Women’s Colour

texture, contrast and color for fall 2011 – pairing menswear with feminine twists, warm prints with cool metals, incorporating both old and new influences, and creating an intriguing balance between colors.

“Designers take a painterly approach to fall 2011 by artfully combining bright colors with staple neutrals, reminiscent of how an artist would construct a stunning work of art,” said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®. “Much like a painter’s masterpiece, there is a certain romance to this season’s palette.”

Bamboo, a surprising fall hue, brings a warm, exotic flavor to the season. Like a filtered sunset on the waning days of fall, Bamboo is a standout yellow with a subtle green undertone. This dappled shade pairs dramatically with several of the top 10, including Phlox, Teal and Honeysuckle.

Radiant Emberglow, a traditional autumnal tone, emanates the warmth of a glowing fire – the perfect panacea to the crisp air of fall. Combine Emberglow with Coffee Liqueúr for a classic look, or with Honeysuckle for something a bit more retro. Add a spark with shoes or a handbag in Emberglow, or perhaps a patterned scarf combining purpled Phlox or Deep Teal.

Offering a sense of continuity from spring, dynamic Honeysuckle adds a bold punctuation point. This playful, reddish pink works with any other color in the palette, especially fall staples like Coffee Liqueúr and Nougat. To add some intensity, pair it with complementary Bamboo. Flirtatious and festive, Honeysuckle produces a healthy glow – great for cosmetics and holiday soirees.

Phlox, a magical, deep purple with a hint of mystery, is an outstanding statement when worn on its own. Add Phlox to this season’s neutrals to create a bit of drama, or combine it with Cedar, Deep Teal or Coffee Liqueúr for something extraordinary. To add even more excitement, pair Phlox with Honeysuckle or Bamboo against a Cedar background – a combination inspired by Mother Nature.

Evoking the freshness of a cool mist in a dark forest, Cedar is a versatile, mid-tone neutral green. It is a natural with Deep Teal, and sophisticated and timeless with Phlox or Orchid Hush. Deep Teal, a strong, blue-toned green, suggests ocean depths and the color of the sky as daylight descends into darkness. A great standard when used with Cedar, its color-wheel neighbor, Deep Teal is also a unique counterpoint to Honeysuckle.

Consumers continue to add stability to their wardrobes with neutrals. Rich, decadent Coffee Liqueúr brings a sense of elegance to fall, and is a savory alternative to basic black. A deliciously warm camel tan, Nougat is tastefully embellished by Phlox, Emberglow or Honeysuckle. Orchid Hush, a unique tone of gray with complex orchid undertones, blends well with any other color in the palette. Quarry, a reliable medium gray, remains, as always, a practical, dependable staple.

For over 17 years, Pantone, the global authority on color, has surveyed the designers of New York Fashion Week and beyond to bring you the season’s most important color trends. This report previews the most prominent hues for fall 2011. Download PDF Guide here.

Men’s Colour

Similar to the women’s palette, men’s hues take a painterly approach for fall 2011, but with a few nuanced variations, depicting a more masculine style. Reliable basics, including Nougat, Coffee Liqueúr, Cedar, Deep Teal, Quarry and Cadet, anchor the palette for menswear, while vibrant accents like Bamboo, Burnt Sienna, Raspberry Wine and Phox add pops of vivid color.

Taking orange in a more masculine direction, Burnt Sienna serves as the standard, fall classic. Accent pieces including ties, scarves and pocket squares in this warm orange are a must. Providing men an alternative to Honeysuckle, Raspberry Wine has more sparkle than a merlot, making a statement with its vital red characteristics. The assemblage of Deep Teal, Cedar and Raspberry Wine is a spectacular composition.

Cadet, the perfect marriage of blue and gray, is another indisputable classic, serving as a dependable backbone that can be worn from season to season. Magical purple Phlox blooms against a neutral background of Nougat, Coffee Liqueúr and Quarry.

