manifest itself everywhere. It is the outcome of creative research, which in turn is an essential part of the design process. It is the sourcing of and collection of ideas prior to design.

Once you have defined your subject, the research you undertake should be experimental and investigative. It is an essential tool in the creative process and will provide information, inspiration and creative direction, as well as a narrative to your collection.

Gathering information, to nourish your mind and to inspire your next collection, can easily be done by viewing myriad selecti...

QUESTION:

I have an idea for a clothing fashion brand but I don’t know where to start. What should be my step 1 that’s the most important to do at the start?

Anna from Madrid

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What a great question!

Your first step needs to be checking if there is a market for your idea? Most businesses fail because the founder/ designer wakes up with an idea that they think is amazing and become focused on bringing it to market, before checking if the market wants it or even needs it.

So your number 1 step to start a fashion brand should be to validate your idea.

Do some research online and by going to shops (if you live in a location where you can easily visit shops) and make a list of your potential competitors.

• Make a note of who they are and why you consider them competitors?
• What products do they have that your potential future product will compete with? Why? How would your product idea be similar or different from theirs?
• A
...

QUESTION:

I want to start my own clothing brand and I’d like to start working on the designs but I can’t sketch. I know exactly what I want to create but not sure how I’ll communicate my ideas on paper to the people I will work with. I can trace but I’m scared that’ll lead to copyright issues. Any ideas or suggestions? Thanks in advance!

Alice, Belgium

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Hi Alice,

Firstly - you should know that many famous designers can’t draw either. A great example is Paul Smith who openly has spoken about not being able to draw.

But learning how to communicate your designs and draw is just a skill that, with practice, can be acquired and improved on.

Drawings and sketches do not have to be perfect.

What is more important is that they communicate the elements and ideas that are important to you and the design.

Another useful and practical way to communicate your designs is to use reference images that contain the elements you...