Stripes, Checks and Florals in fashion

When you are given the brief, Pattern and the Body; Stripes, Checks and Florals what comes to mind? Upon receiving this, images of pattern clad models, almost lost under a sea of colour come to my mind. You begin to consider how you may be able to place these patterns together to create an aesthetically pleasing, and maybe even a wearable result. Could you use small patterns with large patterns? Similar colours maybe? Or something to break up the obscenity? After these initial thoughts, I began to think of ways to have stripes, checks and floral in a representational manner, rather than having three different types of fabrics competing for attention.

Firstly, I thought of material made into flowers, for example checked fabric made into a rosette. But even if that combined two elements in one, how could that ever go with a striped dress or blouse? This kind of internal debate continued until I had to step back and look at the brief from a different angle. This idea came to mind; if I was going to try and represent some patterns to down size the clash, why not go the full turn? I decided to try create a garment which had stripe, check and floral by using absolutely no striped, checked or floral fabric. Good idea. But… how?

Firstly I had to consider all the ways to represent each factor. I then had to pick one from each representation which, when put together, would not still clash (or even throw a whole new obscenity my way). I decided on weaving fabric for checks, bundled fabric for stripes and iron on flowers for floral. Thought had to be taken when putting these components into a design as too much of each would also result in another horrible clash. I decided on having a neutral colour, as I believed doing this would ensure I hadn’t added another factor into the garment, taking attention away from the main three. I decided on a silky cream fabric for most of the dress. For the lined bundle which is around the middle as a sort of belt, I decided on a sheer fabric. The light look and feel of the fabric, I thought, would stop this section weighing the garment down, and from taking all the attention.

So has my journey lead to success? Well, I have made a garment that has stripes, checks and floral. The dress is full sized and wearable for a size 8-10 (standard Australian sizes). And, from my own expectations, I have placed them all together without any clashing effect. What do you think?




(close up on weave detail of bust)

Cordelia xx