Bikinis & atom bombs: Be inspired by everything.

When we think about inspiration, what influences us most are ordinary people who have done extraordinary things. We appreciate when someone has the ability and willingness to be selfless, creative, innovative, or just dares to be different. Being ordinary and creating extra ordinary stuff.

It’s one of fashion’s great mysteries. Where do designers find their inspiration? The birth of a trend has long been a source of debate. Inspiration can literally come from anywhere, be it family, music, streets, a crack in the sidewalk etc . There are no restraints as to what someone can draw from to turn a mere thought into a reality. In fact, fashion design is all about great inspirations. Today’s designs are everything from elaborate drawings in a sketchbook to creative photo shopping.

Unexpected inspirations:

Miniskirt: Did you know the origin of the miniskirts by Mary Quant’s was actually named after her favourite car – The Mini. According to her, miniskirts meant young, fresh, colourful and fun.

The bikini: Louis Reard named his two-piece swimming costume after the Bikini Atoll, where the US military was testing bombs. He believed his revealing swimwear would create a shock similar to that of the atomic bomb. He sure did!!!!!!

Versace logo: Gianni Versace’s major influence was Greek mythology – the logo for his company is the head of Medusa – thought to symbolize the empowerment of women. Through his clothing, Versace wanted to give women confidence and power, and this was shown through his choice of flamboyant textiles, bold colors and flattering cuts.

Red-soled Louboutins: Christian Louboutin’s red soles were inspired by Andy Warhol and nail varnish. When designing a pair of shoes influenced by Warhol’s Flowers, Louboutin was dissatisfied with the outcome. While looking at the shoes, which had black soles, to try to figure out why they didn’t work, his assistant was painting her nails red. Seeing the polish, Louboutin grabbed the pot and lacquered the shoe’s sole, and an icon was born.

We at MyWear® would like to be the bridge that leads artists to becoming entrepreneurs. We can provide you with all the tools you need to successfully launch your own clothing line. Your own website, Custom sizes, your own choice of fabric, Social media integration, advance designing tools, ecommerce, on demand manufacturing and shipment. You name it we got it.

We have made sure that tools, technology and cost are no longer barriers. Just bring in your creativity, talent, drive and let’s get started.

Show the world what you can do,

Register now: www.launchmywear.com

The Ultimate Souvenir: Create Apparel from Vacation Photos with MyWear®

I’m currently writing this on my phone, somewhere between Taichung and Taoyaun. I tagged along on my husband’s business trip to Taiwan this week, and as I ride the high speed rail back to the airport, and on the way back to my home in Oregon, I can’t help but feel nostalgic already.

Taiwan was beautiful, with vivid tastes and sounds, and a culture rich in tradition. It would be difficult to communicate the feelings that come about when stepping into one of the striking temples filled with ornate statues and the scent of incense. Similarly hard to capture is the sensation of walking up the steps of an old Taiwanese mansion and feeling the warm breeze as you hold a railing that’s been touched by countless people before you, dating back to before the industrial revolution.

I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to showcase just how personal you can make a LaunchMyWear piece. Not only are you given the opportunity to personalize your fabric or customize your size, you’re able to create a truly one-of-a-kind piece from experiences, just as you want to remember them.

As I mentioned, I was really taken with the temples and an old mansion we visited Lu Kang. The architectural details and fabrics were so beautiful, and so different than anything I see regularly in the States. I would point at a gorgeous hand-carved wood plank or embroidered sash and exclaim to my husband, “If we were independently wealthy, I’d want to do this in our house!” or “I WISH they still made fabric like that!”.

Then, I realized: I work for the best custom clothing company ever. What am I doing? I can make a dress inspired by my trip… I can even make a shirt using the actual photos from Taiwan! So, that is exactly what I did! Using a process similarly to the one here, I was able to take the photos of stunning, priceless antiques and artifacts and turn them into the perfect custom pieces to remember my trip by!

First, I created a print using the flowers featured on one of the goddess’ robes in the temple. I updated it with a clean background.

For my second design, I used the tiles from the mansion to create a trim and extended the holes in the tiles upwards to create polka dots.

