byhelenihaa: December 2019

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Here are the details of my 4th-semester final project which is the experimental convertible multi-occasional dress. The whole collection uses a transformational design concept, which is also functional without removing one or more layers to change the look.

The collection name is Semper Pulchra, which means "always beautiful" in Latino (semper: always, pulchra: beautiful).

CONCEPT

Transformation refers to an alteration of figure, form or structure into something different without loss of substance to achieve new aims. The aim is to make one dress become multi-occasional with a transformation concept that allows customers to wear various styles with one garment.

TREND RESEARCH

This collection is made in February 2019, so that the season used is for the upcoming A/W 2019/2020. The trend is taken from WGSN, which has three major themes in this season: Purpose, FreeStyle and Light Magic. I used Light Magic as the main aim of this collection.

The Light Magic trend has two options of outfit volume: free-flowing or structured. Here I focused on creating a free-flowing volume that is suitable for applying the transformative design.

INSPIRATIONS

Husein Chalayan Fall 2013 Transforming Dress

HOW DOES THE DRESS WORK?

The dress consists of two different looks: the day look and the night look. The day look is suited for daily wear and day events, while the night one is suited for evening dinings and other late events.

As seen in the video, the day look is a dress consists of a top with a puffy skirt. Inside the puffed skirt, there is another layer which will be the night look. The puff silhouette is caused by the drawstring closure, which will release the layer inside if it is pulled. The drawstring is pulled and release to change to night look. The second layer is made with lightweight and flowy material to make a dramatic change.

The technical drawings of the collection. Some of the looks are either sleeveless or short-sleeved.

The closer before-after look in a dummy.

See the entire details here.

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(ATTENTION: TRASHY POST ALERT!)

DECORATIVE TECHNIQUES FOR GARMENT ENHANCEMENT

3rd year

FINAL PROJECT

In this project, students were required to decorate one of their own-made garments. I chose the french-dart striped dress I've made in 1st year.

At first, I was confused about what to add - between multiple deadlines that are all in finals week, so that I searched for some waste fabrics and found my white lace. This lace has a floral pattern.

The first thing I did is adding lace to the bottom and exchange the sleeve part. Forget about the random pleats above (which I added just hours before submission 😅), adding lace was the first that crossed my mind before I was confused again about what to do next.

Looking at the lace, I was thinking about cutting the flowers out from the pattern and attach them onto the lace surface. This idea was inspired by Dior's 3D flower dress which was used for a perfume campaign back then in 1949. The flower ornaments are attached one by one to the main fabric by hand stitch.

The Dior Dress

Okay, I know it is way too different from the Dior dress. I finally managed to cut the flowers out from the lace pattern. There are three different flowers, one main flower and two with a smaller size. Before attaching them to the lace surface, I hand-sewn the center part so they look like 3D flowers. I attached them one by one by matching the flowers on the surface, then added three white Delica beads. Here how it looks like.

Apart from the sleeves, I also added lace surfaces on the neck part with flowers attached as well. On the bigger flowers, I added beads as the pistils. I also attached some small flowers outside the surface, but still around the area.

Well, I felt it looks like children wear. I knew I can do much better than this, yet deadlines are near and there are some problems with the other projects. Here is the final look. (Yes, this is me with tired face finishing one more final project 😭)

If you are curious about the project score, well, it was not bad and still got an A though (which I cannot believe at first but to be grateful for). Apart from this project, I will surely decorate my own clothes if I am bored with them. Decorating old garments is one of the sure things to more sustainable fashion life with style.