社交媒體成爲設計師的靈感之源

While vacationing in the Bahamas earlier this year, Zac Posen posted a couple of sunset snaps to his Instagram account — and each one drew more than 6,000 “likes.”

今年早些時候，扎克·珀森於巴哈馬度假期間，在Instagram上貼了幾張落日的快照，每張都收到了6000多個“贊”。

“Immediately my followers were asking to see a print in those hues,” the designer said. “So I worked with my team to digitalize the print and blow it up on a crepe de Chine.” The resulting cerulean and pink silk became a maxi dress in the ZAC Zac Posen spring 2015 collection.

“後來很快就有關注我的人想看用這些色彩印成的圖案，”這位設計師說。“所以我和團隊就把圖案數碼化，並且放大印刷在雙縐紗上。”最後他們用這款天藍與粉紅的絲綢製成了扎克·扎克·珀森(ZAC Zac Posen)2015年春夏時裝系列中的一件長裙。

Mr. Posen, who has more than 640,000 Instagram followers, describes the online feedback from fans and customers as essential to his design process. “Through the comments and pictures, we get a new perspective about our creations,” he said.

珀森在Instagram上有64萬個關注者，他說粉絲和客戶在網絡上的反饋對於自己的設計來說非常重要。“通過評論和圖片，我們可以用新的視角去審視作品，”他說。

There was a time when a fashion designer’s inspiration came from a journey to Rajasthan, the Serengeti or perhaps the Russian steppes, along with feedback from buyers and the occasional client. Now, it’s more likely to be a speedy trip through some online sites, with followers as traveling companions. As Clare Waight Keller of Chloé observed: “A mood board that would have taken a few weeks of solid research now can be assembled in an afternoon on Instagram.”

曾幾何時，服裝設計師們到拉賈斯坦邦、塞倫蓋蒂平原或俄羅斯大草原之類地方旅行，以圖尋找靈感，並從買手或偶爾從客戶那裏求得反饋。如今瀏覽幾個網站就像是做了一次快速旅行，而關注者們就像是旅伴。正如蔻依(Chloé)的克萊爾·維特·凱勒(Clare Waight Keller)所說，“過去做時裝設計的情緒板(mood board)需要幾個星期的切實調研，如今花一下午從Instagram上搜羅素材就可以了。”

The fashion industry’s pace today has made it hard to find time for travel beyond the virtual kind, Ms. Waight Keller said, with exploratory trips and gallery visits increasingly difficult to squeeze into the dizzying demand for collections. For example, as creative director at Chloé and See By Chloé, she oversees the creation of eight collections a year, including resort and prefall.

維特·凱勒說，如今時裝界的步調令設計師們很難有時間去進行真實的旅行，系列設計的需求讓人暈頭轉向，想擠出時間做探索和考察、逛美術館變得愈來愈困難。就拿她本人來說，身爲蔻依和絲蔻（See By Chloe，蔻依的副牌——編注）的創意總監，她每年要監製八個系列，包括一個度假系列和一個早秋系列。

“When I started out, being a great researcher was part of your arsenal as a designer. You had to be resourceful and to have knowledge, you had to visit libraries, meet with textile dealers and actually discover stuff,” said Ms. Waight Keller, who describes her own method as a mix of “digital and pre-Internet approaches.”

維特·凱勒表示： “我剛起步的時候，做一個出色的調研者也是設計師的重要方法之一。你得擁有很多資源和知識，得去圖書館、會見面料經銷商，還要自己去發現素材。”她說自己目前的方式就像是混合了“數碼方式與前互聯網時代的方式”。

And while she admits that Instagram can be “mesmerizing,” she worries that reflection and research skills are being bypassed in favor of quick but superficial browsing online. “Often when I’m asked to judge projects at art schools, it’s clear that everything comes from a Google search and too often the results lack any depth,” she said.

