Studio: Fashion | Bridge 3 Part 2

Rapid Prototyping

In class, we were told to make a cube, a pyramid, a memory, and represent our topic all with paper. For the cube and pyramid, I made an outline of the shape on the paper before cutting out and putting it together. For the memory, I created my window in my room at home with snow falling. For the representation of my topic, I’m focusing on feminism so I drew a women’s legs being hairy, since that has been a huge topic in feminism.

Material Investigation

I began with inspiration photos. I knew that I somehow wanted my outfit to relate in some way to the Raf Simons | Dior piece below. I liked that it was a dress-like shirt on top of suit pants.

I decided to kind of approach my piece in the opposite way. Instead of having it be the suit pants on the bottom and feminine shirt-dress on top, I wanted to do the reverse. I was thinking of a very pronounced suit jacket that turned into a dress. For the bottom of the dress, I really wanted it to be the other extreme–very feminine. I did some research to find inspiration for my design. Here are some of the images that influenced me.

My investigation revolved around the shape of the very 80s inspired jacket and the feminine skirt. Immediately I wanted the color of the dress/jacket to be navy. I knew I wanted to have some sort of flower appliqué that blended upwards into the navy. I drew my sketch and then went to a discount fabric store on 25th and 7th to get an idea of fabrics to use. I got swatches of a navy fabric and a beautiful silk chiffon floral pattern that would blend very well and have a nice shape.

Three Elements of Exploration

I went to multiple fabric stores and explored styles and shapes and patterns. I knew I was taking on a lot, with the jacket and separate dress and the appliqué, so I searched through the patterns of Joann’s Fabric Store to find my idea patterns. I just wanted a basic shape for the jacket and the very voluminous skirt. The patterns were only less than $3 each, so it seemed quite obvious to utilize them. Neither pattern is exactly what I want, so I will be changing them anyway, but it’s nice to have an initial start.

I then grabbed about 9 yards of the navy fabric and 2 yards of the floral.

I think the next step in my process would be testing with the swatch I have of the floral fabric on some scraps I have of navy to see how the shape of the appliqué will look. Beyond that, I would start with the patterns and changing the patterns to what I want and then pinning them to my fabric.

Leave a reply

Skip to toolbar