Download PDF Guide here.

Visitors to the Munichfabricstart 2010 bluezone will be the first to experience this latest step forward in Clariant’s Advanced Denim technology that lets the textile industry go beyond current dimensions in denim manufacture.

Download Clariant’s Advanced Denim Brochure here.

Pad/Sizing Ox maintains the highly-valued creative effects, colors and shades of Advanced Denim in a straightforward, one-step sizing and dyeing process that delivers a massive reduction in water consumption. Up to 92% less water is used by textile mills, creating practically no waste water. Pad/Sizing Ox allows 30% energy savings together with 63% waste cotton savings compared to conventional dyeing procedures.

Advanced Denim allows eco-bleaching wash-down with ozone and peroxide avoiding the use and consequently the presence in waste water of harmful chemicals like hypochlorite or permanganate.

The Pad/Sizing Ox process is based on Clariant’s recently patented Arkofil® DEN-FIX sizing agent innovation. In combination with its full range of Diresul® RDT sulfur dyes, including Clariant’s cutting-edge non-indigo based Diresul® Indicolors RDT dyes, Advanced Denim offers unique effects, improved fastness, better reproduction of tones and shades, and easy application for more precise results. The dyes expand the market’s potential to achieve new and interesting colors, deeper and faster blues, amazing blacks and grays, finely-graded shades and special wash-down effects.

Download Pad/Sizing-Ox-Brochure here.

The Pad/Sizing-OX process is especially suited to meeting the current market move towards maximizing efficiency through the dyeing of small and varied denim batches.

“Helping the denim industry to achieve maximum results with minimum resources is fundamental to Clariant’s Advanced Denim concept,” comments Miguel Sanchez, Head Global PL Dyes for Cellulose of Business Unit Textile Chemicals of Clariant. “Our extensive research and development to bring innovation through new products and technologies is creating new possibilities in fashion effects as well as addressing the need and demand for ever-more sustainable, efficient production by the textile industry.”

Clariant unveils Pad/Sizing-Ox a revolutionary eco-efficient dyeing procedure that gives brand owners and retailers new opportunities to offer fashionable, high quality jeans based on the most sustainable, resource-saving production method to date.

PANTONE fashion colour report 2010

Designers continue to exhibit a degree of caution for fall 2010, yet offer a palette of beauty and excitement with a blending of colors, some with similar undertones, in surprising and intriguing combinations. Inspired by the ongoing phenomenon of film animation, vivid colors are often juxtaposed in inventive ways, creating arresting and extraordinary color combinations.

Click here to: Download PANTONE fashion color report fall 2010
Click here to: View interactive report here

• The premier color forecasting tool in the plastics industry.
• An annual endeavor by an international team of color experts.
• Helping designers and brand managers make successful color choices for tomorrow’s product.

ColorForward is an essential guide for marketers seeking a competitive advantage.
• Identifies cultural and lifestyle trends with true global relevance.
• Analyzes societal and mass-market influences.
• Forecast colors are springboards for inspiration, interpretation and adaptation to specific product and market requirements.

Download PDF here

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T-shirt printing, screen printing, embroidery

Custom Hang Tag

It seems like everywhere I look these days designers are using more and more handmade objects in their work. From pencil sketches and fabric scans to paper scraps and household odds and ends these items are making their way into our work. In this Photoshop tutorial you’ll learn how to create a retail hang tag.

It seems like everywhere I look these days designers are using more and more handmade objects in their work. From pencil sketches and fabric scans to paper scraps and household odds and ends these items are making their way into our work. In this Photoshop tutorial you’ll learn how to create a retail “hang tag”.

1

As always I recommend using a little reference material when you’re creating something from scratch that actually exists in the physical world. For today’s lesson I’m using two pieces I found at iStockPhoto, one for the card-stock background and one for the hang tag. By entering the item ID into the iStockPhoto search you can pull up the exact images I’m using.

