Individual Project--Step One

Basic Design Drawing

Final Report--"Betsey Johnson” Brand Analysis and Individual Project

After analyzing the last decade’s collections of Betsey Johnson, I got some findings about this brand as well as the designer.


♥Brand Image
The brand image we concluded after group research is that it mixes the feeling of punk, sweet, sexy and feminine. The royal customers of this brand should own a good body shape since most of dresses have a sexy silhouettes and Betsey Johnson always emphasis on SLIM.
As a warm-and-fuzzy crazy grandma, Betsey Johnson is famous for her unique designs which change with the times while keeping designs pure. She creates unabashedly wild styling range from elegance to whimsical image by using hippie inspired flowing fabrics. The designer always with passion makes entertaining collections, for instance, School of Charm and Pirates-meets-Peter Pan, and shows her prom dress all the times because she likes dancing very much, not only taking many dancing class, but also being interested in their costume.

♥Color Preference
Betsey Johnson said to the reporter that her favorite color is pink once in an interview and the color of the official website of her brand is in pink which is used a lot in her collections with different value and chroma.
For the spring and summer collections, Johnson likes to use high value colors that make the apparels looked lighter in weight. And white is used a lot in the spring and summer collection while black acts as a main color in fall and winter collection. Apart from this, another difference of using colors for different seasons is that the value of colors was much lower in fall and winter collection. Johnson has used more black and white for her collections in recent years, comparing to earlier years. Also the chroma of colors becomes a little lower than before but still above constant but not low.
Pink (such as pantone 223C and 212C), red, yellow (such as pantone 3935C), blue (such as pantone 298C) and mauve (such as pantone 2582C) have a high using-frequency that almost appears in every collection.


♥Color scheme preference
Betsey Johnson preferred to use complementary and analogous color scheme with high chroma colors in earlier years, but later on she turned to use monochromatic color scheme to develop her collection which present a more elegant and mature image. In recent years she has used a lot achromatic color scheme and sometimes she applied the triad color scheme on decorative part such as hair accessory and flowers attached to dress.

♥Color proportion preference
Generally, Johnson likes to use another color on the edge of dress developed by monochromatic or achromatic color scheme, for a big bow or belt, which has a proportion of 30% at most. That is, the main color of a cloth is not less that 70% normally. When Johnson applies complementary and triad as well as analogous color scheme, the proportions of each color may be equal by using dot or stripe patterns.

♥Pattern using and decorative part preference
Dot, floral and stripe patterns never absent in Johnson's collections. Bows, flowers, Ruffles and gathers are applied frequently that provides a feminine feeling.

♥In conclude, we can find that even maintaining same brand image, some design components are changed in last ten years. Since Betsey Johnson being a grandma of two granddaughters, the costumes she designed are not as sexy as in her collections of earlier year which are more mature, elegant and refined. The colors used these years have a little lower chroma than before but still are constant chroma to high chroma colors. Black and white are used more than earlier year as well as the achromatic color scheme. The value of color is higher in spring and summer collections and a bit lower in fall and winter. Monochromatic color scheme has been applied as the main color scheme to develop collections in recent years.

♥Individual Project
According to previous findings, I develop the color family for 09/10 fall and winter collection with constant value and comparatively higher chroma colors. As a fall and winter collection, I want it present an elegant and pure feeling of girls and also has a little sexy and punk being mixed.




♥ Process
First I drafted my basic designs and then added more details such as ruffles and some patterns Johnson likes to use. After finishing my basic drawing I started to develop my collection by monochromatic, triad, complementary color scheme according to Johnson’s preference. However, I find that some of the patterns are hard to combine the colors so I changed these patterns. After a lot times trials with color pencils and comparisons, I decided my final collection and use Photoshop to edit them on computer.

Collections in earlier years

From year 2000 to 2002, the colors that Betsey Johnson used for her collections were in high chroma. For spring collections, the value of colors were comparatively higher than them in the fall collections, which made the cloths of fall and winter looks much heavier than the cloths of spring and summer's.

For the color scheme, Johnson used a lot of monochromatic color scheme to develop her collection. Some of the cloths were developed by using same hue but different value and chroma in which the proportion for the main color was above 70% or their proportion were equal. Complementary color scheme was used also which showed a strong contrast due to applying high chroma color, while the proportion of the main color was about 75%. Analogous color scheme was applied a lot as well and because of the using floral or dot pattern, the proportion of colors were almost equal.

Monochromatic color scheme

Analogous color scheme

Complementary color scheme

2003 collection

Held in the garden of Betsey Johnson's East Hampton home that surrounded by all kinds of flowers, Johnson used plenty of floral patterns and cabbage roses in her "infectious enthusiasm" show. Achromatic color scheme was not used a lot but not for Monochromatic color scheme which was applied to develop the color combination pretty much. For those cabbage roses that decorated the cloths well were developed by triad color scheme. Complementary color scheme was used as well to show a strong color contrast.

Color used: High chroma and high value

Achromatic color scheme



Monochromatic color scheme

(Different value and chroma of same hue)

Triad color scheme(Applied mainly for decorative parts)

(Blue, yellow and red equidistant from each other on the color wheel)

Complementary color scheme

Betsey Johnson showed a kaleidoscopic collection to the fall/winter of 2003. Just like a colorful kaleidoscope, chroma of hues applied in this collection were a little bit higher than them of spring collection's. Achromatic color scheme was used again. For monochromatic color scheme, Johnson used only one color for whole pieces and also different value and chroma of same hue to develop the color combination. A strong color contrast was presented by using complementary color scheme while cloths developed by analogous color scheme made people's eyes more comfortable.

Color used: High chroma and constant value

Achromatic color scheme

Monochromatic color scheme

(Different value and chroma of same hue)

Complementary color scheme

Analogous color scheme

(Yellow and orange are next to each other on a color wheel)

(Green and Yellow green are next to each other on a color wheel)

Look back for the whole year's cloths, the proportion Johnson chose when combine the color was more or less equal to each other if there were more than one color used for each showing pieces.

2004 collection

The theme of the 2004 spring collection is to "create a right giddy mood". Betsey Johnson used high value and high chroma to present this theme. Apart from Achromatic and Monochromatic color scheme, analogous and triad color scheme were applied as well. For the cloths contained two colors, their proportion were mostly equal to each other or one of main color was around 80%.

Color used: High Value & High Chroma

Achromatic color scheme

Monochromatic color scheme

Same hue but with different values

Analogous Color scheme

Proportion for each were 50%, 25%, 25%

Triad Color scheme

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For the fall collection in the same year, the theme was "Rock", arounding which Betsey Johnson gave people a show of beatnik, freedom and sexy. Colors that Betsey used this time were in high chroma and constant value. Monochromatic and Achromatic color scheme were applied as usual. Complementary and Triad color scheme were also used to develop this collection. As for the color proportion, they were almost equal or one is around 80% of the whole in two-color cloths.

Color used: High chroma and constant value

Achromatic color scheme

Monochromatic color scheme

Colors combination was developed by using colors with different value of same hue.


Complementary color scheme

Part of Triad Color scheme(except yellow, these three hues are equidistant from each other on a color wheel