The little things
Every day within the fashion and retail industries in Australia, hundreds of people rely on inspiration to create products, market those products and define their branding. Designers, visual merchandisers, buyers and stylists must each rely on inspiration to help them create something unique, something directional, something different that will make them stand out to their consumer. Yet to create something tangible they must rely on something that is almost impossible to define.
Deborah Jamieson, the Australian and New Zealand agent for Paris-based trend forecasters Promostyl, describes inspiration as a very personal thing. "Inspiration is unique, it really is someone's own point of view. It's about being observant and often it's about Joanne Griffin, the buyer for Blondies, which has five stores around Melbourne, agrees.
"Sometimes it can be the smallest thing that you see around you that gives you the inspiration for the season. You might see a dress from one designer and accessories from another and they interlink strongly enough to create the right Whether you are looking for inspiration to predict long-range global trends, the range within a store or the length of a skirt for next season, inspiration is often a circular thing, where the inspiration that has fed one project, often forms the basis of another.
"When I saw that movie A Good Woman with all those beautiful dresses, that was something that sent me off on a mission last summer; I was inspired to find dresses like that," Griffin says.
Ken Thompson, stylist with Names Agency, who has worked in both advertising and magazine editorial, as well as with celebrities such as Cate Blanchett and Salma Hayek, says he often seeks inspiration from the National Portrait Gallery in London. "It's a place I keep harking back to for inspiration. I like to draw on the energy of the paintings there, as each of them is classic but with a twist; they relate to fashion but there is nothing overtly fashion oriented or faddish about them."
For many, the classics have always been a source of inspiration. The Greeks themselves created goddesses who presided over the arts and sciences to ensure that inspiration would always be with them, Although there was never a muse for fashion, the fashion industry has long found women that to them, inspire design and creativity.
Unlike the somewhat heady fashion industries overseas, most Australian designers do not have a full time muse, whose sole job is to inspire, on the payroll but that isn't to say that muses are not to be found on our shores. Francesca Vuillemin, who models with Chic Model Management, has been the muse for Billion Dollar Babes (BDB) since October 2004.
"I try to be very diplomatic about the designs but usually Michelle [Cooke, BDB founder] can tell from the expression on my face if I like a design or not. She is very honest about her own designs, so if it doesn't work she is quite happy to toss it and start again."
Cooke and Vuillemin met at a casting for the label and got on so well they met for coffee after the parades. They have worked together ever since. "We found we had a very similar mindset," says Vuillemin. "Discussing fabrics and styles with her is inspiration itself."
Cooke jokingly describes Vuillemin as her crash test dummy. "I would say that I test the majority of the designs on Francesca. Sometimes it's simply a case of tweaking the length, others we might change the shape completely to achieve the end result."
With a strong emphasis on her label's brand, Cooke cites a lot of her initial inspiration as coming from films. "I have a lot of films in my life, especially the old ones from the '50s with Ava Gardner or Elizabeth Taylor. With a name like Billion Dollar Babes it all has to be all about women dressing up."
Looking to the brand and interpreting it is an important to aspect for many fashion and retail jobs. Kate Bielenberg, national visual merchandiser for Cue Designs, believes her role is to seek inspiration from the brand itself. "[Cue is] rare in that our design and all our production is handled in Sydney so that means that everyone in the team is lucky enough be aware of the process and constantly see what the designers are up to.
"I'm really lucky because I work for a brand that I love and I find the product is all the inspiration that I need. In our windows we focus on the direction of the brand and use the key pieces that tell that story. We try to make a statement with the designs themselves and the mannequin groupings."
The mannequin groupings have become particularly important for Cue with the launch of its "Virtual Studio", a component of the brand's website that highlights the direction for the season on mannequins.
"Really, for us inspiration is all around. It is the link between the design, the marketing and the visual displays and as we release new designs every week, so the story and the inspiration just evolve," says Bielenberg.
Jamieson agrees. "You can get a sense of prediction by watching the certain way things happen and that often gives you a sense of how things will evolve. In a way it is a little bit like a book...you know what has gone on in the chapters before and you know the general themes and the story but sometimes you need to work out exactly what will happen in the next chapter. Although the themes may be fresh and new each season, there is often obvert or subtle links as the story continues."
Cooke also talks about watching the subtle changes that can be found in what you see everyday. "Going to bars and seeing the way that girls are dressing can be as much of a point of inspiration as anything else. That little more effort that girls seem to be making when they go out now was a lot of the inspiration for our 'Cocktail Hour' theme for next spring/summer."
To be inspired towards an idea, either through a muse or observation, is one thing but for many the trick is how that inspiration is used: taking the gem of an idea and translating it into something tangible. For Jamieson that means research to ensure her predictions are concrete, for Bielenberg it means creating a visual story, for Cooke it means integrating the look with fabric and detailing.
"I often find that something as simple as fabric alone can be the inspiration for a whole season. Rather than following what the designs trends are, I tend to look more to the fabric trends and see what they say to me."
Even for Vuillemin, who provides inspiration rather than receiving it, the process of creation is inspirational in itself. "For me the great thing about working with this label is seeing the fabrics and how Michelle interprets them.
Understanding the influences that shape inspiration can be another important way of tapping into the inspiration around you. Although Griffin acknowledges decisions are often a gut reaction, she firmly believes understanding the story of the brand and the history of your market can go a long way to inspiring the choices that you make.
"Over the years I have established benchmarks that guide what I choose. Especially as I no longer work on the floor, these benchmarks are often a guide and these are based on the location of the stores and their customer base and to a large degree these guides are inspiration in themselves."
Thompson agrees experience can be as much the mother of inspiration as creativity and that over time the history of your inspiration teaches you what to look for and allows you to hone your skills.
"I suppose for me, the longer I am style, the more I realise that it's about simplification. In a way it's a little like what Gene Muir used to say, 'Give me any colour as long as it's navy'. I suppose part of my inspiration is to try to achieve perfection and aim to achieve something that is fantastic in its simplicity."
The Greeks believed inspiration was a tool in the attempt to reach perfection but as Jamieson points out "as with anything creative, inspiration can ebb and flow". "The mind is very much a muscle and needs to be exercised on a daily basis."