Creating a Line Sheet

Today's article is another piece for professional corsetieres, to help you develop, manage, and sell your line to your clients.

Line sheets are the collective pictorial representations of available styles. Traditionally, a new line sheet is distributed for each collection to show the range of styles and fabrications available. As a corsetmaker, your line sheet will probably be more fixed. You may continue to create new styles and perhaps even drop old ones, but this will be a slow evolution over the years of your business rather than something produced multiple times a year.

Why You Need a Line Sheet

I frequently encounter craftspeople who give a variety of reasons why they don't need a line sheet. “I specialize in custom garments,” or, “I only make one of a kind pieces.” “I have historical reference and inspiration books that clients can choose from.” “They can just look at my portfolio.” “My clients are smart and creative, we work together to design their order.”

These are all good excuses on some level, but excuses nonetheless. Even if your clients are every bit as smart and creative as you are, they don't live inside your head. How would you feel if you went into a restaurant and found they had no menu? You've walked past and the food looked good, you've heard good things about the restaurant, but you've no clue as to what the specialties of the house are, the chef's culinary background, what key ingredients are in season or good that day... How would you know what to order? Likewise, if you don't have some type of style catalog for your clients to reference, they probably won't know where to begin. By leaving all possibilities seemingly open, you are actually limiting options to the most simple, or risking miscommunication as you reinterpret a customer's description, likely in confusing, uneducated vocabulary, of their desired style. Often, people don't know what they want until they see it, or will change what they want once they see something new and different. And you can still always alter a standard style or invent a new one to suit client needs if necessary.

Your line sheet is another tool to communicate your aesthetic, not to mention your prices. Even if the corset being ordered is a very simple style, a short hip sweetheart overbust, for example, your technical drawings, called flats, convey valuable information about the subtleties of your style lines. Corsetry is notoriously detail-oriented and that should be reflected not just in your sewing but your presentation of your line. As craftspeople, we all know what it's like to be (or have been) on a tight budget; how realistic is it for us to not expect budget to factor into the purchasing choices of our clients as well?

So if I've sold you on the idea of a line sheet, let's learn what information actually needs to go on one, from basics to detailed variations.

The Flats

I've already written not one, but two articles on the wonders of flats and how to create them. In short, flats communicate only the essential information to the viewer about a style. People very frequently get hung up on completed illustrations or photographs, fixating on irrelevant, easily changed details like the color or a particular trim used. This is why a portfolio is not successful as a complete marketing tool, as it makes it difficult for your customer to “fill in the blanks.” Use flats to communicate the fundamental, fixed details about a style. Include a single flat for each silhouette (front only or front and back), or duplicates to indicate colorways/prints. (More on that later.)

Style Names and/or Numbers

This is the means for people to identify each style (ie, what they refer to it as). While style numbers are a necessity for off-site production and communication with that staff, it sounds less clinical to give your styles a name. Referring to your styles solely by their numbers can give the impression of being a large, faceless company. This isn't to say you can't also give them a number, which can also be used to imply certain information in-house, depending on your numbering style.

I like to number my patterns according to the date of the draft in YYYYMMDD format, possibly with a dash and sequential number if I've done more than one pattern in a day. (For example: 20120207-3 would've been the third pattern I drafted on February 7 of this year.) Your pattern card should have the date on it anyway but if you're not particularly good at keeping your patterns together then it's helpful to have that information spelled out to help identify a given piece.

You can also name your styles in such a way that the type of style is implied with the pattern. Maybe series 1000 patterns are underbust and 2000 are overbust. The second digit could imply long or short hip, the third digit describes the back height or the bust shape, and the final digit is sequential. You can invent your own system, of course, but that's the general idea.

When concocting hypothetical lines that are seasonal and include an array of garments, my style numbers include letters that indicate the season and type of garment. “WS10JN103 – Jenny” means “Women's, Spring 2010, jeans style 103, marketing name Jenny.” While this style of numbering may not be useful at your launch, if you eventually plan to have seasonal collections and/or additional garment types (including accessories), it is something worth mulling over and toying with so you're familiar with the format when the time comes.

