Silhouette drawings are also called Working or Line drawings.  The aim of a good  working drawing is to provide a pictorial display of the overall garment concept. It will include minute attention to detail. The Silhouette drawing is also an important part of the manufacturing production process, as it is passed to the pattern maker or technologist, who then interprets the designers drawing into pattern pieces, ready for first sample.


Line drawings are then converted  further  into technical drawings or product specs, which need to be as accurately drawn as possible, taking into consideration the  manufacturing process of the product e.g. how will the concealed invisible zip be inserted into the dress? Centre back or side seam? The line drawings are the interpretation of the, themes from generic moodboard. And it is from the line drawings, that the toiling and pattern process can commence in both 2D and 3D.

Today designers can do hand drawings, but more commonly, in many design studios software such as SpeedStep’s ProSketch, or Illustrator, are used.

The moodboard shows the generic fashion trend and now the line drawing reflects the key line statements, which are then converted into the corresponding blocks that will be needed for the entire collection.