AIFL fashion club

notes from "paper fashion show" by Belinda Baxter

Sometimes, fashion is not just about the clothes that we put on our
bodies or the designs that we create for people to wear. Sometimes,
fashion is about art, about improvising and, in the words of the
infamous Tim Gunn from Project Runway, "making it work". And that's
just what the Fashion of Paper Show was all about. I was given the
opportunity to work with a graphic design company to create and
complete a garment made entirely from paper for this show. It was
one of the most rewarding and exciting experiences of my life to
date!

From the very first moment that I began working with the staff of
Laser Advertising, the company that designed the dress, I was made
to feel as I was a member of a team. Natalia and Francesca were
very accommodating of all us. They worked with everyone's
school/work schedules to make sure that everyone had time to work
on the dress. They made sure that everyone was very involved with
the creative process of taking the garment from concept to
completion. They allowed us work space in their office, provided
most of the materials, and threw in their lot with us designers
after hours. I was always treated like a professional, and I could
tell that they valued whatever contributions that I made to the
design.

At first, I was a little worried because we were given just a
little over two weeks to complete the dress. But, thanks to the
organizational skills of Natalia and Francesca, and the hard work
of everyone involved with the project, we completed everything on
time. The design was beautiful, and even though we hit a few speed
bumps during construction, we managed to make everything work. For
example, we had to add a piece to the top of the bodice because the
model was coming out of it! And the day before the show, we
scrapped our original belt design and created a whole new belt from
scratch! But after two fittings and two dress rehearsals, the dress
fit our model beautifully.

The materials that we used to create the dress were somewhat
unorthodox, since we were working with paper instead of fabric. Let
me just say here that hot glue can fix just about any problem! The
paper that we used was provided by Unisource, the company that
sponsored the show. We had a variety of colors, weights, and
texutres to choose from to create the dress. We chose an earthy
palette in mulitple weights and textures, since the theme of our
dress was "The Tree of Life". The dress was also loosely inspired
by the architectural mosaics of Gaudi in Barcelona. We stenciled,
cut, crinkled, shaped, textured, and glued our hearts out until we
reached the desired results: a beautiful, if somewhat slightly
abstracted, tree of life. We were extremely pleased with the final
product of our efforts.

The show itself was also magnificent! Held in the Miami Convention
Center, the fashion show was part of a larger trade show, a
graphics convention. There were a total of 15 garments, each
representing a particular country or theme (like the world). The
pieces in the show were just amazing! Some of the garments so
closely resembled fabric garments that I almost couldn't believe my
eyes! Each dress was unique and artistic. It was like being at a
fashion show and an art exhibit at the same time!

All in all, this was definitely one of the most unique and
gratifying experiences that I've had as a fashion design student
here at the Art Institute. There are no words to describe the
elation I felt when I saw our dress come down the runway. Those few
moments of complete happiness are the main reason that I decided to
become a fashion designer. Would I participate in this project
again? Without a doubt! In fact, I am looking forward to doing it
again next year! I would also like to take the time to thank the
all the employees at Laser Advertising for collaborating with us,
helping us out when we needed it,and putting up with the mess!
Thanks to our entire design team: Natalia, Francesca, Nicole, and
Kafi - our dress was amazing! And thanks to our fabulous model,
Rebecca, who totally worked that runway! Thanks to Mr. Milman for
offering me this opportunity, and most of all, thanks to God for
making all things possible!

posted by art design project @ 4:22 PM