Your names, regardless of whether they also have a style number, can also be a sort of code. The name can have an association with the style; is it based on a celebrity or historical figure perhaps? Again, consistency is key; the names should have a theme. If your collection is inspired by baked goods, maybe the names are different sweet treats with correlations to style lines or trims. For my line, Pop Antique, the styles with similar vertical seams all have French names: the Demoiselle, the Coquette, and the Belle. The pattern isn't entirely consistent (there are other styles that aren't related with French names, namely the Courtesan and the Ingenue) but it's nice to have at least loose associations. All of my names describe a certain archetype of woman to some extent, one that in my head relates to the style itself in some way. Another corsetiere may use women's first names, as I did with the denim project referenced above. Yet another may simply refer to their styles in a straightforward descriptive manner, “Short Hip Underbust” or “Victorian Midbust.” Somewhere in between, you have descriptive names for marketing that also imply personality, like, say, Betsey Johnson's “Bag O' Bones Jumper” with an intarsia skeleton motif. (Not a corset, but the point stands.) Your names also communicate something about your branding or your image so do keep that in mind. One risk my own naming scheme runs is that it's not uncommon; many corsetieres offer Valentine and Courtesan styles, for example, so I'm not doing myself huge favors with differentiation. Make sure your names don't parallel too closely, or directly, if inadvertently, knock off another corsetiere's line.

Fabrications and Color Ways

Normally, in “the industry,” a line sheet is going to a buyer rather than directly to the consumer, so they could order a different number of units for each color way. A lot of corsetieres operate instead on a made to order basis, wherein the customer concocts sort of a formula about the style they'd like to order. This style in that fabric with this contrast and that trim. If, for some reason, you have limited fabrications for a style, then you'll want to include this information in a line sheet. Reasons for this may include: construction limitations particular to the style, “special edition” fabrics that you want to restrict to certain silhouettes, or, again, if you're using a collection format.

The main options for displaying different color or print availabilities are color chips and rendered flats. Rendered flats have a certain advantage in that they show the scale of a print or the proportion and impact of a color blocked design. However, prints and colors can distort the readability of your flats. A way around this is to also include an unrendered flat with the color ways next to it. The rendered flats may be smaller than the clean flat, and you might add a letter or number code to the style number to indicate each fabrication.

If you do color chips, you have an opportunity to continue working with your imaging by changing the shape. The basic choice is a square, but you can turn your square chips at an angle to give them a jaunty or haphazard feel. Circles or other geometric shapes are always serviceable. If the effect isn't too busy and distracting, you can do a graphic shape; your logo or part of it, a corset silhouette, a flower, etc. The shape should always relate back to the mood of what is being presented and be a thematic match with the brand or collection. Don't go crazy – like the flats, you want the color chips to be easy to read. Consider how you will indicate color ways for pieces that have contrast or color blocking.

Print Versus Web: What Information to Include

Traditionally a line sheet is a physical object. You might disperse it to retailers or directly to your clients. These days, of course, everyone is virtually obligated to have an online catalog. The latter is nice because you can update it at a moment's notice but if you're meeting clients at events then a takeaway item is a must. If they're not familiar with your work or even corsets, it's likely they're not ready to plop down $300 on the spot. They need time to consider what style they want. It can also be pretty overwhelming to try to choose a fabric in a crowded event setting.

Either way, you need to include your flats and your prices at a minimum. Consider whether different fabric types have different prices, cotton, silk, leather, brocade, etc. Simplify the pricing structure to something easy to read. You might include a description, various upgrades recommended for given styles, etc. General upgrades and options could get their own section.

For print, a page of corsetry FAQ and/or information about you and the line might be a good idea. On your website, of course, these would be on different pages. If you have a size chart, include it with the line sheet for distribution. This all depends on where you're planning to distribute – my print-ready line sheet at present is sort of a companion piece for the website, a quick snapshot of my styles and pricing. If I were to work an event, I might want to do more of a package piece that includes more relevant information. Based on the market, though, maybe I'd just have a link to my website on the list of styles, or a business card stapled to it, to save on paper, since I'm building a reputation as an eco-friendly company.

If you have a print copy that will be kept (not handed out), it might be appropriate to have physical fabric swatches as part of it. However, it's probably easier to have a separate book or ring of swatches to show, independent of the line sheet, given the mix-and-match made-to-order method of modern corsetry. You could also conceivably have a printed page of scanned swatches to hand out with your line sheet, but mind your color matching, and if you have a lot of fabrics or high turnover rate for them, it's perhaps not the most practical option. This might be more effective to convey prints rather than solids, which depend much on the fabric type (sheen, weight, fiber content, etc) rather than just the hue.