她承認Instagram很“迷人”，也擔心在當今快速而膚淺的網絡瀏覽趨勢之下，思考與研究的習慣正在爲人們所忽略。“在藝術學校，我經常被要求評判學生設計的項目，顯然所有東西都是用谷歌搜索來的，這種結果通常缺乏深度，”她說。

Erdem Moralioglu has seen his business grow alongside the rise of digital technology and social media: Twitter debuted in 2006, the same year Erdem did during London Fashion Week.

艾爾丹姆·莫拉里奧格魯(Erdem Moralioglu)認爲自己的企業是隨着數碼科技與社交媒體的崛起一同成長的：2006年出現了Twitter，同年，艾爾丹姆品牌登陸倫敦時裝週。

The London-based designer says he routinely scours Tumblr, and checks Instagram obsessively. “Instagram has definitely filtered into my approach to design; I love the idea of curated images, the idea of juxtaposing images that don’t connect — it’s a way of finding obscure things,” he said, citing Xavier Dolan, a Montreal film director; Michel Gaubert, the Paris-based D.J. and producer; Grace Coddington; and Sotheby’s as his current Instagram favorites.

這位倫敦設計師說，自己每天都要瀏覽Tumblr，還要強迫症般地檢查Instagram。“毫無疑問，Instagram已經滲入我的設計方式；我喜歡收集圖像、把不相關的圖像放在一起——這樣可以發現模糊隱蔽的事物。”他表示，蒙特利爾導演澤維爾·多蘭(Xavier Dolan)、巴黎DJ與製作人米凱爾·戈貝爾(Michel Gaubert)、格蕾絲·科丁頓(Grace Coddington)以及蘇富比拍賣行的Instagram是他目前最喜歡的賬戶。

But Mr. Moralioglu said such social media rambles remained a “secondary resource” for inspiration.

但莫拉里奧格魯也說，漫遊社交媒體仍然只是靈感的“二手資源”。

“The thing with social media is that it can become a bit of a vortex that sucks you in and suddenly the afternoon is gone,” he said. “I still find looking at something ‘real’ sharpens my creative focus.” So the initial sparks for his spring 2015 ready-to-wear collection came from a trip to Kew Gardens to see the paintings of the Victorian botanist Marianne North and a “back to front” silk gazar fabric that he spotted at Première Vision, the textile trade show in Paris.

“社交媒體的問題在於，它可以成爲一股把你吸進去的漩渦，突然之間，整個下午就消磨過去了，”他說。“我仍然覺得，觀察某些‘真實’的東西可以令自己的創意關注點更加敏銳。”所以，他的2015春夏成衣系列最初的靈感是來自去英國皇家植物園旅遊的經歷，他在那裏看到維多利亞時期植物學家瑪麗安娜·諾斯(Marianne North)的繪畫作品；此外靈感還來自他在巴黎“第一視覺”面料展上看到的一種“被反掛着”的、飾有金屬亮片的透明絲綢織物。

For designers, the distinction between social media’s function as a communication tool and as a creative resource has become blurry, said Rachel Arthur, a fashion trend forecaster at WGSN in New York who specializes in digital developments. “We’re getting to a point where marketing and design go hand-in-hand, especially in the U.S. where designers have to be super-commercial,” she said. “Yes, creativity is paramount, but the vision of the designer has to marry with where you see your customer. It’s about listening.”

紐約WGSN公司專門負責數碼潮流發展的的時尚預報者瑞秋·阿瑟(Rachel Arthur)說，設計師們既把社交媒體作爲交流工具，也用它尋找創意靈感，二者之間的界限很模糊。“在目前的階段，市場與設計密不可分，特別是在美國，所以設計師們都得特別有商業頭腦，”她說。“是的，創作是至高無上的，但設計師的想法必須同客戶的需求結合。這關乎傾聽。”

For example, the Proenza Schouler designers Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez claimed Tumblr as a point of reference for their spring 2013 collection, citing the social media platform’s unexpected juxtapositions of imagery and all-but-infinite content.

