I am neither a trained fashion designer nor have I apprenticed under one. But there was a time I tried being creative. I used to buy fashion-related magazines, fancy colour pencils to sketch, & even climbed a hill to get inspired, but none of them worked.
Then I heard somewhere that designers are inspired by people - as in Muse, & I didn't have any in my neighbourhood. My wife is a critic, so technically, she is not qualified to be a muse. The person who came up with the quote "Be your own muse" obviously hasn't seen me, as on a good day, I look like an antler-less Moose shedding hair (with due respect to the animal).
I am fond of pattern-making, & as I practice it regularly, I think I have grown to be good at it. At least, that's what some of my industry-insider friends have told me.
But then the 'pattern' has to come from somewhere, something, or someone. For me, it's always from the regular people on the streets. It could be the colours, the prints, the silhouettes, & most importantly, some of the mistakes in their clothes, like the one in the 1st image.
A few months back, I took this photo of a young man in his track pants, as I noticed only his right leg of the track pant was twisted! The front portion of the pant had slightly warped to the back. I quickly adopted this in our - Catawba Checks Top. If you notice closely, the back portion of the garment is warped to the front (image 2). Also, as the straight & biased grain of the fabric at the side seam is joined, the top tends to drape better (will explain more about this some other time)
So, long story short, at Metaphor Racha, our muse is extraordinarily regular people on the streets, their clothes & the perceived flaw, combined with my interest in pattern-making.
We hope you have time to browse our new collection on our website, find them interesting enough, & buy them if required, as nothing inspires us more than your encouragement through your purchase.
Shop for this garment here.