Roger Vivier - design inspiration

I remember sitting in my Historic Costume class at the University of Akron watching an old film about the legendary shoe designer, Roger Vivier. Vivier is well-known for redesigning the stiletto with a metal rod so that the posts did not break under stress of wear.

Roger Vivier was perhaps the most innovative shoe designer of the 20th century and beyond. Vivier's shoes have had the remarkable ability to seem avant-garde yet destined at the same time to become classics. He maintained an eye for the cutting edge of fashion for six decades. Vivier looked back into the history of fashion and forward to the disciplines of engineering and science for inspiration. The shoes may seem shocking at first; however, it is the way they complete the silhouette that has made Vivier so coveted by top fashion designers for decades. With a sophisticated eye for line, form, and the use of innovative materials, Vivier created footwear worn by some of the most stylish and prestigious people of both the 20th and 21st centuries, among them Diana Vreeland, the Queen of England, and Marlene Dietrich. Source: Fashion Encyclopedia

The part of the film that resonated with me was when Vivier described his design process. In a straightforward way, he professed that if the shoe he was designing would have many embellishments, then the basic design and structure would need to be classic and simple, in order to not over-design the shoe.

On the other end of the spectrum, if the shoe was unembellished, then the structure and style of the basic design could be much more complex.

I think that this concept is extremely important in knitwear design. for example, if a sweater has a highly complex cable pattern, then the style, structure and yarn should be simple, as to not hinder the beauty of the stitches. In contrast, textured and colorful yarns are more suited to simple structures and stitch patterns.

What's your design inspiration?