Spirit of the Black Dress Opening Gala

Here are some images from the Spirit of the Black Dress going ons...

Media Launch

The Opening Gala Runway show

click here to see more from the runway show thanks to MELBOURNE REVIEW

It was a pretty amazing experience; fantastic to see my designs come to life on the runway and supporting such a fantastic organisation. Thank you to the Spirit of the Black Dress team for all the incredible work and commitment!

Additional Photos From:

http://www.stylezilla.com.au/article/the-spirit-of-the-black-dress-media-launch-479

http://iolanthegabrie.com/2013/03/08/ruby-slipper-the-spirit-of-the-black-dress-media-launch-2/

2013 Collection; "Walk as One"

As one of the very lucky winners of The Spirit of the Black Dress competition, I was invited to show some of my designs in the runway show. As I am a student, however, many of my previous ‘collections’ and garments are very specific to certain concepts and learning outcomes associated with the university. Therefore, I designed and created a new collection which I entitled ‘walk as one’.

This collection is a continuation of the concept used in my Black Dress submission as I was interested in pushing the ideas further. The collection, like my black dress, is created by the recycling of men's pants into contemporary styles. The new styles link strongly to their origins and utilise the components of the trousers such as pockets, clasps, belt loops and facings to show the journey of the material and therefore celebrate the sustainability of the designs.

Look One: "Easy Fit Dress": Pant panels draped from belt loop straps

Look two: ‘Drop Back Tank’: Strips of pant material, facing and waistband detail in loose tank design  and ‘Patch Pants’: 3/4 pants wrapping shapes of original pant panels around the legs, 3D Pattening.

Look three: ‘Pocket Bag Singlet’:White cotton singlet made from the pocket bags with a raw edge finish and ‘About Slouch Shorts’: Reorientated panels draped and tucked, pockets, fly front zip.

Spirit of the Black Dress 2013 Submission

“Everything has value, no matter how old or broken up, everything has a soul, an identity, behind everything there is a story, a story with a continuation”

-Sustainable Designer Naomi Maaravi

I feel it is important to up-cycle in a way that celebrates the origins of the garment, promoting the story of sustainability. My dress is made up of two components; a slim fitting dress and an open front skirt which together create a classic silhouette with contemporary detail. The outfit shows the design journey by continuing the language of the original garment, utilising the original finishings and showing the construction.   

The dress was created using components from two men’s trousers. By draping the pre-shaped panels, my design was created by how these shapes fitted in to each other as well as how they could be used around the body. This process is made evident in the skirt where the seams are turned out as a feature. The panels which had pockets on the original trousers have been reoriented to be just as usable on the new design. Lastly, the waistband and fly front zip have been utilised as a practical element, further adding to the ‘story’ of up-cycling.

My garment has a number of sustainable elements as outlined below:

Sutainable practice: By using pre-shaped panels and draping them onto the body, I have considerably reduced the use of resources including paper for patterning and fabric for toiling. Furthermore I was able to reduce energy consumed in sewing, by pinning seams to the outside and sewing them in one sitting.

Lifecycle: The dress is made up of two components; a fitted dress and an open front skirt which are able to be worn individually. Furthermore, the skirt can be rotated on the body to create attractive silhouettes as well as being reversible as the seams are designed to turn to the outside as a feature.

Sustainable Materials: My garment is made out of almost all of two pre-worn men’s trousers, using the separate panel pieces as they were and re orientating them to fit in to each other and around the body. I have utilised the panels with pockets so they are just as usable and one of the waistbands and zip as a practical fastening on the open front skirt.   

Print and Meaning; The Ephemeron

2nd Year Textiles group project “Print and Meaning”: repeat printing with new ideas, pushing the technique.

Semester 2/2012

Projects Synopsis 

We can go through life not noticing the beauty of nature and how it changes with each season. When we focus on a leaf for instance, we can see the ephemeral forms that happen in its change from growth to decay. Art can help us to become more aware and more conscious of the beauty of nature. By looking at our representations, the viewer will not only be able to see the beauty in nature, but also the value and importance that may have previously been missed.

