A fashion lookbook is the next stage in the design process, one step after research and mood boarding 🖼️
It's where the color palette design ideas, fabric swatches, sketches, images, and clothing inspiration of the moodboard are refined and organized to present a new collection catalog to clients.
Clothes, handbags, graphic elements, accessories, as well as more inspiration, the graphic elements used in the fashion lookbook all help convey the brand's emotional connection to it's target market and potential customers.
Whether a digital lookbook or printed lookbook, for clothing brands and designers it's a key milestone in the product development process.
In this blog, we'll share insights from our textile design community to explain:
Discover more below 👇🏽
First up, our community member and fashion insider, Ish will take you through the fashion lookbook process.
If moodboarding is stage one in the process, creating a fashion lookbook is two. It contains more quality images, additional accessories, maybe models as well as more inspiring content. A consitent quality theme throughout is key for me.
The concept, lookbook design inspiration, and theme of the fashion lookbook links directly to the overall world of the brand and clothing line.
It's the starting point in the design journey that will eventually become a full clothing line collection.
So it's crucial to keep the brand guidelines in mind when deciding the overall theme.
A few things a fashion designer should consider in this part of the process:
From moodboard to fashion lookbook, for the fashion industry, a consistent design theme and what inspired the collection begins here.
Sarah from Nike will explain more
For our cities collection one season we all visited cities around the world to take photographs and take in the vibe. We then had to design products that represented the key themes of those cities, as well as our core values.
We've written extensively about the mood board inspiration and creation process, from how to create a fashion mood board for summer 23, to the challenges designers face.
In summary creating a moodboard involves:
Moodboarding is the next stage of lookbook design inspiration, explaining what inspired the new collection.
Fashion designers will add photographs, fabric swatches, and color palettes to their mood boards, visually building up the story and style of the collection.
Of the 500+ textile designers in our community, mood boarding is their favorite part of the process.
A place to stay up to date with the fashion industry and latest trends, maximize their visual creativity, and model how that inspiration for the clothing line may come together.
Whether a digital lookbook or printed lookbook is chosen, the last step involves turning the moodboard content into a coherent branded fashion lookbook.
It will contain:
Some designers and stylists may also include:
All within the lookbook design.
I've also added some fashion lookbooks examples later on in the blog.
Although used interchangeably there are noticeable differences between fashion lookbooks and mood boards that are important to understand.
As sales of most fashion pieces today are the result of online business, increasingly digital is the method of choice for creators.
Digital fashion lookbooks examples, much like digital moodboards are the chance for brands to share their lookbook design with the world.
Customers the world over are able to potentially purchase their clothes designs on one page, instantly.
Speaking of digital, check out our blog on the best digital products for the moodboard process.
Checkout the sample moodboard I made here
The lookbook design helps create a model beauty to visual identity and communicate the creative message of the brand in an appealing and structured way to its customers.
Similar to a storyboard in animation, digital lookbooks are a prime example of visual storytelling through written and visual content.
Brands will use looks in a number of ways.
Whether in digital form as a digital lookbook, or physical it's a versatile key asset for brands to promote their collection.
A few things to keep in mind in your lookbook design:
Finally, next up some fashion lookbook examples, you can use in your next fashion lookbook.
Check out an example digital lookbook I created for a 2023 New World Vibe theme.
Have a look at more lookbook design inspiration and examples here on Behance, Pinterest, and Dribble.
Have an example physical or digital lookbook you'd like to share?
What's your favorite lookbook design?
What's your next lookbook gonna contain?
Will it be physical or digital?
Hit us up.
A branded fashion lookbook or design lookbook is a powerful tool for showcasing the latest fashion trends, styles, and designs.
It distills the brand's creative workflow and visual identity of a collection in a way that is more structured than a moodboard.
It's the next step in the process, providing a product catalog for sales, marketing and branding for a fashion brand.
Having the correct theme from the start, and keeping that. brand guidelines and identity are crucial elements that separate good, from bad fashion lookbooks.
Like our topic on lookbooks?
Checkout our other topics on moodboards and the fashion design process.
A. The purpose of a fashion design lookbook is to showcase the latest fashion trends, styles latest trends, and designs within a design collection while creating a strong visual identity for the brand.
It can be used to sell directly to brand whole customers such as department stores, or in online websites, advertising, or magazines.
Some designers and stylists may also include:
A. The lookbook design helps create a model visual identity to communicate the creative message of the brand in a visually appealing and structured way to its customers.
Similar to a storyboard in animation, lookbooks are a prime example of visual storytelling through written and visual content.
