This collaborative project with CreatiVets involved designing a complete look inspired by artwork created through their organization. It was an opportunity to approach design from a new angle, as it required me to translate visual art into a wearable form, while also collaborating with my classmate. I focused on analyzing color palettes and composition within the artwork, then applied those elements to fabric selection, silhouette development, and detailing. The process challenged me to think critically about material storytelling and broadened my skills in conceptual design and technical execution.
Process
Brainstorming
The O'More fashion show was only a couple months away and we began drafting our looks for the fashion show. For the sophmores, we collaborated with Creativets to take inspiration from their work to design a piece. My soldier's art piece was inspired by the traumatic thoughts he had before he went to bed at night from the war:
" I made the piece at the School of Art Institute Chicago in 2018 while I was mentoring a Creativets program . To me the piece represents when I lay my head down at night to go to sleep and it gets flooded with tons of information that I think needs processing . A majority of that information or MESSAGES I am trying to process deals with my combat experiences and my life in the military . It just feels like every time I lay my head down all of these messages come back to me some good , some not so good and a lot of bad . So in short this is my best attempt to imagine what I see my self looking like before I wake up in the morning while my mind processes information and messages . Crazy super computer type stuff .lol . [sic]" - Bart C.
With this in mind, I created my moodboard. I took inspiration from military uniforms, specifically the uniform jackets, for my look. Because of this, I opteded to design a wrap dress with small pleats at the top of sleeve.
Fabric Selection: Cotton African Print and Chino Twill
Color and Fabric Selection
The main fabric selected was a dark brown chino twill due to its weight and drape. My partner and I also decided to incorporate the color and a bit of African print fabric I had in my stash for the look. Not only did I think incorporating the African print fabric would create a bold effect walking down the runway, but it would be a perfect way to showcase the symbols carved into the clay of the sculpture.
Patterns and First Mockup
I created the first draft of the patterns by draping muslin fabric onto a mannequin. The sleeve was flat patterned to ensure enough width was added for my model's arm.
Front
Back
Wrap Alteration
Princess Seam Alteration
First Fitting
For my first fitting, I sewed up a mock-up for my model to try on. I was confident it would fit her because surely a wrap dress is easier to fit than a normal dress. Wrong, very wrong. It fit so poorly I was lost on what went wrong. I had to take 4 inches in from the bust, 3 inches from the waist, and 2 inches from the hips. I also had to lengthen the skirt to make it more modest and fix the placement of the darts. While this does not sound nerve-racking from an outsider's perspective, it most certainly was for someone who has never had to make that many changes to a singular garment before.
Second Mockup + Fitting
With each fitting, the fit of the dress got better and better. Though I had to do one more fitting than others, the fit turned out gorgeous for my model. She looked amazing on the runway and everything came together nicely!
Third Fitting
Looking back, I don't think it should have been as bad as I made it. I've made changes to patterns for myself and for my mom before, so this should have been a piece of cake. The nerves from knowing my piece would be in a fashion show alongside my collaboration partner's was really getting to me. What I learned from this experience is to just take my time because quality will always come before quantity.
Conclusion
Looking back, I don't think it should have been as bad as I made it. I've made changes to patterns for myself and for my mom before, so this should have been a piece of cake. The nerves from knowing my piece would be in a fashion show alongside my collaboration partner's was really getting to me. What I learned from this experience is to just take my time because quality will always come before quantity.
The final look:
I styled the wrap dress with Doc Martens as a symbolic nod to the combat boots worn by soldiers during their service.
