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Fashion Design Student Portfolio: -A Reflection of Designer's Creativity

Research · June 2021

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.26549.19686

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Fashion Design Student Portfolio: - A

Reflection of Designer’s Creativity
Deepak Sharma1 and Dr. Pooja Singh2
1
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Fashion & Design, SGT University, Haryana, India, deepak.ds3210@gmail.com
2
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Fashion & Design, SGT University, Haryana, India, singhpooja396@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

The fashion portfolio works as a reflection of designer’s personality, sense of style, inspiration of design and
handwriting of design. A creative portfolio consists of diversity and market awareness along with the original work
of a designer. It covers the several different categories such as Personal information, Education, Skills, Developed
collections, Designs, History, Jobs, Accomplishments and Achievements of the designer. From this study it can be
concluded that developing a creative portfolio which covers all the categories is very much crucial for every fashion
industry professional as well as student. This study shows that how the fashion designers and students can make
portfolios which can truly reflect their personality and creative work to the viewer clearly and concisely. This
research paper act as a reference tool for young and budding fashion designers.

KEYWORDS: - Collection, Creativity, Design, Designer, Fashion, Portfolio

1. INTRODUCTION

Fashion is the prevalent aesthetic look at a specific time, place and in a particular circumstance in the clothing,
accessories, footwear, hairstyle and makeup (Kaiser, Susan B, 2019). Whereas a fashion portfolio is the edited
fashion collection of individuals best work proposed to showcase style and methods of work. For a fashion designer
or anyone involved in the artistic industry, having a professional portfolio is must. The fashion portfolio works as a
reflection of designer’s personality, sense of style, inspiration of design, handwriting of design etc. (Kiper, A,
2014). It is the most important tool for fashion designers, students and creative individuals to do a visual self-
promotion of them to employers, corporations and colleges (Balikar, V, 2013). Portfolio is a necessary part of
interview for fashion professionals. It gives tangible evidence of designer’s skills and abilities and explains to the
interviewer that the person is qualified or not for the job. A portfolio cannot replace the need of a resume but it can
help to highlight the talent of a designer and show the potential of an individual in the chosen field (Charleston
Career Center, 2020).

1.1 Types of Portfolio: - There are mainly two types of portfolios, Printed and Digital. Printed portfolio (Offline
portfolio) is the physically printed portfolio and oldest way of showing the creative work of a designer. An artist or
designer take this type of portfolio with him while meeting any client or going to any interview physically. On the
other hand, Digital portfolio (Online Portfolio) is the need of the hour and it plays a crucial role when a designer has
to meet their clients and employers via web and digital media. It helps the individuals to show their work and talent
to potential customers and employers before meeting face to face (Jamie, 2013).

1.2 How to Build Creative Portfolio: - In order to make a portfolio stand out Firstly, the individuals need to show
the diversity and market awareness about their collection which they are going to put in their portfolio. Secondly,
portfolio should communicate clearly and concisely with the viewer. Lastly and the most importantly, the portfolio
should only include the original work of a designer, which can tell the viewer about creative concept developing
skills of the individual.
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2. OBJECTIVES

❖ To explain the importance of a portfolio for the designers

❖ To elucidate the Process of making a portfolio
❖ To Clarify the content which needs to be included in a portfolio
❖ To illuminate the ways of developing a Creative portfolio

3. PROCESS

To develop a creative portfolio, the designers need to consider several different categories: Personal information,
Education, Skills, Developed collections, Designs, History, Jobs, Accomplishments and Achievements. Individuals
need to include all these categories in the portfolio, which can make it larger. Therefore, designers need to be as
specific as possible while including the items in portfolio. Only the important items which can grab the attention of
viewer and showcase the best talent of artist should be included in the portfolio. In the next steps, this study explains
each item which needs to be a part of portfolio and how it should be presented in the portfolio.

3.1 Cover Page

Cover Page is the cover and the first page of the portfolio. In the cover page the designers need to mention a title
to their portfolio and they also need to mention their own name and some of the information about the portfolio. For
the title they can choose any name like design portfolio, fashion portfolio or even give a name based on any
particular theme. Some of the designers even put one of their best works on the cover page. One of the standard
examples of the Cover Page is shown below in fig. 1. The cover page of portfolio should match with the inside
content of it.

