Difference between a dressmaker and a fashion designer.

Sometimes people call me a dressmaker, and I want to open my mouth to tell them that I am not a dressmaker but a fashion designer; but then I just do my job and let them find out. The reality is that few people know the true difference between these two terms.

The term dressmaker was born in those times when clothes were not mass-produced and were made more to measure. Many people knew how to sew, that is, to join already cut pieces to create a garment. But dressmakers not only sewed, they created patterns and cuts, they knew how to imagine and model something non-existent, and their sewing technique and attention to detail were better.

But while a dressmaker focuses on the garment, a fashion designer focuses on the person who will wear it. A designer can create without having to sew a stitch; and this is not only because they can illustrate a dress on paper or digitally; but because their main creation is ideas that speak to the individual wearing the clothes and to those who see them. Design is about imprinting emotions, creating styles within aesthetics, expressing moments and atmospheres; it is even about not only what makes the person look better but what best communicates what the wearer wants to be.

As a fashion designer, I indeed learned how to pattern, cut, sew, and embroider, as well as how to select technically appropriate fabrics and how to represent a garment and its construction on paper and with digital tools. But what truly made me a designer was learning about fashion history, techniques for generating different ideas, and recognizing how balance and imbalance can create beauty. As a designer, I was taught all the rules and then asked to break them and still make things work and create a new concept.

When you can understand that the right fabric is not only ideal for a certain construction but for telling a story; sensuality in transparencies, elegance in structure, or glamour in shine; then, you are designing.

When designing, my interests are not only around technical innovations in sewing or drawing. My ideas come from everything that speaks to me of emotions and aesthetics. Photography, cinema, painting, sculpture, and art in general; but also the stories of my clients, their way of expressing themselves, nature, and life. My first career was Communication and in fact, that makes me an even better designer. I also have image studies and know not only how to create balance in a body and transform it with tricks, but I can identify why a long sleeve can be more elegant than a short one. I am a designer because I integrate all of this when creating a garment.

So if you have ever seen what we create at Débh Herrera and find it beautiful, it's not just because we strive to do it technically well, but because we imprint the soul of design into it.