Proposition for the Drawing Method for Prototype Costume

Design in Fashion Drawing

Sachiko NAGASAWA* and Shinya NAGASAWA**

* Department of Fashion, Junior College, Bunka Womens University, Yoyogi, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
151-8523, JAPAN, nagasawa@bunka.ac.jp
** Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies, Waseda University, Nishiwaseda, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo
169-0051, JAPAN, nagasawa@waseda.jp

Abstract: Fashion Drawing is a general name for drawings that express fashion. This paper proposes an original
drawing system called, a drawing method for prototype costume design in fashion drawing, similar to the drawing
method for a plane figure of a formative costume. In addition, this paper proposes the real proportion as the traceable,
undressed and non-deformed physique, the basic proportion for costume design drawing, and the prototype of
costume design drawing. The proposed method is applicable to a series of steps from the basic costume pattern based
on actual human body size to a plane figure of a formative costume. The proposition of the drawing method for
prototype costume design in fashion drawing is significant in practical fashion design. Furthermore, the procedure of
the proposed method is mainly used for teaching the principles and rules of fashion drawing at the level of basic
education in fashion college.
Key words: Fashion drawing, Costume design Drawing, Drawing method, Basic education

1. Production of Real Proportion, Prototype of the Costume Design Drawing and Basic Proportion for
the Costume Design Drawing
To establish compatibility between the beauty and accuracy required to produce costume design drawings and
a method comprising a series of steps for dressmaking, from creating a clothing prototype to producing a plane
drawing, according to the following procedure. This method is hereinafter referred to as the proposed method:
1) producing Real Proportion;
2) producing Prototype of the Costume Design Drawing;
3) producing Basic proportion for the Costume Design Drawing; and
4) proposing a new drawing method involving the items above.

This procedure is mainly used for teaching the principles and rules of fashion drawing at the level of basic
education.

1.1 Production of Real Proportion

Real Proportion as defined here is an unshaded line drawing of a real three-dimensional body. The author
produced it according to the following procedure:1)

1) referring to Japanese Body Size Data 1992-1994 2);

2) using multiple viewpoints;
3) producing a baseline frame based on the above data; and
4) drawing the human body accurately according to the frame.

At least two regions of the front and back face are necessary to describe clothing, so the author drew these two
faces following the example of the conventional Baseline Method. The front face of the human body corresponds
to a front design (front style), while the back face, to a back design (back style).
Figure 1 shows the result. It is Real Proportion, which is a representation of the present body type distilled
from data on 2,000 or more Japanese women aged 20 to 24 years and collected from 1992 to 1994, and employs
no deformation.
According to the above data from Japanese Body Size Data 1992-19942) which was a standard for
ready-made clothes, the JIS L 4005-1997 for womens clothing was produced. Some similar raw data was also
applied in this Paper. Therefore, the standard body size called 9AR in JIS L 4005-1997 is quite similar to Real
Proportion as represented in the Proposed Method.
If the author had used photographic images created from tailors dummies

3)

and mannequins 4) that had been

produced based on this data, the author would have been able to produce line drawings that could act as a basis for
costume design drawings. However, photographic images might contain some distortion and three-dimensional
data on the same measurements was unavailable, while application of this kind of data to education is also
difficult. Therefore, instead, the author created Real Proportion by the above-mentioned method that conforms
to traditional procedures in the field of fashion drawing.

1.2 Production of Prototype of the Costume Design Drawing

Prototype of the Costume Design Drawing means a basic form used for producing costume design
drawings. The author produced Prototype of Clothing by the former Bunka Method5) based on the the real
proportions which correspond to the line drawing in Figure 2, and produced a Prototype of the Costume Design
Drawing based on the former prototype, which is the gray part in Figure 2.

