Creative Design: Professional

Validated Flower

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Abstract

The inspiration for Validated Flower comes from the whirly shape of flower petals. Validated Flower uses only two pieces of fabric, light-colored organza (with a tone on tone color combination); the two pieces of organza fabric were used to construct the shape and volume of the dress. Validated Flower is built on a zero-waste sustainable design concept, which uses only rectangles to construct the flower. In zero-waste fashion design, fabric creates a space for inventive exploration (Rissanen & McQuillan, 2016). There are three main categories of fabric waste creation: 1) cut-and-sew, of which zero-waste fashion design is part; 2) fully fashioned, which includes whole-garment knitting; and 3) A-POC (Hethorn & Ulasewicz, 2015). Of course, Validated Flower has included the cut-and-sew category. The crumpled and crispy organza of Validated Flower is used to shape the flower petals, and the creased and folded shapes have formed the volume of the garment. Thus, the seams and finished edges of Validated Flower needed to be part of the design process throughout. Leaving them to a late stage in the process would not have worked, as they have specific implications for the pattern pieces. Validated Flower is very much a three-dimensional way of viewing the dressing of bodies that has much to offer the field of zero-waste fashion. During the design process of Validated Flower, zero-waste blocks were modified to produce the desired design details, fit, and fabric width of the final dress. The primary effect of the creation of this natural mini dress, Validated Flower, has been an insight that the vertical and horizontal guidelines used in the prevalent discourse of pattern cutting have very little to do with the actual physical body and the fabric that dresses it. This process of applying these shapes to a dress form is more akin to sculpture than to drape. A number of vertical pleats through the neckline in the back of the dress provide volume throughout the body. In addition, Validated Flower has mainly been displayed as a guideline for draping practices and for creating a general understanding of the moving body as it interacts with garments; it does this as a one-size-fits-all garment by using an elastic band on the back of the dress at the waist in order to account for size differences. Validated Flower is a flexible blossom. Hethorn, J., & Ulasewicz, C. (2015). Sustainable Fashion: What's Next? A Conversation about Issues, Practices and Possibilities. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. Rissanen, T., & McQuillan, H. (2016). Zero Waste Fashion Design. Bloomsbury Publishing USA.

How to Cite:

Lee, Y., (2017) “Validated Flower”, International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference Proceedings 74(1).