Behind the Seams: Pheasant Fusion Collection
Yana Robertson
Designer/Creator Yana Robertson in the Pheasant Fusion Leggings
Some of you have been asking for Pheasant Leggings (yoga pants) for many years now. I have appreciated your patience as this design needed time and space in my creative brain to marinate. Just like how many good pheasant recipes call for, time and patience.
I was with my wonderful friend (and one of our Feral Lyfe models) Gretchen working a gig when the pheasant landscape design started to unfold in my head. Whenever I’m on the precipice of a creative release my verbal speaking skills go to the outhouse. I can think clearly, but my tongue is unable to express the words I need to say to communicate my actual thoughts. I’m unsure of the technical reason for this, but all my words come out as mambo-jumbo with funny grunts and squeals.
Steady. Breathe. Then I calm down, and then I am able to form words. I owe Gretchen a huge THANK YOU for dealing with me during this important part of the creative process WHILE we were working the gig.
Gretchen in Moonstruck Leggings
Gretchen, girl, this collection would never have made it past my brain space if it weren’t for you. Thank you for being so accepting of me and like pheasants, allowing my colors to fly freely.
HOW THE LANDSCAPE WAS CREATED
Anyone that loves pheasants, especially pheasant hunters knows that ring-neck pheasants prefer environments like marshes and farm fields. To create the landscape I knew I wanted flowing wheat and marsh-like bushes. I also knew this would look super sexy on the final legging design.
After the landscape was digitally created and I had certain wheat and pheasant habitat elements in place, it was time to add the pheasants. To do this, I found and took pictures of pheasants and traced them to create pheasant silhouettes.
I added the pheasant silhouettes to the landscape and then I made adjustments, and then I made more adjustments, and then I made even more adjustments. Why so many adjustments you ask? Because when making any good legging design, placement is key. We don’t want a beak pointing (or pecking) the wrong part of the body now do we? Hehe.
With a few hours of tinkering, the pheasant landscape is created.
Special Appearance
Altogether there are 6 pheasants in the Pheasant Fusion design plus one special appearance from another fly character…a butterfly. Fluttering in the landscape with the pheasants is a butterfly sending vibes of positivity and transformation.
PHEASANT COLORS
The first version of this design (and the one I originally created in my head around Gretchen) has a pink-to-black gradient as the main background color. I have no idea why I was bent on pink, and although I still REALLY LOVE the pink design, the Feral Friends Pro and Ambassador Team had feedback that urged me to do something other than pink. (maybe a limited edition release what do you think?).
Many of you have commented on how much you like the original Wapiti Walk design and landscaped silhouettes. The torment inside me is that I wanted to create a pheasant feather design, however, the printing tech would not do justice to the iridescence found within the feathers. The feather color and iridescence hues are the most distinguishing factor of why pheasants are a favorite among the outdoor community, so I knew I couldn’t mess this one up.
The question pondered…how I can take the colors and gradients found in pheasant plumage and fuse them into the background in a natural way? Enter, the color theme. Using Adobe Color, I used digital graphic designer magic to determine the base colors for the design. Then I went into creative color creation land. This also took many hours and I had to get the gradients perfect. If you know anything about me, know that I love colors and this was where I spent the majority of my time perfecting this design. The subliminal meaning behind colors had to be attended to as this was no mere ‘rainbow’ design. This is a pheasant feather rainbow gradient with overlapping hues.
PHEASANT FEATHER BACKGROUND
When creating a legging design and printing it on yummy fabric, one must also consider how the pattern needs to make the wearer feel confident. One way I like to do this is to incorporate texture into the background of each design. Often I use topography in the sky like in the Bison Lumination Collection or clouds like in the Strength Shift Collection
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For the Pheasant Fusion design, I knew exactly what I wanted to use as the background texture. Pheasant tailfeathers ‘cause f**k I know they would look sexy on ALL women’s legs plus it seemed just natural to put tailfeathers on the tail end of a human. ;) But I also wanted to get some opinions on this via the socials, so I asked you all and the majority of you also agreed! Whoot!
I also added feathers to the top band of the leggings, to create a more dramatic effect on the waistband. I ALMOST made the waistband red, and I have no idea why I settled on grey, especially since I use that for most of my waistbands. Part of me thinks it might be a way of showing respect to the female pheasants that lack much for color at all. What do you think, should I start incorporating more colorful waistbands into the mix?
FUSING IT TOGETHER
Pheasants are unique in the fact they can go many days without food showing they are not only beautiful but resilient. By fusing the pheasant feather colors, pheasant habitat and landscape, and pheasant bird silhouettes I created the Pheasant Fusion Collection.
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
“I can’t wait to wear this at the Pheasant’s Forever banquet” - Sarah C
“Yana, you did it again, another design I can’t live without. Well done!” - Linda H
THE CREATIVE BRIEF
Elements: Air and Earth
Notable behavior: Keen eyesight and hearing. Both genders run for cover. They can go days without food, which helps them endure winter and survive the frigid temperatures and can teach us to appreciate small miracles.
Preferred environment: Edges of marshes, farmland mix crop
Visual Attributes: Long tail feathers create beautiful flying silhouettes on males. THE COLORS. The feather color and iridescence hues are the most distinguishing factor of why Pheasants are a favorite among the outdoor community.