Costume Design Drawing is an unshaded line drawing of a three-dimensional figure having a front face and
profile faces of a clothed tailors dummy, while Prototype of Clothing is a plane drawing of clothing as if spread
out on the floor. Thus, in order to produce the prototype of the costume design drawing from the prototype of
clothing, a limner should insert the flat profile faces of the clothing prototype into the central part to create a
three-dimensional form. The author referred to the Horizontal Cross Section Drawing shown

6)

This

Horizontal Cross Section Drawing shows a section of each region of the human body. The author measured real
lengths from the front face to sidelines, projected lengths from the front face to sidelines, and their ratio, and
reduced the side faces of the clothing prototype based on the ratio. Thus, the author was able to create sidelines of
the prototype of the costume design drawing.
As a result, Real Proportion and Prototype of the Costume Design Drawing were

completely reconciled,

as can be seen in Figure 2. it is referred to as the Prototype of the Costume Design Drawing in the Proposed
Method.

Figure 1

Real proportion laid on a baseline frame

(Front face)

Figure 2

Compatibility of the real proportion with the prototype of the costume design drawing
(Back face)

(Front face)

However, when actually producing the costume design drawing, we should lay Real Proportion and
Prototype of Clothing over the Prototype of the Costume Design Drawing, and adopt the drawing containing
the sidelines after adjustment as specified in Figure 2 in order to acquire balance between the human body and the
clothing.

1.3 Production of Basic Proportion for the Costume Design Drawing

Basic Proportion for the Costume Design Drawing means a drawing of Real Proportion (Front face and
Back face) produced using the abridged version of the Baseline Frame.
As shown in Figure 1, the baselines of the real proportion are very complicated, making it difficult to draw the
human body based on these baselines under all instances. Even though these baselines cannot be as simplified to
the same extent as the baselines of the Six-block Method, it is desirable to be able to produce this real proportion
as easily as the clothing prototype in order to maintain a close correspondence to the plane drawing.
Accordingly, the author produced the front face and the back face of the abridged version of the Baseline
Frame,. Based on these faces, the author drew the human body linearly, and then fleshed it out. The detailed
drawing is referred to as the Basic Proportion for the Costume Design Drawing in the Proposed Method.

2. Proposal of a new drawing method using Basic Proportion for the Costume Design Drawing and
Prototype of the Costume Design Drawing
The procedure for the proposed drawing method is shown below. Consequently, the scale (it can be reduced),
the paper size and line thickness are flexible provided all these elements are kept in balance.
1) Produce Basic Proportion for the Costume Design Drawing using the abridged version of the Baseline
Frame.
a. Use A-3 size paper arranged vertically.
b. Writing instruments that allow identical and thinner lines to be drawn are preferable.
c. Draw a baseline frame using a ruler measuring one-to-one instead of a diminishing scale.
d. Draw the human body free hand or using a ruler, depending on your drawing skill. The body will be act as
the standard for producing the costume design drawing hereinafter, making it necessary to draw the body
symmetrically and accurately according to the baselines.

2) Produce Prototype of Clothing

7)

based on the basic proportion for the costume design drawing, i.e., the

real proportion.
a. Use another A-3 size paper arranged vertically. Thin paper such as copy paper or paper of a similar quality is
preferable because the Basic Proportion for the Costume Design Drawing will be traced on the paper afterward.
Produce the prototype on a diminished scale of one to five.
3) Produce Prototype of the Costume Design Drawing using Prototype of Clothing.
a. Lay Prototype of Clothing on Prototype of the Costume Design Drawing and, adjust the width using the
same procedure as you trace profile lines of the human body.
b. Add necessary seams lines, if any. Trace profile lines of the human body, too.
c. Perform the procedure up until this point only one time. Use a stack consisting of the Basic Proportion for
the Costume Design Drawing, Prototype of Clothing and Prototype of the Costume Design Drawing as an
underlay for tracing hereafter.
4) Produce Costume Design Drawing after Prototype of the Costume Design Drawing.
a. Use another sheet of paper. Thin paper is preferable because Prototype of the Costume Design Drawing
will be traced on this sheet. Produce the drawing on a reduced scale of one to five.
b. Produce the drawing employing the flat drawing method.