Fig.1 - Cover Page

3.2 Designer Profile

Designer's profile page contains information about the designer. In this page designers need to put one of the
photographs along with the information about their personal as well as their professional life. In personal life they
have to mention their name, their qualification, the institution from where they studied etc. In professional life they
need to mention their inspiration for designing, their style of Designing and handwriting for the designing. They
have to describe which type of designs they have done till date. It can be Street style, Punk fashion, Haute Couture
or Contemporary designs. The one of the example of Designer’s Profile is given in fig.2

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Fig.2 - Designer Profile Page

3.3 Contents

The third page of the portfolio should be the content page or index. This page includes the list of parts or topics
covered in the portfolio. The content page of any fashion portfolio is not restricted to be in tabular form with the
help of text only, but designers can also include some of the images as well to make it look more appealing and
attractive to the viewer as shown below in fig. 3

Fig.3 - Contents Page

3.4 Illustrations

Illustration and sketching are integral skills for every fashion designer. Therefore, after the content page the
designers must showcase their sketching skills. They can make a collage of some of the best sketches which they
have done and put it over there as shown in fig. 4. Nowadays, due to the digital advancements designers are also
making illustrations with the help of CAD software such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and CorelDraw.
Individuals can put some of their Computer aided design Sketches as well in the form of a collage as shown in the
fig. 5.

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Fig.4 - Hand Illustrations Fig.5 - CAD Illustrations

3.5 Accessories

Accessories become an indispensable part of our life nowadays. Along with the clothing designers also
design accessories for their clients and season collection. Therefore, it is vital for the individuals to showcase their
creative work which they have done in the accessories category. It can be in the form of hand or CAD sketches as
shown in fig.6 and fig. 7 or even they can put photographs of real accessories which they created.

Fig.6 - Accessories Hand Sketches Fig.7 - Accessories CAD Sketches

3.6 Jewellery

From centuries jewellery plays a very crucial role in order to enhance the look of clothing and wearer’s personality.
Many fashion students and professionals design jewellery along with the clothing. In order to showcase their talent
and designing skills in jewellery they can make a collage of jewellery sketches as shown in fig. 8 or they can even
put some photographs of real jewellery such as necklace, bracelet, anklet, earrings etc. which they have developed
by using the beads, pearls, strings, stones etc.as shown in fig. 9

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Fig.8 - Jewellery Design Sketches ` Fig.9 - Jewellery Designing

3.7 Embroidery

In order to make any clothing looks more attractive and appealing embroideries are being used widely by the
designers worldwide. Therefore, it is necessary for every designer to include their embroidery styles and skills into
the portfolio. Individuals can develop a collage of various types of embroidery and some of the excellent work
which they have done in their career as shown in fig. 10

Fig.10 - Embroidery Design Collage

3.8 Prints

Prints were used from ancient times to enhance the look of fabric. Printing is considered to be the most important
technique of surface ornamentation and showing the print designing skills in the portfolio is must for every fashion
designer. Designer can gather some prints which they have designed either by hand or by using any CAD software
and make a collage of the same as shown in fig.11 and add in their portfolio.

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Fig.11 - Print Design Collage

3.9 Garments & Accessories Design

After the print page designers can present some of their actual creations of garments as well as accessories which
they have created by their own. They can simply select few of the products which they want to put in their portfolio.
After selection they can do a photo-shoot of them with details to be clearly visible as shown in fig. 12 and ready 2-3
design sheets of different designs for the portfolio.

Fig.12 - Garments & Accessories Design Sheet

3.10 Inspiration & Theme Final Collection

In the final year of study every fashion student needs to come up with a collection. This collection is the most
important aspect of every design student’s portfolio. Firstly, the designer needs to put the inspiration & theme board
in the portfolio. Where a designer explain about the true inspiration behind the collection with help of images and
text as shown in the fig. 13

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Fig.13 - Inspiration & Theme Board

3.11 Other Boards

Once a designer selects the inspiration and theme, the next is the Mood Board, Color Board, Style Board, Swatch
Board etc. in the design process before stating the sketching of the designs. It is not necessary to put all these boards
in different pages in the portfolio, individuals can put all these boards together in just one page. In this way the
whole design process will be covered in the portfolio without exceeding the page limit in the portfolio.

Fig.14 - Various Boards

3.12 Design Process- Rough Sketches

After the development of various boards, the next step in the design process is doing rough sketching of the designs.
It is a crucial step to decide the silhouettes of the collection. It also helps in deciding the cost and over all budgets
for the collection. In this page the designers can again put all their initial sketch ideas in just one page as shown in
fig. 15 in order to move towards the final collection.

Fig.15 - Rough Sketches Page

3.13 Specification & Cost Sheet

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Cost plays a important role while designing any collection & Specification sheet is the clear flat sketches along with
the full detailing of the garment. Therefore, it necessary for every designer to have the knowledge of cost while
designing any outfit and must know the skills of making an effective specification sheet. Most of the time designers
combine the cost and spec sheet in one page for their collection. In portfolio it is a better to put few of the cost &
spec sheets in one page for giving the idea of the cost and detailing of the designs to the viewers as shown in the fig.
16.

