Re-inventing fashion collection design

Despite the confinement, we're continuing to create our next collections, a complicated step to take from a distance and by video, but we're adapting!

17H10 was born out of a desire to offer "common sense" clothing at a fair price. Beautiful products made in small quantities, close to local and valued craftsmanship, and above all, clothes that meet the daily needs of active women.

We believe in the magic that can sometimes happen when a set makes us feel confident, professional and invincible. We want to highlight inspiring, independent, positive women. The ones you meet every morning on the subway, who lead several lives at once and love it! For them, we design elegant, comfortable and easy-to-live-with outfits.

We tell you how we imagine and create our collections.

We began by interviewing a large number of women and listening to their needs. What do they think about in the morning when they see their wardrobe, what makes them choose one piece rather than another, what cuts do they feel beautiful in, what do they need, what is important to them?

We've identified the cuts you prefer to wear, and not surprisingly, these depend on the different silhouettes. We've tried to cater for all body types, starting with pants, skirts and jackets to suit you, with more pieces to come as we go along. 

You told us that you prefer natural materials, and that meticulous finishing and attention to detail are key for you. 

We work on the basis of all this information.

1/ Designing the collection

When we design a collection, we want each piece to be sublime, but also to be coherent as a whole. We think about cuts that complement each other, colors that work together, and draw inspiration from our everyday lives, art and fashion icons.

At 17H10, our ambition is for our pieces to be timeless, to stand the test of different fashions, so that you can wear them often, for different occasions, accessorize them differently, always with pleasure.

For the first tests and inspirations, we sometimes take the needle ourselves to see if what we had imagined on paper works in fabric and in volume, all of which will of course be studied at length and refined later in model making. 

2/ Model making

We believe in simplicity and elegance. And in pattern-making, that's the hardest thing: beautiful lines, perfectly cut, no frills. No frills to camouflage an unfortunate crease or an ill-fitting piece - just perfect fit!

It's all down to the model maker's work. We have a great one, and owe a lot of the success of our pieces to her. Our meetings always start with a brief in which we detail the pieces to be created: we provide her with our drawings, and any initial sewing tests.

Our pattern maker first works on a canvas: in other words, she makes our model in a fabric that is less precious than the final material. Like a draft. This fabric is often clear, as we need to be able to write any modifications on it.

When the canvas is satisfactory, we move on to the prototype.

While imagination and creativity can adapt to a confined space, it's more complicated to put the equipment and teams in place. We fall behind. As a general rule in most boutiques, be prepared for the next Autumn Winter collections to be incomplete and arrive later. Of course, we can't have a meeting with our pattern maker, nor make any progress on the prototype part with the workshops we'll be talking about next.

3/ Prototypes

A prototype is a first test of the model in the final fabric. It allows you to adjust the cut, the fit and all the details. Validate that all the elements of the garment work well together and fit beautifully.
This is a very time-consuming stage, and several prototypes are often necessary to obtain a perfect product.

Once everything has been validated, the necessary materials and supplies are ordered, and production takes over. We talk about this step in our previous video. 

To conclude

This crisis is currently causing great debate in the fashion world. Leading designers such as Armani, for example, are taking offence at what fashion has become: over-production that has lost touch with reality. 

They denounce the frenetic pace at which new products are constantly being introduced, with one collection obsolete within a few weeks and replaced by the next. 

They also think about the absurd mismatch of seasons: summer is sold out at the beginning of July for coats and boots, while in December we are presented with swimsuits and light dresses with the "cruise" collections.  

While we're on the subject of design, let'snot be swayed by ephemeral trends that downgrade clothes as soon as they're acquired. Choose timeless pieces that adapt and last. 

"Less but better" must become the new mantra for designers and customers alike.