Midnight Oil is a menswear-inspired, made-to-order womenswear collection that blends classic tailoring and premium fabrications with details built for the professional woman.
The founder, Rachel Leffort, is a good friend, and it turns out that we had many similar experiences and contacts in common when we met. As Rachel was preparing to launch Midnight Oil, we would get together from time to time to discuss different ideas. As the concept was coming together, I created digital sketches for use in the many measurement guides and to visually explain the many ways her pieces could be ordered to fit the client.
We continue to work together as new ideas are added to the collection, sketching new styles, recoloring digital files, and creating lining patterns for special collaborations.
To help clients understand the measurement process, Rachel outlined each step in painstaking detail, and I translated this into a visual guide that allowed clients to go through each step on their own, even without a stylist.
For each core style, Rachel wanted a visual representation of how each client could customize the fit of the garment. We worked hard to turn what could be confusing into a straightforward, clear process.
As customization options expand, from time to time, I update the Design Detail Guide to reflect the most recent updates.
As new styles are added to the collection, I sketch them up in Illustrator so that Rachel and the team can use them in their communication with production.