Conference article

In French, modéliste describes a person who makes a toile for a fashion design produced by a designer at an haute couture or a prêt-à-porter house. A Japanese patternmaker, who is called a patterner in Japan, uses a basic pattern to make a new pattern based on a drawing by a fashion designer. The new pattern is made by adjusting the lines of the basic pattern to the desired shape. To understand the differences between French and Japanese clothing designs, we asked three French modélistes and four Japanese patterners to make a jacket pattern from the same design. Their background and working processes were compared and their thinking on stylisme, consciousness of work, and patternmaking process were investigated. As a result, Japanese patterners used flat patternmaking method whereas French modélistes draped a body with fabric. In the compatibility of the designs with different body shapes, the acceptable ranges of the French modélistes’ patterns were wider than those of the Japanese patterners.

Modéliste, French, patternmaker, patterner