ASTER

100% Cotton Sweater

Trend and Consumer Research

Model: Kori Hyer

As a designer, I tend to focus on color and trend research with more intensity, so that I can design for a specific target market. Understanding the technology is also important, because it shows that as a designer, I understand the limitations that a design might have. For this 100% Cotton sweater, I was inspired by the 2018 Pantone Color of the Year, which was named Ultra Violet. A dramatically provocative and thoughtful purple shade, Pantone Ultra Violet communicates originality and visionary thinking that points us towards the future. By focusing on one color range, I was able to express and create a garment that speaks well to who I am as a designer that loves using color.

WHO WAS I DESIGNING FOR?

The target market of the sweater is a 27 year old creative-minded woman, Aster, who wants to look like herself, not the masses. She has a sense of adventure about what she wears, and although fashion is important to her, she is too busy enjoying life to be governed by the latest trends. To her, city life is a portal of discovery—a brush with what could be. A place for her to lose—and find—herself. Aster loves nature, but also loves the urban feeling of living in the city. You can often find Aster inside coffee shops right before she goes to work at a graphic design firm.

Click here to skip to the close-ups.

Inspiration

For this project, I started off knowing that I wanted to have a mock neck and knit structures down the sleeves, but I did not know how I would approach decorating the sweater with digital printing or hand painting. After doing research on Fashion Snoops, I realized that I wanted to continue to use the color purple as the main focus, as I did with project number one. Ultra Violet is the color of the year, so it just seemed fitting. After hours of research through Pinterest, I found an image of flowers that I was inspired by. The purple flowers, called Aster, have purple petals and gold centers. I knew then that I wanted to recreate a soft and simple floral piece.

Breaking Down the Process

I started out with creating the sweater on the Shima Seiki APEX3 Software.

Here is a look at some of the simulations. This was a very critical part of the design process because I needed to make sure my course/wale count was accurate, because that effects the size of the sweater. I also needed to make sure the file had no errors before sending it to the knitting machine.