c. When a pattern is given, underlay the sheet with the Prototype of the Costume Design Drawing, and
produce the drawing using the pattern size without modification when drawing in the vicinity of the front face but
taking into consideration distortions created by curved surfaces near the side faces. Similarly, draw shoulders
above the bust line, taking into consideration some distortions created by curved surfaces near the shoulders. Add
a third dimension that is subtle and difficult to comprehend from the pattern, by applying your skills in drawing.
d. When the three-dimensional body and a photo or a rough sketch of the three-dimensional body is given,
underlay the paper with Prototype of the Costume Design Drawing, and draw a rough sketch of the silhouette
free hand, and then draw the detailed part including the width of a panache or a collar and internals of buttons
based on your knowledge and skill of flat drawing on a reduced scale of one to five.
e. The finishing procedure is the same as that for the costume design drawing produced by other methods.
An example of a costume design drawing produced according to the above-mentioned formula based on the
given pattern, Prototype of the Costume Design Drawing and Basic Proportion for the Costume Design
Drawing is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3

Example of the costume design drawing produced after a prototype of the costume design drawing
(Front Face)

Yet-to-be-finished drawing

3. Conclusion
The author proposed a new Method for Producing the Costume Design Drawing which allows the sketcher
to draw a design employing the same procedure used to produce plane drawings and which can be readily applied
to teaching fashion design and drawing. As part of this proposition, the author produced Real Proportion, Basic

Proportion for the Costume Design Drawing and Prototype of the Costume Design Drawing.
Effective points of the proposed method in this paper are as follows:
1) The costume designers and assistant designers who have not enough drawing skills can draw the Costume
Design Drawings. In another words, they can draw much more exact drawings without drawing skills.
2) By using a diminishing scale the students can draw much more exact Costume Design Drawings, those are
drawn by veterans and experts with their experiences, skills and capabilities. It is not possibe snd significant for
the beguinners and students to reproduse the Costume Design Drawing using a diminishing scale because veterans
and experts are used to draw the human body proportion employing their own deformation. In contrast, the
proposed method prepared the human body proportion which is the basis of the Costume Design Drawing
according to the numerical data, so anyone can reproduce the Costume Design Drawing by using a diminishing
scale.

Acknowledgement
The author wished to thank Ms. Yoriko Sasaki, a graphic designer, for helping us in the CG tracing of plates
used in this paper.
This paper received a subsidy from the Gran-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) of the Ministry of Education,
Science, Sports and Culture (No. 09838039, 10835023, 15500145). I herein wish to express my gratitude.

Notes and references

1) Sachiko Nagasawa and Shinya Nagasawa: Experimental basic proportion for costume design drawing in
fashion drawing, Summary of the 45th Meeting for Reading Research Papers on the Science of Design, pp.
240-241, 1998 (in Japanese)
2) Edited by the Research Institute of Human Engineering for Quality Life: Japanese body size data in 1992-1994,
1997
3) Written and edited by Michiko Miyoshi: the Science of Making Clothes, Theory I lecture given at Bunka
Womens University, pp.33-45, BUNKA GAKUEN Text Publishing Division, 2000 (in Japanese)
4) Mannequins are developed based on the same data under a joint project between the Research Institute of
Human Engineering for Quality Life and Nanasai Co., Ltd.
5) Edited by the Research Laboratory in Clothing Construction of Bunka Womens University: the Science of
Clothing Construction, Theory, pp.90-107, Bunka Publishing Bureau, 1985 (in Japanese)
6) Ibid. pp.33-89
7) Written and edited by Michiko Miyoshi: the Science of Making Clothes, Theory I lecture given at Bunka
Womens University, pp.121-137 (in Japanese); some details of the clothing prototype used by the Bunka Method
were changed in July, 1999, but this change did not conflict with the prototype of the costume design drawing as
presented in this paper.

Sources of Plates
Figure 3: Drawn by Sachiko Nagasawa and sourced from the Science of Making Clothes, Technology I lecture
given at Bunka Womens University, p.118, BUNKA GAKUEN Text Publishing Division, 2000, edited by Noriko
Nakaya and Michiko Miyoshi (in Japanese); An unfinished drawing and a reduced scale have been added.