Sweater Design - Criteria

Criteria

The aim of sweater design is a sweater that fulfils certain criteria. The primary criterion is that its intended wearer wants to wear it and, in case of commercial sweater design, is willing to buy it at a commercially feasible price point. General secondary criteria include

• the insulating power, material and breathability of the sweater should make its intended wearer physically comfortable;

• the sweater should be appropriate for the occasion in which it will be worn;

• makes its intended wearer feel fashionably attractive;

To satisfy these secondary criteria, the designer has several tools at their disposal, such as yarns, colors, patterns, textures, necklines, hemlines, sleeve shapes, style lines, pockets and embellishments, as well as the fit of the garment to its intended wearer, the silhouette.

• For commercial sweater design, the production of the sweater must also be inexpensive, lest the price point be too high and make the sweater undesirable. This is generally done by simplifying the design so that it can be made by machine; more complicated commercial designs are generally hand-knit in pieces that are then stitched together. For example, the separate pieces of the hand-knit sweaters found in stores are generally knit and assembled in different villages in China.

Despite the wealth of design techniques and studies of successful designs, the primary criterion (that the sweater be desired) is not always achieved, often due to factors beyond the designer's control including serendipity.