In this lesson we’ll be using a photo of actual card-stock for the project. If you’d like to learn how to create this effect from scratch check out my Cardboard And Torn Paper Business Card tutorial.

2

Our first step will be to organize these items on the stage. I’ve merged the reference tag from iStock with the background layer for convenience. (The .PSD file at the end of the lesson will contain both original comp pieces from iStock). I’ve also rotated the card-stock background.

3

Lets go ahead and create the shape of our tag by tracing the outline of the reference tag with the Pen tool. This will be easy since the outline of the tag is all straight lines. Press the P key to invoke the pen tool and click your way around the outside of the tag until you end up back at your start point.

(*note: This is easier if you zoo in on the tag for a better view.)

4

Before we go any further lets click over to the Paths tab in the Layers palette (or by choosing Window>Paths from the main menu) and lets name our path. The reason for this is that if we create a new working path now without naming the one we just created we risk loosing the initial path because if we don’t name it Photoshop assumes we’re done with it.

5

While we still have the Paths tab open and our Main Tag Area path selected lets also add the hole. Press the U key to invoke the Custom Shape tool, in the options bar at the top of Photoshop make sure that the tool is set to Paths, choose the Ellipse tool and make sure the Exclude Overlapping Path Areas icon is selected.

Holding down the Shift key to constrain the circle, click and drag a circular path onto the stage where the hole in the tag is.

6

Sometimes despite our best efforts to do things in the correct order Photoshop can have a mind of it’s own so lets double check and make sure this new circular path indeed has the Exclude Overlapping Paths option actually chosen. Press the A key to switch to the Direct Selection tool and take a look at the options bar at the top of Photoshop. Mine actually had defaulted to the Add To Shape Area option rather than retaining the Exclude Overlapping setting. If this is the case for you, just go ahead and click on the Exclude Overlapping Path Areas icon to switch it. We do this to make sure that the hole is actually cutout of the tag.

7

Switch back to the layer tag and with the Direct Selection tool still selected click and drag around the entire path area to select both paths. Move the path over the top of the background texture and press Command-T (PC: Ctrl-T) to invoke the Free Transform tool (yes it works with paths too). Make sure to hold the Shift key as you grab one of the corners of the transform box to constrain the path as you transform it to the size you want to use. Hit the Return (PC: Enter) key when you’ve resized the path to commit the transformation.

8

We can convert the selected path to a selection by simply pressing Command-Return (PC: Ctrl-Enter) and then convert the selection to a Layer Mask by clicking the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. (*note: make sure you’ve got the Main Tag layer selected before doing this or the layer mask won’t be applied to the right layer.)

9

While we’re on this Main Tag layer lets go ahead and add a couple of Layer Styles to it. Command-Click (PC: Right-Click) on the layer and choose Blending Options to bring up the Layer Styles dialog and add the following two styles.

10

Create a new layer above the Main Tag layer by clicking the Create New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette or by using the keyboard shortcut Command-Shift-N (PC: Ctrl-Shift-N), call this layer Grommet.

Press the M key to switch to the Marquee tool, use the fly out menu in the Tools bar to switch to the Elliptical Marquee tool or you can use the keyboard shortcut Shift-M (PC: Shift-M) to switch between Rectangular and Elliptical once the Marquee tool is selected. Click and drag a selection where the reinforcement grommet will live around the hole in the tag.

11

Click the foreground swatch in the Layers palette and change the color to #706340 and click OK, then fill the selection with this new foreground color by pressing Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace).

Lets copy the layer mask from the Main Tag layer to the Grommet layer by holding down the Option (PC: Alt) key and clicking and dragging the layer mask (in the Layers palette) from the Main Tag layer to the Grommet layer. Lets also change the grommet’s layer Blend Mode to Multiply and lower the Fill opacity to 70%.

12

Just like we did in Step 9 lets go ahead and give the Grommet layer a few Layer Styles of it’s own.

