Do fashion designers have a particular way of working?

For instance, what does it mean to a fashion designer’s practice that fashion design is considered a commercial art form more than a problem-solving one? And how does it affect the fashion designer’s way of working that fashion design is mostly released as seasonal collections and always relate to the body?

-Overall, my studies show that fashion designers work in a way that does not separate ’thinking’ from ’doing’. That means that physical interaction with materials, samples, prototypes, etc. are fundamental for the way they develop, explore, evaluate, analyse and understand their own design, Ulla Ræbild explains.

Ulla Ræbild also points out that the notion that designers are obsessed with ”the new” should be reevaluated:

-Instead, the designer’s method practice points to variations of life-long themes, which makes continuity key. Just as artistic, technical and commercial aspects interconnect and interdepend throughout the method practice.

Method cards
Ulla Ræbild has based her studies on five different designers who represent different types of fashion companies that vary in focus and size. Through interviews and observations she has successfully identified more than 100 fashion design methods that will form the basis for a method collection. The method cards could potentially be used for educational purposes, among other things. Because Ulla Ræbild’s conclusions involve a challenge for the art-based fashion design schools:

-How can the equal and interdependent relationship between the three basic elements, artistic experiment, technique/craft, and business, become tangible and realistic when the technical aspect of the programmes has been reduced and you are no longer able to produce small units? she asks.

-Moreover, the conclusion that ’thinking’ cannot be separated from ’doing’ in the fashion designer’s method practice may question the notion that design is a cognitive discipline that you can separate from physical sensory empirical knowledge and experience, Ulla Ræbild explains.