Line Planning

Of course, assembling a line sheet isn't just about layouts and components. You have to actually have a line to put on one. The corsets you include are up to you, of course, but you can still do some strategic planning. What I had originally mapped out for my launch collection was not far off from what actually launched, but still had some key differences.

First, I wanted to cover my basics plus include one or two non-standard silhouettes. For my basics, I had a midbust, a flat-front Victorian, a shapely sweetheart, a waspie, basic underbust, and “economy” sweetheart with fewer panels. My special styles were a dramatic longline flat-front overbust with hip gores, and a ribbon corset. You can see that the overlap with the short-hip overbusts is a bit muddled and confusing; ultimately I made the sweetheart shaped top on the midbust even more subtle, more of a hint, and dropped the plain flat-front; added a high back longline overbust that was originally my “block” for drafting several of the styles; and also decided to include an elegant high-back longline underbust that is pseudo-Edwardian.

If you look at either version of the line sheet, you'll notice that there are some common style lines. The Bombshell, Ingenue, and Valentine stem from the same pattern with a dramatic V-shaped front panel. The Belle, Coquette, and Demoiselle all have the same basic vertical seams. Ultimately it saves time patterning (you'll still have to make corrections for contouring at different lengths, of course), and it probably speeds up the sewing since each design isn't really a new construction. I think basing multiple styles on the same lines also adds cohesion to a collection, and it makes it easier to customize to client wishes. If someone wanted a longline version of the Valentine, I know I already have that portion drafted and I just have to Frankenstein the two patterns together at the waist.

I definitely recommend basing your line sheet on the basics, at least initially. Even if it's a style that a customer could conceivably get from any corsetiere, give them a reason to want to get it from you. Maybe they just think you are extra charming, or they like your portfolio, or you came recommended from a friend, it doesn't matter the reason. The important thing is, you can't sell them what they want if you don't offer it, and most people want the same few styles. You can make them your own with your patterning techniques, how you design the waist compression, the seamlines, the top and bottom edges, etc. Make sure you don't lose that client who thinks your work is fabulous, but you just don't have that super easy to style silk-satin sweetheart overbust or black cotton underbust. You are not too fancy to sell the modern-day basics, unless your line is built, for example, on selling only accurate period reproduction silhouettes. If you truly feel that that is not your customer, then follow your instincts.

That said, of course you can and should incorporate a couple of pieces that don't look exactly like things already being made. Collect inspiration – is your special piece one with straps? An unusual neckline? Dramatic seams? Gussets and gores? Is it based on a historic patent or a combination of several inspiration sources? Try to think in advance about fabrication and styling because your clients will likely want guidance on how to wear the less common silhouettes.

Consider price points when mapping out your line. Do an actual costing once you start on your samples, of course, but ballpark how much each piece will sell for based on amount of fabric, difficulty of construction, and perceived value. Some pieces may not actually be more work or have a higher materials cost but will receive higher prices because something else about them makes them unique. Likewise, you should try to have one or two lower priced models for those just getting into corsetry or acquainting themselves with your work.

Your line may eventually grow to include dozens of styles, but I don't think it's a good idea to launch with that many. If you're doing ready to wear, that's a lot of patterns to draft and it's harder to keep your ideas straight or properly fine-tune a fit when you rush through them at a frantic pace. Being able to really execute a design to its fullest at the onset will only save you time in the long run so that you're not continuing to correct it with each new order or sample. Even if you're planning on custom patterning standardized designs for clients, you'll probably want to prototype and preferably photograph them first. The time you spend in “pre-production” is time you spend not working on client orders and actually earning money.

Ultimately, launching with a lot of styles is a big investment of your time, without a big payoff. Are you likely to lose any clients from not having thirty corsets for them to choose from? More likely, they'll find themselves overwhelmed by the options unless you invest the time to have extensive consultations with them. Test your designs with your talented friends or trusted colleagues and see which silhouettes they respond to. Cut your line down until you only have the strongest designs represented and know that you'll actually sell more from cutting away the chaff and presenting a clear point of view. Don't become psychologically attached to each sketch and working design, just file them away from future reference and know that a small collection of memorable styles will create a better impression than a cluttered mishmash.

As a design process, I would recommend trying to launch with three to ten corset styles (and if there are only three, prototype them until they are perfect and you have amazing photos of them). Design at least twenty styles, even fifty or more if you are continually re-sketching some of the same designs to work through the details. Being able to expand an idea and then weed it down are both valuable design skills.