Fig.16 - Specification & Cost Sheet

3.14 Design sheets

The designing sheets or design presentation boards are most significant part of the portfolio and the final collection.
In this designer represents the final sketches as well as the original final garments. Every designer has their own way
of presenting their final collection like some represents with sketches on single page then garment on the next, some
presents firstly all the sketches and the collection together, but widely used way of representing the collection is
showing the sketches as well as the original garment image on the same page for each designs as shown in the fig.
17, 18 & 19. This style of presentation gives a clear picture of the design process to the viewers. They can easily
relate the sketches with the final garment. Designers can put images of the garment directly from their fashion show
or even can do a separate shoot of the garment and then show these shoot photos in the design sheets along with the
sketches. The number of pages for design sheets totally depend upon the number of the garments designed in the
final collection. If there are only few number of garment, then designers can put each design on single page as
shown in the fig. 17,18 & 19, but if the garment are more than 8 then they can simply put 2 designs in one page to
make the portfolio shorter in terms of the pages.

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Fig.17 - Design sheet -1 Fig.18 - Design sheet -2

Fig.19 - Design sheet -3

3.15 Achievements

In this section of the portfolio individuals can put some of their achievements and awards which they have received
in their lifetime. These achievements and awards can be in their design field or even in the extra-curricular activities
or community welfare services in which they have participated e.g., won any design competition, won any sports
tournament or even become the Mr. Miss. Institute or college in their lifetime. Designers can put photographs of
them holding trophies or receiving awards from the dignitaries of the events etc. in one collage as shown one of the
example in fig. 20 and add it in the portfolio.

Fig.20 - Achievements Page

3.16 Experiences

Experiences add values to the creativity and talent of individuals. In the design industry great experiences shows
maturity and a great mindset of dealing with difficult situations. Therefore, it is worth a while for any design
professional to showcase the experiences which they have gained. These experiences can be some sort of part time
job at any design studio or any internship during their study or participation in any workshop, seminar or
competition of fashion & design industry. In this page designers can gather there certificates of job experiences,
internships, participation and present it in the form of a collage in the portfolio as shown in fig.21.
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Fig.21 - Experiences Page

3.17 Look Book

The design portfolio of a fashion professional starts from the cover page and presents the sketching skills, designing
skills and come to an end at the experiences which is a standard way of making it. Still, many of the professionals
feel that it is better to put one more page at the last which we called the Look Book. The Look Book should be
something which can give a quick flashback of creativity of the designer in viewer’s eye. For this individual can put
all of their best creations in the last one page and write a quote or something about their professional career or
simply put my journey as shown in the fig. 22. The designers can even put a collage of their final collection which
they have designed as shown in fig. 23 to put a positive impact on the viewer.

Fig.22 - Look Book Fig.23 - Look Book

4. CONCLUSION

The present study concludes that how fashion students and upcoming designers can showcase their talent and
creativity in the best possible manner with the help of the portfolio. Developing the portfolio is all about showing
that who the designer is, what are the area of design of the individual, what is the hand writing for designing, what
inspire the designer to design and which types of designs the individual can produce in the future. To summarize,
portfolio is the reflection of individuals work and personality therefore it is very much essential for every individuals
to prepare their portfolio technically as per the demands of the viewer step by step as shown in this study.

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5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This study would not have been possible without the support of the students of SGT University and IEC College of
Fashion & Art who contributed their original work for it, which makes this study a valuable source for the other
fashion students and upcoming designers. A special thanks to the Chairman of SGT University Mr. Manmohan
Singh Chawla, Dean of Faculty of Fashion & Design Dr. M. K. Nair and Dr. Pooja Singh, Assistant Professor,
Faculty of Fashion & Design for openheartedly offering their time, skills, advice and resources for this study.

8. REFERENCES

1. Kaiser, Susan B. (2019). Fashion and Cultural Studies, Bloomsbury Visual Arts.
2. Kiper, A. (2014). Fashion Portfolio: Design & Presentation, Batsford Publishers, London. 6p.
3. Balikar, V. (2013) Portfolio Development. Retrieved on 14 June 2020 https://www.fibre2fashion.com/industry-
article/6809/portfolio-
development#:~:text=A%20portfolio%20is%20an%20important,with%20the%20term%20fashion%20portfolio.
&text=Research%20photos%2C%20historic%20as%20well,show%20the%20designers%20creative%20process
.
4. Heidi. S. Chapter 12 of The Ultimate Guide to Creating Your Fashion Portfolio (in a weekend) Retrieved on 14
June 2020
https://successfulfashiondesigner.com/fashion-portfolio/fashion-portfolio-checklist/
5. College of Charleston Career Center. (2020). Retrieved on 15 June 2020
http://careercenter.cofc.edu/documents/portfolio.pdf
6. Jamie. (2013).The Importance of A Portfolio for Designers. Retrieved on 15 June 2020
http://www.designzbyjamz.com/the-importance-of-a-portfolio-for-designers/

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