For my second Drape assignment, we were first introduced to the “Queen of the Bias Cut”, Madeleine Vionnet. Vionnet is reknown for her romantic bias-cut Grecian-style dresses, taking away the torture and constraints of corsets, bustles and petticoats in the 1930’s, and introducing soft, flowing fabrics cut and sewn on the bias so that they draped beautifully on the female body.
(Grecian-style dress by Vionnet)
(Evening gowns by Vionnet)
The aim of our assignment was to design a gown incorporating Vionnet’s style and techniques, as well as another source of inspiration. Now it happened so that my sister had asked me to help her design her wedding dress for her big day coming up, so with this in mind, I decided on ‘flowers’ (as I love floral prints and designs) as my source of inspiration and a ‘wedding dress’ as my gown. Boy did I have a challenge ahead – but a very exciting one too!
One of the first things I did was study the shape and form of different types of flowers. I came across these exquisite floral radiographs by Albert Richards, providing me with a view on flowers I have never seen before. Each petal was like a layer of delicate tissue or floaty sheer fabric.
(Left to right: Cup and Saucer Canpunula, Columbine, Hybrid Tea Rose)
Flipping this lily upside-down revealved an A-line skirt flaring out into a sweeping train – quite fitting for a wedding dress.
(Calla Lily: Upright, and Upside Down)
This one here is my favourite, it reminds me of a ballerina stretching into the sky. Quite amazing how human a flower can look! (Hmm, now I’m thinking about those ink splot tests psychologists use haha!).
(German Iris)
I also did some research on designers, particularly of those who are popular for their gowns and eveningwear. Colleen Quen‘s work caught my eye. She is a couturier who is especially inspired by flowers and their natural form of movement, which she tends to mimic in her clothing. As you can see from the photos below, influences of nature are highly evident in her creations.
(Evening gowns by Colleen Quen)
Reading through biographies on Vionnet, I was naturally drawn to all sorts of Vionnet’s designs and techniques. I was particularly interested in her use of the ‘barrel cut’ and her flower-inspired ‘petal’ skirt. The blue dress (in pic above) by Colleen Quen features barrel cut sleeves, which reminded me of a type of exotic flower, or a flower that has its petals closed.
Probably the most fascinating aspect of Vionnet’s design process was the type of model she used. Vionnet cut and designed all of her dresses on miniature dolls before recreating them on life-size models.
(Vionnet at work)
I decided use this technique to experiment with the barrel cut and petal skirt idea, and used my miniature wooden doll as my model. Not only is this a faster method in enabling you to view your toiles, it definitely uses a lot less fabric – and when it comes to draping using Vionnet’s techniques, a lot of fabric is used due to cutting and draping on the bias!
I thought a 1/2 barrel cut may resemble a curved petal or leaf, or the full barrel cut as a whole flower or bud. Both could act as shell enclosing what would act as stamen/stigma or smaller flower. The overall look was quite effective, however it wasn’t terribly flattering (my sister wouldn’t appreciate looking like a cacoon).
(Experimenting Vionnet’s barrel cut technique as a skirt on miniature model)
Next, I decided to give the petal skirt a go, following an example provided in a book on Vionnet written by Betty Kirke. I traced out a copy of the mini-sized petal skirt pattern piece from the book and used it to trace and cut out the petals in calico. Although I managed to get a decent understanding of the overall design, I should have used a different kind of fabric instead of calico as the petals did not fall as loosely as how the sketch in the book had depicted (even though the fabric pieces were cut on a bias). Nonetheless, the exercise proved to be very useful and inspirational, and I ended up adapting Vionnet’s petal skirt design to just the back of my dress.
(Experimenting Vionnet’s petal skirt technique on miniature model)
I started off doing a mini sample on my model (left), and then applied the same technique to my full-sized dressform (right). Using an old light-weight bed sheet on the full-sized toile made the petal drape much better, and I decided that after adding more length that this would be the train of my wedding dress.
(Left: Petal train on miniature model. Right: Petal train on full-sized dressform)
Now that I had an idea of what the skirt part of my dress was going to look like, it was time to work on the bodice. As mentioned earlier, my sister had asked me to make her wedding dress for her. She had described what sort of neckline she wanted for her wedding dress which was v-shaped, gathered, and fitted. I was also interested in how Vionnet used ‘twisting’ in her garments as a way of removing darts and adding decorative features.
(Image from article written by Betty Kirke)
I tried this out on my dressform and experimented with twisting at the shoulder seams of a gathered and fitted bust-line, on a bias. Not only did this technique remove the darts from the bust, it also helped create what looked like a better fit and shape to the bust area.
(Experimenting ‘twisting’ with acetate material)
The experimenting allowed me to plan the neckline. Having worked at a wedding dress boutique before where I have dressed many a bride-to-be’s in hundreds of different types of wedding dresses, I knew that an empire-line style dress (which lengthens the body) would be suitable for a petite figure like my sister’s. I decided to use pleats around the bust instead of gathers as it looked a lot tidier, and linings for the both the bodice and the skirt were made.
(Pleating the bust with calico and adding my pattern marks)I then added wider layers of pleats to form what I felt looked like leaves that envelope around a flower at the stem. I started pinning little pretend roses (i.e. scraps of calico) around the CF to add to the floral theme (as well as hide the seam). Vionnet often added little hand-made rosettes to her garments too.
(Leaf-like bodice and rosettes at bust)
After tracing out and transfering the markings of all the pattern pieces from the calico onto kraft paper, it was time to start on the real thing. Ivory satin material was purchased as well as a 35cm concealed zip for the CB. I hadn’t done much sewing at this stage of the Graduate Diploma course, and working with satin was a new (and difficult) experience – especially on the bias as it is so slippery. However, after days of hard work and perseverence, my floral-inspired wedding dress turned out rather…stunning :o)
(Close-up of front of empire line and bodice with centre rosette)
(Close-up of body and back of bodice)
(Front and back of floral-inspired wedding dress)
P.S Please excuse the terrible mess in the background of my little workshop – it had been a long week! 😛
(back pocket detailing of Karen Walker jeans)
(tequila shots at the bar…including one for me!)
snipsandsnippets 