And there you have it! Two distinctly personal tank tops from my trip… without the hassle of stuffing souvenirs in my luggage, made possible with LaunchMyWear!

LaunchMyWear How-to: Create a Print from a Photograph

This is the first installment of a weekly-running tutorial on different ways you can create art for your LaunchMyWear collection. In this one, we’ll explore how to make a print from a photograph!

Today’s tutorial will require Photoshop. Adobe Illustrator is also used for an additional step, but not necessary. Some basic knowledge of Photoshop would come in handy, but fear not if you’re a beginner. There are lots of free resources out there.

Because life if absurd and I’m obsessed with my pets, Andre and Shanté, they will be the source of my pattern today!

Awww

1. Open desired photo in Photoshop. Click on the quick selection tool, located to the left in your toolbar, and select the area you want to feature in your print. You can use the magic wand or lasso to select the area, as well.

2. Create a second blank document in Photoshop.

3. Copy and paste the selected area (ctrl-c, ctrl-v) and use the cursor to drag the layer to its own new Photoshop document.

Double the Andre, double the fun!

4. Use the clone stamp tool or eraser to soften edges. To select the area you want to clone, hold down the alt key while clicking on desired area. Then, click again where you want to apply the cloned selection. If you’re new to this feature, take a few minutes to play around with it. It’s incredibly intuitive once you get the hang of it, but requires a little getting used to. In this case, I’m selecting the white background and applying it to the edges of Andre’s fur, to soften the appearance.

This is getting weird.

5. If you want a cartoon-y effect, I recommend turning up the saturation, which will help keep the photo from getting washed out during the process of making it look more illustrated later in AI. To add saturation, go to “Image” on your menu bar, then “Adjustments” in the dropdown. There, you’ll see an option for “Hue/Saturation”. Turn the saturation dial up and press ok. You can also turn up the exposure under “adjustments”, which I have done here.

6. To create the cartoon-y effect mentioned above, save your saturated document and open in Adobe Illustrator. Go to “Object” in the top menu bar and select “Artboards”, followed by “Fit to Artwork Bounds”, which will be necessary for saving/exporting the file later on. From here, you can click on your image and an “Image Trace” box should appear. Use this to change the preset to 16 colors.

You can also use the pen tool, located on your toolbar to the left, to trace your photo and create an outline.

7. Return to Photoshop after exporting your art from Adobe Illustrator (don’t forget to check the “Use Artboards” box when exporting!) . From here, create a background color with the paint bucket tool.

8. Enlarge your canvas size and copy and paste your photo repeatedly until you begin to create a print. Here, I added Shanté to the mix in the same way that I did with Andre earlier.

9. Keep going until you develop the desired size and look.

10. There you have it! After re-sizing to 20MB or less and saving, your artwork is ready to be uploaded to LaunchMyWear. You can also size it into a square and use the tile option when uploading to LaunchMyWear.com Your print is now on its way to being turned into an incredible one-of-a-kind item. You’re not going to find this scarf anywhere else, that’s for sure!

Have fun! And, as always, tweet you designs or questions @LaunchMyWear.

Best Free Stock Image Sites to Use When Launching Your MyWear Store

Finding stock images can be difficult. A google image search will normally yield one of two things: A slew of mystifying photos of overly excited guys in suits, or worse, an image you like, but that’s watermarked to filth.

When designing the banner for your LaunchMyWear store, watermarks and men in suits might not be what you had in mind, so we’ve compiled a list of some sites offering free, aesthetically-pleasing photos to choose from. Enjoy!

GRATISOGRAPHY

A personal favorite! Gratisography’s curated collection of stunning photography offers tons of quirk, and even more pixels.

Stokpic

A nice, downloadable mix of different styles of photography.

Pexels

Another amazing source with a huge selection of free photos that’s added to daily.

StockSnap.io

A little bit of everything, in large, high-res photos.

re:splashed

Tons of gorgeous photos to choose from in large, downloadable sizes.

After you’ve created your banner and logo, you’re all set to promote your MyWear® store. Go get ’em, tiger!