Future Colour Dress

When I did the draping class in the fashion design certificate, we obviously had to drape a dress for the assignment. In a way it wasn't much of a class. She just got us to copy a dress she brought in, draping it on a mannequin and basically we just made it up while she supervised. Then she gave as an assignment. Theoretically the brief was a quote (from Vionnet?) about how a dress is beautiful because it is well-cut. This didn't seem like much of a brief to me. Like, it didn't really inspire anything or send my mind off on any ideas...
I created a slightly more restricting framework than the one given as it's generally a lot easier to create something within restrictions than within a completely open space (i.e. the frameword given was basically that it had to flatter the body and be well-cut. Not only was this both very open and a completely obvious and expected goal of making clothing anyway, as a beginning draper, I figured we would be lucky if my dress was human-shaped, let alone well-cut and flattering). So, I have 4 sort of worlds or themes that I can use to link clothing, and I also thought I'd choose a song to inspire it.
Eventually I chose the F-M Tribe, which stands for both Future-Modern and Feminine-Masculine. Basically it is a sort of post-apocalyptic fashion from now into the future, with reduced gender rules for clothes, etc. The song was one that was essentially about falling, but I forget what it was now. So I looked at pictures of parachutes and parachuting harnesses and so on. I decided the dress was a party dress made by a young woman in the post-apocalytic future out of old parachutes. Or something like that.
Luckily, they ran out of size 8-10 mannequins for us to use in the class, and they only had one size 12 which someone else chose, so I got to use a size 14. Woohoo! Cos this is (was) my size, so I would be able to fit the dress, and also the way I wanted to do the sides of the skirt really required that the wearer had hips, otherwise it just wouldn't look right. (This is why I don't understand why designers use only one size and shape of model on the catwalk, etc. Different things look good on different shapes and sizes, so if you only use one shape and size, you are limiting yourself to one kind of clothing.)

Some components - the straps were sewn inside out, turned right side out, and pressed with the seam at centre back. I made sure the strapes were the kind of annoying synthetic that you could press creases into. The red fabric in the dress is the kind of annoying synthetic that you can't press at all, as well as being almost impossible to hold in one place, cut in a straight line, or sew.


The front partly made. All the fabric except the side skirt pieces are flat lined with a thin calico to stop it distorting, ripping at the seams or whatever else these annoying fabrics might do, and also to make it comfier to wear against your skin, as otherwise it would be really sticky and clingy.


Front.

Alternate configuration.


Side.The pleats in the side skirt didn't work properly because the red fabric is the worst fabric in the world for anything. You can't even see it in the photo, but basically there are sewn down pleats/darts/tucks in that curved red side piece from the waist down to the hips where it releases to make room for larger parts of the body, like one's butt.
The shape of the green side piece is inspired by corsetry and stays.
The arm-scye has corners, so it's like a big arch shape, cos that's just cool.


Back. The zip is open ended. I would have had it go all the way to the bottom of the skirt, but this is the longest I could get. The zip is a fairly chunky red plastic one. Hook and eye at the top.


I wore this dress to my brother's birthday dinner cos my family told me I should even though I was kind of embarrassed to wear it out. And then I had to stand-up and show the Indian restaurant owners the dress, and the restaurant was full, so with the restaurant owners and my family all commenting on it, plus the fact that it's not a very subtle dress, I imagine everyone got to see it. (We were sort of friends with the owners in the way you are when you often eat at the same place and you both recognise each other and say hi when you meet on the street, away from the restuarant, and they gave as free stuff and discounts. They are cool people and we like them.)