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Design for Fashion Week with Pret-a-template
I’ll admit I don’t know much about fashion, other than the high-end market of Apple Watch bands I guess. But I love sketching and drawing…
I’ll admit I don’t know much about fashion, other than the high-end market of Apple Watch bands I guess. But I love sketching and drawing apps. Pret-a-template is another drawing app, but one that revolves around designing the best new attire that will grace the red carpet.
What makes Pret-a-template different from your standard sketchbook is the pixel-level focus on fashion and the fashion design process. You can create looks from built-in objects or you can start sketching from scratch. There are multiple body types representing various genders, ages, and sizes. There are thousands of accessories you can overlay from shoes to sunglasses to dresses. By choosing accessories, colors, styles, and patterns you can combine them all to create the basis for a great look. All the accessories can be shown as outlines so you can see how the different pieces overlap on your helpful on-screen model.
If creating your own pieces, Pret-a-template has a wealth of sketch tools. You’ll have pen and pencil, shapes, eraser, textures, and brushes you can paint with. You can snap photos that can be pinned on your canvas that you can use for inspiration. There are layers to move between, undo and redo controls, and cut tools to pull out specific portions.
When you save any of your designs, they go to your gallery. There are folders if you want to organize your designs further. The gallery has a template category which can be useful when starting out. You can choose one before modifying to your needs and saving time. The Moodblog will present a running feed of designs shared by other users, great for further inspiration.
When it comes to Apple-specific features, Pret-a-template does out of its way. There is, if maybe a bit limited, Apple Watch support. You can view projects, adjust layers, and share from your wrist. On iPad, it supports Slide Over and Split View for enhanced multitasking and even Apple Pencil support. In the App Store, they support Events which debuted with iOS 16. These special callout features highlight new additions to the app. Recently, Pret-a-template was updated with pajama support and new templates and items to go with.
This is a fun, unique, niche application that does its users justice. Sometimes a minimalist sketchbook is great for getting out ideas but there are times a granularly-focused app that caters to an audience that needs these tools. It makes use of native iOS features, has a freemium model for users to try it out, and has tons of pro features that receive constant updates to make this app easy to recommend.
But enough about other people's apps.
