How Do You Perceive Color? Meet a Fashion Colorist.

How Do You Perceive Color? Meet a Fashion Colorist.

by Brandon Graham

I thought you might be interested in what a Fashion Colorist does. As a designer I’m used to checking and approving color test/lab dips myself, but the interviewee, who would rather stay annonymous does this exclusively for her assigned designers.  I asked her 15 distinct questions to help you understand this position. It seems like a position people “just fall into.” They don’t teach this specifically in school, but you may be assisted by one when you begin your new job… if your lucky.

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1. What’s your background and current position?

Title: Colorist. Handles 3 men’s casual in-house private labels

Company: Major U.S. Department Store

Division: Production

Experience: 3 years

Education: BA in Textiles and Apparel

2. What is your main job responsibility?

Receive, check, and comment on color standards/lab-dips.

3. Could you explain what happens before you take over?

A designer will find a color that they like (maybe from another shirt) and will sent that to who they call Clericals within the production department. The Clerical will source that color from the in-house color library. If they don’t have the color they can get it customed dyed where they will send that swatch from the shirt to an overseas mill that has dying capabilities. The Clericals will do the ordering of the lab-dips which are essentially the result of 3-4 attempts to match the colors you wanted.

4. What resources does the color library have?

The library has access to a wide array of colors in addition to different suppliers that can dye the fabric.

5. When does the Colorist enter in the picture?

When the overseas dyers send back the lab dips that’s when the Colorist takes over. They look at it and compare it to the original standard/reference swatch.

6. What’s the turn around time for the lab-dips?

It usually takes 2-4 weeks depending on fabric and dye process.

7. As a designer I’m used to doing the lab dip process myself why does the company you work for choose otherwise?

It relieves and enables the designer to perfect and think more about their line.

8. What is a common problem or issue that you face regularly?

Some mills aren’t as equipped as others and don’t have the appropriate resources. Sometimes Colorist have to take things “as is” because of time constrants. The Colorist is suppose to resolve these issues.

9. What technologies do you use?

We use a Spectrophotometer. It is used to read colors and aide in quality control. It will alert and help you control tolerance issues. Essentially it reads and takes pictures from all different angles to capture the color in the fabric. The instrument also gives you an HLC number

10. What is an HLC?

It stands for Hue, Lightness, and Color. The Spectrophotometer gives a HLC number from a digital reading that will identify the color.

11. Is this like a Pantone number?

Not exactly. An HLC number is something a fabric dyer recognizes. With that they will know exactly what you want color wise.

12. What is an acceptable error tolerance?

1.5 +/- is not acceptable, but it varies from company to company.

13. Any drawbacks to the machine?

Rib knits are sometimes read wrong by the machine because of the highs and lows of the yarns which creates shadows.

14. What are the qualifications for this job?

Well you have to take a test to see how you preceive color. The test is called the Munsell Hue Test. Go to http://www.spectralcolor.com/game/huetest_kiosk to see how you fair. On this test you have to put the colors in order from light to dark. The first and last colors are fixed into place, it’s your job to arrange the colors in between correctly. Some companies are strict and if you miss one you fail and others allow for 4-5 mistakes.

15. Thank you so much, can we take a picture for the article?

No. [laughing]

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 at 9:47 PM and is filed under Interview, Q and A, Tech Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.