Line Sheet Examples

The following are a few line sheets in different formats I've designed to go with various collections over the course of my MFA program, as well as the line sheet I actively use to promote my line.

Sample Line Sheet: Candy Lips

This line sheet is a template; I wasn't enamored of the project so I never finished putting all the elements in the layout as it wasn't mandatory. However, I did have everything set up and ready for the final information. Each page (there were three) has room for six pieces, organized by garment type. I assigned style numbers in seasonal collection format, and garment names relating to my inspiration source (each piece is named for a character in a Doris Day film, as she was my muse for the collection). There are spaces for physical fabric swatches, since this was going into a presentation book rather than being distributed by itself en masse; stacked front and back flats; and branded color chips.

Sample Line Sheets: BASC

BASC was a collaborative project in my third semester of my MFA; as such, the designs and flats here aren't necessarily entirely my work, but I did design the layouts for our spreads. These were for two separate collections under the same hypothetical eco-conscious label, one at high-end and the other mass-market. Note the branding touches, including the consistent font; the openness of the layout; the different borders to separate styles; and the simple color chips. If vending designs with predetermined fabrics, consider listing the fiber content/type for each style on the line sheet, as per the second example.

Sample Line Sheet: Nimbus

On this line sheet, each design has its own page. A clean flat is prominently shown, along with the name of the style (Cirrus), the basic style number, and a description of the cut. Below, three rendered flats show the available color ways with their associated names and complete style numbers. Each fabrication has a two letter code that can be appended to any of the styles in the collection for ease of identification. In the background, there is subtle branding of both my line's name and the collection.

Sample Line Sheet: Nouveau Nostalgia

Four garments are shown per page on this line sheet. The style number is coded by collection abbreviation, garment type, and sequential number, with two letter addenda to indicate the color way. The color chips are rose cutouts, with the accent color for the garment inside a smaller rose. Since this collection utilized some prints, some fabrications become hard to read through the linework of the rose silhouette. (Physical swatches and larger versions of the stylized color chips were found on separate pages in the project.) The background has a muted Victorian stencil border, a motif used throughout the presentation of this collection. In my digital portfolio, each piece is held together by the border.

Sample Line Sheet: Pop Antique Ready to Wear Corsets

A single page simple line sheet that provides an overview of my product line at its launch. Overbust and underbust styles are each sectioned off by a pale pink box. Only front views, style names, and base prices are shown. The flats provide clear information about each style without words. The fonts and colors used are cohesive with the branding for my line. This file is downloadable on my website's page of RTW styles. The page itself also includes a back view flat, text description, and photo reference of the styles, with additional pricing information, such as upgrade fees (alterations, trims, linings, etc) at the bottom.

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

Creating a Line Sheet

Image: Example line sheet, Pop Antique ready to wear corsets

Today's article is another piece for professional corsetieres, to help you develop, manage, and sell your line to your clients.

Why You Need a Line Sheet

I frequently encounter craftspeople, colleagues, who give a variety of reasons why they don't need a line sheet. “I specialize in custom garments,” or, “I only make one of a kind pieces.” “I have historical reference and inspiration books that clients can choose from.” “They can just look at my portfolio.” “My clients are smart and creative, we work together to design their order.”

Image: “Bouquet” collection underbust sample

All good excuses on some level, but excuses nonetheless. Even if your clients are every bit as smart and creative as you are, they don't live inside your head. How would you feel if you went into a restaurant and found they had no menu? You've walked past and the food looked good, you've heard good things about the restaurant, but you've no clue as to what the specialties of the house are, the chef's culinary background, what key ingredients are in season or good that day... How would you know what to order? Likewise, if you don't have some type of style catalog for your clients to reference, they probably won't know where to begin. By leaving all possibilities seemingly open, you are actually limiting options to the most simple, or risking miscommunication as you reinterpret a customer's description, likely in confusing, uneducated vocabulary, of their desired style. Often, people don't know what they want until they see it, or will change what they want once they see something new and different. And you can still always alter a standard style or invent a new one to suit client needs if necessary.

Image: Elisa Berlin wears her 17” Ingenue longline underbust.

So if I've sold you on the idea of a line sheet, let's learn what information actually needs to go on one, from basics to detailed variations.

