[Chloe Lee] Designer’s Statement and Process

Designer’s Statement

    There has always been controversy about what is a good design and what is not – some people say that an artistic and aesthetic object could be an example of good design while others say it can’t be if the object isn’t usable. Personally, I believe that good design should always incorporate functionality. Exaggerations in the design that ruins the functionality could ruin the design. To think of it in the opposite way, simple and bold design that may be seemed to be only delivering the essence of the design could be the most elegant and attractive design. I thought that this idea could relate to the concept of colors – the most simple and bold color, black and white, could make the most elegant and attractive design. Excessive colors can ruin the aesthetics of the design. Since this was the first garment I ever made in my life, I wanted it to convey my philosophy and idea, so decided to melt them in to the dress.

In order to portray the idea about good design and my analogy to the colors, I decided to create the dress that is consisted of only simple but luxurious black and white. Although only two most simple colors were used, the Shingo Sato method that was applied to the bodice and the draping on the skirt could sufficiently create the details to form an elegant dress. With the hemline coming right below the knees, circular sleeves that covers down to the elbow, and the subtle curves hidden in the black shingo bodice, I tried to give a sense of classic dresses from 1950s to 70s (inspiration images attached below). Although I tried to stick with the forms of those dresses, I tried to be creative with the draping, and made a triangular drapes on the side of the skirt and trimmed it with white circular beads – this was to give the differece from conventional black and white dress. I wanted my dress to have traditional elegance, but at the same time, to look new and different.

What turned out to be the most difficult while making the dress was that the black fabric for the bodice and the skirt was rather stretchy. I unconsciously stretched the fabric while I was sewing each parts on to the other, so I had to rip off the seams countless times. It indeed was laborous work to do, but after finishing the work, I felt that the fabric choice was never wrong since it was able to make the exact look that I aimed for. There was annother difficulty coming from the choice of fabric – unlike the muslin mock-up skirt where the triangle drapes were more angled and visible, the drapes made on my actual black fabric were more curvy and fluid since the fabric was less stiff than the muslin. In order to solve this, I decided to add some weight on the end of the triangles by adding the white beads. This difficulty I faced actually turned out to be a huge help since it made the dress look different from traditional ones as I mentioned earlier. I am glad that I finished the first garment of my life in such a good shape.

 

Inspirations

      Images from Vogue 1950~60

 

 

 

PROCESS

1. Draping Experiments

I tried various drapes that were rather classic and traditional. Eventually I ended up with the triangular drapes on the last image that was not traditional at all, to give my own characteristic to it.

2. Shingo Sato Bodice

From three different shingo sato bodices, I chose the one with the most subtle curve that could show the elegance, but isn’t excessively curved.

3. Design Sketching

These are the three ideas for my dress. During the final construction, there has been changes from the drawings – I removed the white ribbon and collars since it looked too much, and changed the white lace into black to make it more subtle.

4. Pattern Making & Cutter’s Must

From the draped skirt, I marked the dots to sew together, labeled them with numbers, and made a pattern out of them.

With all the shingo sato bodice pieces, sleeves, skirts, facings and lining patterns, I finished my cutters must arranged on an envelope.

5. Muslin Construction

These are image of the right half of my dress finished in muslin.

 

6. Dress Construction

I moved the patterns on to the final fabric and started sewing.

From left above – Finished bodice, sleeves, and bodice detail.

In order to make a lace that fits the center of the bodice, I folded a wide black lace 4 times to make rectangular shape at the center.

Then I did the facings for the neckline and connected the skirt with the bodice.

I attached the lining for the skirt and zipper.

I experimented with ribbons on the neck and decided to make it detachable.

Unfortunately, since the bodice and skirt was completely black, the low resolution phone camera could not show all the details. The final garment is to be shown at the class presentation.

 

7. Beads attaching

I hand stitched the beads.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *