Phoebe tries her hand at fashion design, attempt #1

I love Project Runway. Despite the irritating reality show, melodramatic, producer-manipulated nature of it, plus its need for constant corporate synergy in order to push merchandise, it is one of the few things I've ever seen on TV about sewing and clothing design, so I watch it religiously. And as is typical with me, whenever I see somebody else doing something cool creatively, I think, "I want to do that too!" And while I've been learning to sew recently, design is something I've never really tried my hand at. While I'm not yet advanced enough to make complicated patterns and things from scratch, I do wonder if I have any particularly interesting ideas in me, even if I can't necessarily make them myself.

Project Runway is about high fashion. As I recently posted here to make of a note of it for my reference, I would define high fashion as "maintaining a balance between the heightened nature of the art of design and a certain aspirational wearability." Meaning that while your pieces must technically function as and read to the observer as clothes that have something about them that makes you want to wear them, they must also have something extraordinary about them that elevates the aesthetic level to the status of art. Part of that is prizing innovation, what is new and exciting, and being on the cutting edge. My personal taste is a bit more classic than that, so oftentimes I don't respond to hyper-modern high fashion looks, nor do I exactly have the sensibilities that one would need to be successful on Project Runway. But I thought, just for fun, I might give it a try and see if I am capable.

Excuse my terrible sketching! This is a military-inspired coat designed to sit just off the shoulder. It has a huge "collar" coming out from that line and huge cuffs, which are pointed and made in the same contrasting material. It has a faux double breast with five buttons on each side. The pants would be slim and dark, and the top underneath would be dark with a high neckline. The boots are knee-high leather and have a low heel. The gloves are black and slim (though in the sketch they look like they are connected to the high cuffs, which they are not.) The broad-brimmed hat would be the same color as the body of the coat, and the band the same as the collar and cuffs.

I made an effort, as I said, to keep this look as high-fashion as possible. I think the fact that the coat only comes up to that spot off the shoulder is the primary detail that qualifies, and I'm fairly certain I've not seen it done before on a coat. It makes it fairly impractical and borderline unwearable, but that's a bit more excusable in high fashion-- it's not supposed to seem like something you could find in any department store. There's also the size of the collar flaps and cuffs that help.

To make it more high-fashion, I think I would pump up the asymmetry. The front breast should lead into a right side that falls across the entirety of the front at belly-level, while the left side should just cut straight down into the left tail. And maybe the right collar flap should be much larger than the left, and come all the way across the chest. I could probably also change the tail from the currently very traditional shape it has.

I know it's no great shakes, design-wise. But from a completely uneducated, inexperienced dabbler, it's kind of neat, I think. I plan to play around with it more and maybe make it better.