The Flats

I've already written not one, but two, articles on the wonders of flats and how to create them. In short, flats communicate only the essential information to the viewer about a style. People very frequently get hung up on completed illustrations or photographs, fixating on irrelevant, easily changed details like the color or a particular trim used. This is why a portfolio is not successful as a complete marketing tool, as it makes it difficult for your customer to “fill in the blanks.” Use flats to communicate the fundamental, fixed details about a style. Include a single flat for each silhouette (front only or front and back), or duplicates to indicate color ways/prints. (More on that later.)

Image: Flat drawing, “Courtesan” corset

Style Names and/or Numbers

Image: Example line sheet, Candy Lips

Fabrications and Color Ways

Normally, in “the industry,” a line sheet is going to a buyer rather than directly to the consumer, so they could order a different number of units for each color way. A lot of corsetieres operate instead on a made to order basis, wherein the customer concocts sort of a formula about the style they'd like to order. This style in that fabric with this contrast and that trim. If, for some reason, you have limited fabrications for a style, then you'll want to include this information in a line sheet. Reasons for this may be construction limitations particular to the style, “special edition” fabrics that you want to restrict to certain silhouettes, or, again, if you're using a collection format.

Image: Client Mariah Carle, professional boudoir photographer, wears an altered Valentine corset in fabric of her choosing to match custom breeches.

Image: Example line sheet, Nimbus

Images: Example line sheets (both), BASC

Print Versus Web: What Information to Include

Either way, you need to include your flats and your prices at a minimum. Consider if different fabric types have different prices, cotton, silk, leather, brocade, etc. Simplify the pricing structure to something easy to read. You might include a description, various upgrades recommended for given styles, etc. General upgrades and options could get their own section.

Image: Size chart

Image: Digital swatch page, nouveau nostalgia

Line Planning

Image: Example line sheet: early draft of Pop Antique corset line

If you look at either version of the line sheet, you'll notice that there are some common style lines. The Bombshell, Ingenue, and Valentine stem from the same pattern with a dramatic V-shaped front panel. The Belle, Coquette, and Demoiselle all have the same basic vertical seams. Ultimately it saves time patterning (you'll still have to make corrections for contouring at different lengths, of course), and it probably speeds up the sewing since each design isn't really a new construction. I think basing multiple styles on the same lines also adds cohesion to a collection. And it makes it easier to customize to client wishes. If someone wanted a longline version of the Valentine, I know I already have that portion drafted and I just have to Frankenstein the two patterns together at the waist.

Image: Ready to wear Valentine, my interpretation of a classic sweetheart corset, on model Lauren Luck

Image: Vixen ribbon cincher, one of my more unusual ready to wear options

Image: Early sample of the Vamp, designed to be an economical corset with fewer seams

Ultimately, launching with a lot of styles is a big investment of your time, without a big payoff. Are you likely to lose any clients from not having 30 corsets for them to choose from? More likely, they'll find themselves overwhelmed by the options unless you invest the time to have extensive consultations with them. Test your designs with your talented friends or trusted colleagues and see which silhouettes they respond to. Cut your line down until you only have the strongest designs represented and know that you'll actually sell more from cutting away the chaff and presenting a clear point of view. Don't become psychologically attached to each sketch and working design, just file them away from future reference and know that a small collection of memorable styles will create a better impression than a cluttered mishmash.

Images: working sketches from Rx

Line Sheet Examples

The following are a few line sheets in different formats I've designed to go with various collections over the course of my MFA program, as well as the line sheet I actively use to promote my line.

Sample Line Sheet: Candy Lips

This line sheet is a template; I wasn't enamored of the project so I never finished putting all the elements in the layout as it wasn't mandatory. However, I did have everything set up and ready for the final information. Each page (there were three) has room for six pieces, organized by garment type. I assigned style numbers in seasonal collection format, and garment names relating to my inspiration source (each piece is named for a character in a Doris Day film, as she was my muse for the collection). There are spaces for physical fabric swatches, since this was going into a presentation book rather than being distributed by itself en mass; stacked front and back flats; and branded color chips.

Sample Line Sheets: BASC

Sample Line Sheet: Nimbus

Sample Line Sheet: Nouveau Nostalgia

Image: Example line sheet: Nouveau Nostalgia

Image: Corset from Nouveau Nostalgia line sheet

Sample Line Sheet: Pop Antique Ready to Wear Corsets