‘Ephemeral’ uses patterns and textures to capture the changing state of the leaf. The skeletal intricacies of the leaf have be magnified and made a focus of the cloth to add value to this ordinary object and attract the viewer’s attention to its changing beauty. In reflecting the various stages of growth and decay of the leaf, we are preserving the ephemeron in a permanent state. The cloth remains in this form whilst the real leaf continues to change and decay.

Through a form of shibori wrapping and tying we added a texture to the cloth that could be hidden or highlighted by our print and added extra depth. As a group we were interested in different interpretations and representations of the leaf so it was important that each group member form their motifs in an individual way. The motifs have been worked back into the lengths to speak of growth and create dimension.   

The first length of cloth stays true to the original colourway of the leaf in quite a literal interpretation. The second length uses a completely different colourway to show the skeletal pattern of the leaf in an unconventional way. This allows us to show the intricate vein pattern and a breakdown of the pattern across the cloth without the obvious reading of a leaf.

Motif design

Detail Close up; layering of motif design

Research and development 

Paper template

Length #2

Length #1

Fit, Form and Function; [And long hot days...]

[And long, hot days recurrent]

“And long, hot days recurrent”; bringing the importance of the Australian wool industry back to the masses….

“And long, hot days recurrent” is the 6^th line of the 4^th stanza of the poem Shearers by Australian poet Henry Lawson. It talks about the journey of shears as a person themselves; but also shows the essence of the shed in which they spend their lives. “and long, hot days…” relates to the lifestyle of anyone who works with sheep while the word “…recurrent” links back to a simple time when the Australian Wool industry was the most important sector of the country. 

In a nation that ‘rides on the sheep’s back’, the shearing shed is an iconic representation of Australia’s journey ‘from the humbleness of the pioneer to the grandeur of the wealthy grazier’ (Sowden, 7). It represents the ideologies, the workmanship and the vigour that is the Australian sheep man. The sheep shed is a place for tending to sheep but also a place for people. It is from this one building where poems have been inspired, stories shared and a lifestyle shown at its most raw; where stress is high, work is hard and anything can happen. For me it is the heart of the farm- whatever that heart may be enduring.

What is fantastic about the shearing shed is that while the processes and architecture may have changed, the basic characteristics have not. I am inspired by the stories, poems, memories and legends of the wool shed from its humble beginnings to the present day, as a true representation of Australia.

I have chosen to look at the sheep shed from an overall perspective, although researching each area specifically in the progression. This is so I would be able to represent what the shed means to the individual workers, as well as what it means, or should mean, to the nation.

The Garments

- Structured, yet natural in form to relate to the hand crafted sheds

- Organic forms/ fabric and fibre is at one with the person; flowing around the body, seeing the body through the fabric etc

- An importance on wool specifically such as hand-made felt; relating to how important wool is to a sheep farmer.

- Inspired by the forms of the architecture of the sheep shed and the way it promotes the movement of air for heat control

- Subverting the suit in design, but also taking some points from the garments worn by shearers today and traditionally

Wool in a Life; a material investigation

“Wool in a life”

Coming from a farming background and currently studying fashion, I am fascinated by wool and the extreme life-cycle it undergoes. I conducted a material investigation exploring techniques such as Nuno-Felting and creating 3D forms in felt. I used atypical elements found in the shearing shed such as discarded wool sweepings, dirt, rusty objects and bark as a way of forming colour and texture which speaks of the beginning of the cycle of wool. My aim for this project was to portray the remarkableness of wool in its processed state,  as well as the beauty in the natural and the dirty which may even compel this component to be ‘fashion’, so continuing the cycle. 

PFF Student Runway 2012: RTW Men's

Submission into Perth Fashion Festival's Student Runway

Click here to see the full Student Runway Show.