比如，普羅恩薩·施羅(Proenza Schouler)的設計師傑克·麥克盧爾(Jack McCollough)與拉扎洛·赫南德茲(Lazaro Hernandez)說，他們2013春夏系列的設計就從Tumblr上得到了靈感，並說社交媒體平臺出人意料地將想像力與無窮無盡的內容融爲一體。

The technological change also challenges old ideas about the designer as lone artist. “Fashion needs to start listening and start sharing,” said Julie Anne Quay, founder of the fashion social network VFiles, which has 60,000 users. “If you look at our news feed there are images by Meisel and Testino, but there are also images by a 16-year-old style blogger in Ukraine and a new designer from Korea. They are all in the same place, no one has any hierarchy over each other. That’s what fashion looks like now.”

技術的變革也挑戰了那種將設計師視爲孤獨藝術家的舊觀念。“時尚界需要開始傾聽和分享了，”時尚社交媒體網站VFiles的創始人朱莉·安妮·奎伊(Julie Anne Quay)說，該網站目前有六萬名用戶。“我們的新聞推送裏有梅塞爾(Meisel)和特斯迪諾(Testino)拍攝的照片，但也有16歲的烏克蘭時尚博客寫手與韓國新銳設計師的作品。他們都在同一個平臺上，沒有凌駕於他人之上的等級觀念。現在的時尚就是這個樣子。”

Rebecca Minkoff, a New York designer who has been quick to embrace digital developments, said she feels there still is a distinction between crowdsourcing — creation through online collaboration — and using social media as a sounding board. “For me, it’s about understanding a trend,” she said, “so if my Instagram followers are really into wide-leg pants, that definitely feeds into the design process.”

紐約設計師麗貝卡·敏科夫(Rebecca Minkoff)很快就接受了數碼科技的發展，她認爲，把社交媒體視爲大衆資源——即通過在網絡上收集的素材進行創作，以及使用社交媒體作爲宣傳工具，二者之間還是有區別的。“對於我來說，重要的是理解潮流，”她說，“所以，如果我Instagram上的關注者們真的喜歡闊腿褲，這種趨勢肯定會反饋到設計過程中去。”

Actually, she added, presenting her creations on social media also has become a design consideration. “People are manipulating photos to show their best self,” Ms. Minkoff said. “That’s influenced me to think about how a piece will photograph, whether the colors are saturated enough to withstand filters, and how print will translate.”

事實上，她還說，把自己的作品在社交媒體上展示也成了設計決策的一部分。“人們調整、修改照片，呈現自己最好的一面，”敏科夫說，“這也影響了我，去思考一件作品應當怎樣去拍攝，色彩的飽和度是否適合濾鏡，印出的成品又將如何轉換呈現。”

Rebecca Arnold, a lecturer in fashion history at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, believes that the job of a fashion designer is at a pivotal moment: “Right now you have designers who are adapting, rather than people who have grown up with this technology; it will be interesting to see what happens with the next generation.”

倫敦考陶爾德藝術學院的時裝史講師麗貝卡·阿諾德(Rebecca Arnold)認爲，時裝設計師這一工作目前正處於轉折點：“現在的設計師是在努力適應環境，而並不是隨着這種技術一起成長，下一代的情況會非常有趣。”

And part of the shift will be designing for a millennial customer who also has grown up with social media, she added.

她還說，這種變遷也是爲千禧一代客戶所打造，這一代也是同社交媒體一起成長的。

Considering recent collections, Dr. Arnold said that the “visual collage of cultural references” used by the Marc by Marc Jacobs designers Luella Bartley and Katie Hillier were a “savvy digital response” to the Instagram generation.

至於最近的時裝系列，阿諾德博士說，馬克·雅克布之馬克(Marc by Marc Jacobs)品牌的設計師盧埃拉·巴特利(Luella Bartley)和凱蒂·希爾里爾(Katie Hillier)那種“有文化指涉的視覺拼貼”是對Instagram一代“頗具見地的數碼迴應”。