13

It’s time to add some string to our tag. We’ll do this by drawing a few separate paths and then stroking the path with a brush so lets first press the B key to switch to the Brush tool and we’re going to choose a round hard edged brush with a radius of 3 pixels.

14

Create a new layer called String 1. Change the foreground color to #735e47 and press the P key to switch to the Pen tool. Using the Pen tool click and drag a path onto the stage that will represent our first piece of string coming from the opening of the hole.

15

With the Pen tool still selected Control-Click (PC: Right-Click) on the path and select Stroke Path. Choose Brush from the dialog and make sure Pen Pressure is not checked then click OK. Pressing Command-H (PC: Ctrl-H) when you’re finished will hide the path so you can see what you’ve done.

16

Repeat Steps 14-15 on a new layer called String 2.

17

And one last time lets create a path and stroke it to create the loop that wraps from behind the tag around the two strings we just created. I’ll call this layer String Loop. I’m going to draw this path overlapping the tag and we’ll trim it in Step 18.

18

Press M to switch to the Marquee tool, make sure the Rectangular Marquee is selected and then click and drag a selection to the edge of the tag (where we need to cut our loop of string). Press Delete (PC: Backspace) to remove the overlapping string then deselect by pressing Command-D (PC: Ctrl-D).

19

To add a little more realism lets add a Drop Shadow, Bevel & Emboss and Pattern Overlay to our string. You can add these layer styles to any of the String layers and then by holding down the Option (PC: Alt) key you can click and drag the layer style from one layer to the next (just like we did with Layer Masks earlier) to add the same style to all 3 String layers.

(*note: The Pattern Overlay is actually overkill for such a small piece of string, but if you’re creating this at 300ppi for a print project it will add the slightest bit of texture to the string and actually adds to the look nicely. Obviously at 300ppi you’ll need to adjust all the layer styles accordingly as well.)

20

Now that our tag is complete it’s time to put something on it. We’ll want to put the the graphics that will be on the hang tag just above the Main Tag layer and it’s a good idea to create clipping masks from all those layers back to the Main Tag layer so that any graphic that extends beyond the edges of the tag will retain the shape and edge effects of the tag itself.

I’ll start by throwing in the obligatory PSHERO star logo by creating a new layer just above the Main Tag layer and calling it Star. I’ve got the logo star saved as a custom shape so I’ll just throw it onto my layer and position it above the tag as desired. Then by Command-Clicking (PC: Right-Clicking) on the layer and choosing Create Clipping Mask I can use the Main Tag layer as a mask for the Star layer. I also switched the layer Blend Mode to Linear Burn and lowered the Fill opacity to 55% to make it look more like the star was printed onto the card.

(*note: By placing the star behind the Grommet layer which has Fill opacity to 70% I could see the star through the grommet, I didn’t like this look so I raised the Fill opacity of the Grommet layer back to 100% and lightened the color a little.)

21

I’ll repeat Step 20 a few more times adding text and a little bit of paint with a grunge brush to get to my final image, and yes, all this is included in the download at the end of the lesson. If you want more instruction on how to age and distress in Photoshop you should check out these tutorials:

Tutorial by PSHERO >> click here.

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Do you ever get a little lost when trying to find matching colours.  Try the web-hosted applications ColorBlender or Kuler  for generating color themes that can inspire any project.  It is a free online tool/s for colour matching and palette design.

Download Letraset swatch for Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.
1. Instructions (PC)
2. Swatch (PC)

3. Instructions (Mac)
4. Swatch (Mac)

Click to open.

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Urban clothing widget

You can now get our blog as a widget (news feed) and plug it right into your own site or blog. In order to set it up,  just follow the link below and get your widget in the size and colour which best fits in with your site. Get the code and follow the instructions. You can embed into Myspace, Wordpress, Digg, Facebook etc… check it out.

Support Urban fashion, streetwear and design.

http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/urban-clothing-review

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