Importance of Fashion Software
Fashion design has come a long way from the days when every level of the design process had to be completed by hand. Fashion software or computer-aided design (CAD) software is used in virtually every design house today. Freelance designers also make use of CAD software to complete different stages of their design cycle. CAD software is used so widely in fashion design that is has become a vital tool of the industry.
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CAD's Importance to Concept
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The fashion concept is the designer's fashion design in its raw form. A sketch of the concept or design is created by the designer. Fashion software is now an essential tool during this design phase. According to Fashion School Review Columnist Laura Horwitz, fashion software enables the designer to visualize how the design will look on a model, allowing the designer to make any corrections to the design before the garment goes into production.
Pre-production Significance
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CAD software aids in the storyboard creation for fashion collections during the design or pre-production phase. The fashion storyboard showcases each piece of a collection in different views such as fashion illustrations and technical sketches. Illustrations are used to show how several fashion pieces work together to create a fashion look or style. Technical or flat sketches of each individual garment are displayed with the specifications for each garment listed next to them.
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Importance in Textile Manufacturing
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Designers can create a fabric print on fashion software and have it printed on the fabric of their choosing. Historically, prints and fabric weaves that required a lot of manual attention during construction such as jacquard were expensive. Fashion Era advises that CAD software has automated textile weaving for jacquards and similar fabrics via the software instructing the fabric loom when to move threads into new positions. This is important for fashion design because this automated weave construction lowers production costs.
Overall Importance for Production
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Virtually all garments require a flat pattern to be created. Fashion software is critical to flat pattern making for accuracy and speed of the production process. Before fashion software, every garment in a collection was hand drafted into a flat pattern, marked by hand and graded (creating multiple sizes) by hand. According to Forbes Online, the flexibility that fashion software offers increases pattern cutting accuracy, reduces overall cost, and allows for quicker product delivery.
Considerations
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CAD software streamlines the entire design cycle, resulting in a better quality and cost effective final product. CAD software also extends beyond just the design process. Designers utilize CAD software to create final marketing presentations for merchandisers so their finished designs can be sold. Unfortunately, CAD software has yet to take the place of a human operating sewing machinery for garment construction.
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- Photo Credit Image by Flickr.com, courtesy of Loris
