The aim of my bachelor’s thesis was to design and partly manufacture a dress collection for a brand from Espoo called She Rocks. The collection was supposed to match She Rocks’ earlier production line and style which stands for snowboarding, skateboarding and surfing culture. My task description was to carry out the whole process independently, from designing to the manufacturing of prototypes. At the outset I was given free hands and no specific requirements by my client.

To describe the design process of the collection I chose J. Michael Gillette’s (2000) problem-solving model for theatrical design and production, The Design Process. I created an application of the model according to the progress of my process. Admitting that Gillette’s model is primarily developed for the design work of a theatrical project, I did not see any reason why it could not be used to describe the progress of any designing and manufacturing process. Because in Gillette’s model the process progresses simply and clearly in stages, progressing according to the model supported my own design process well and kept it together during the whole process.

As a theoretical framework I utilised Leslie Davis Burns’ and Nancy O. Bryant’s (1997) book, the Business of Fashion, which focuses on the organization and operation of the fashion industry (designing, manufac-turing and marketing). To examine and assimilate the culture of boarding I compiled four collages of pic-tures that I collected from boarding magazines and web sites. I utilised the collages to analyze the charac-teristic colours, styles, vibes, lines and shapes of the boarding culture. To assimilate the upcoming fashion I reviewed 2009-2010 trend forecasts and fads from fashion magazines and fashion trend forecasting ser-vices.

Because my client had not set any boundaries for the collection, I was allowed to carry through the process as I wanted. After the research stage I designed 20 pieces of dress sketches using the CorelDraw-vector graphic program, and then presented them to the client. After elimination the number of final designs was 10. After small model modifications I chose four designs to be produced myself and six designs to be produced by the client. I used the Grafis pattern making program to make the patterns. After making the patterns I sewed the prototypes of the four designs using the materials from She Rocks. The manufacturing and the process towards the final production are still continuing outside the bachelor’s thesis. The aim was to create a dress collection that is as easy-going as the She Rocks collection has earlier been. I think the collection reached the aim well, also including something new.