Tiina's sketches and pattern designs

Authentic design - Tiina Kärkäs-Sund tells how VirQ garments are born

There are many ways to work in the clothing industry. Every VirQ by Virkkukoukkunen garment style and pattern is the handiwork of artist Tiina Kärkäs-Sund - from idea to finished product.

Here VirQ's founder and designer Tiina Kärkäs-Sund tells about her creative process.

At the heart of the creative process

Pattern birth and tools

Color chart and piece of pattern library

- Tiina, tell us: where do your patterns come from? What's the first moment when a pattern starts forming in your mind?

"A pattern's birth can start from some interesting random color combination I've seen or interesting shapes that start bubbling up in my mind. It can start from music I've heard or text I've read. Sometimes I see a finished pattern in my mind even though it hasn't been drawn visibly yet."

Pattern samples

"Sometimes I take a drawing pad in my lap and see what starts coming from the pen. Something quite surprising can come that I didn't expect. While drawing I might think of a certain person and their style and colors and get inspiration from them.

I don't draw anything by force, I design and draw all patterns in a good and creative mood and curious about the result. If it's a bad day, it shows immediately in the drawing trace and on such days you shouldn't draw but focus energy on other work. Time flies when drawing patterns. Often the clock has surprisingly jumped to the next day when I'm finishing creative work."

Vacation trips intertwine with work when patterns start taking over

- How long does designing one pattern take from start to ready printable file?

"It depends entirely on the pattern. Some are born quickly in a few days and some I can refine and polish for a couple of years before I'm satisfied with what I see. Some patterns I draw directly in 150 cm x 160 cm size. I make color experiments from a few different ones to several tens. VirQ team's visual multi-talent Mari processes all materials I draw into continuous print repeat and finishes them for printing."

Tiina's pattern design and Mari with joy of success

- What tools do you use in pattern design - hand drawing, computer, or both?

"I draw 99% of patterns without sketching directly on the drawing pad and the remaining 1% I cut shapes from paper, compose them into pattern designs, photograph the composition and draw it clean on the pad.

I don't correct and erase all errors from drawings. I want patterns to show they're drawn by a human. In an overly polished or monotonous result, something human is lost in my opinion. While drawing you can be wild, whereas garment pattern making is like mathematics and requires completely different thinking and action."

Creating garments

Quick sketches

- How do you design a garment style? Do you start from an idea, fabric or pattern?

"I designed our first collection's dress and tunic based on my own needs. I wanted to create clothes that would be comfortable to wear, have proper pockets and joy of life. It's been easy to continue the collection and expand the selection when listening to our customers' wishes and needs. Together we've created comfortable and easy-to-use clothes for everyday and celebrations for women of many sizes.

Sometimes while drawing a pattern I already know in my mind which garment style I'm making it for. Sometimes when patterns are ready, we discuss with the team and choose together what to print, on what material and what clothes to make from them. Choices also consider wishes from customers and sales data. So we don't only make what we think would be nice. Assembling a collection is quite a complex puzzle as a work phase. There are hundreds of patterns and their numerous colorways stored and I design and draw new ones all the time."

Collection meetings, in pictures Tiina, Iri, Mari and Mirka

- Tell us about garment style creation, pattern making - what all does it include?

"I present my garment idea to our pattern master Mirka either by telling her its characteristics, like neckline shape, sleeve length, hem length, garment ease etc. and she catches my idea and draws and sketches the garment.

Another way to create a new garment style goes like this: I draw a light style sketch and explain to Mirka what kind of garment we're pattern making next. Mirka finds a suitable remnant of roughly the same material the garment is intended to be made from our fabric library and she works on the first prototype. The proto is modified if needed and refined until it looks and feels like what the garment was in my mind. When the first perfect prototype is ready, we make a couple more sizes of the garment.

All sample garments are fitted on real people, and they're tested in use and if anything needs changing, corrections and final touches are made before grading patterns for all sizes."

Prototypes being fitted by Iri, Mirka, Mari and Tiina's mom, Kristiina

"After pattern grading, garments go into production. Currently our clothes and accessories are cut and sewn in Lithuania and Finland. Knits and fabrics for clothes are also printed in Lithuania. Most of VirQ clothing production work is done in Finland. All VirQ collection garments are conceived and pattern made here in Imatra and they're our own styles, starting from t-shirts."

Everything is designed and drawn ourselves. Whether it's neck labels, paper bags or products for sale

- How do you test that a style really works for different body types?

"VirQ's team has many-sized and different-shaped ladies and sample garments are first fitted on them. Often we also ask friends and strangers to be fitting models to test clothes on various body types.

The width of collection sizes is also important to me. It's not economically the most optimal idea, but I don't do this work calculator-first anyway. I want to produce joy with my creativity and it's important to me that I can implement this in clothes with size scale 3xs-5xl. In number sizes, clothes correspond to sizes 32-62.

One of the most fun team spirit-inspiring projects has definitely been the men's t-shirt. When designing it, we got several tens of men to participate in the project! They were gathered from VirQ's social media, acquaintances, acquaintances' acquaintances and they were "captured" from stores and streets for fitting volunteer work. Helpful men tried on Mirka's prototype shirts and gave comments about them. We got opinions from them about material, sleeve length, hem length, ease etc. This way we refined together the men's much-praised Rehti t-shirt pattern.

Artist's path to textile design

Tiina's style sketches from 1970s

Education and background

- What's your educational background? How did you end up in textile design?

"I was born for this profession! Our family also has artistry and crafts people. Drawing and handicrafts have been an essential part of my life since childhood. I've been drawing since age two and doing it for work for 33 years. Clothes and accessories and self-expression through them have always interested me. I studied clothing degree at Handicraft and Art Industry Institute as a young person and as an adult a portion of graphic design. These educations have given momentum and complemented my creative core self."

Tiina painting porcelain

- How does your artist background show in VirQ clothes?

"It surely shows at least as personal recognizable handwriting, patterns that could be framed on wall and large style layers. Playing with colors is also characteristic of my design style."

Tiina's interview shows that authentic design work is much more than just drawing clothes. It's listening to customers, numerous fittings, refining prototypes and above all - love for one's own work. Every VirQ garment is proof that handcraft and authentic design still have their place in the world.

"It's important to me that you can see from our clothes that they're made by human for humans," Tiina summarizes. "It shows in hand-drawn lines of patterns, garment fit and that every size is carefully thought out."

Collection plans from a few years back

Tiina and patterns' lovely color splendor

Our designer Tiina