The Making of a Party Frock

It would be fair to say that I have spent considerably longer perfecting my textile print design than I have my fashion design. I don’t regret that at all, I have often struggled with my skillset as a textile designer in the past. As illustration is not my forte, my print design centred around using ephemera and vintage imagery, to collage designs, often combining them with complementary fabric finds from my collection of antique scarfs and recycled materials. My design practice relied heavily on finding the right combination of components to spark inspiration and sometimes pieces would be years in the making, waiting to stumble on just the right buckles or buttons to finish project.

I never really considered myself a textile print designer in the true sense of the title, but as a person who was good at putting things together visually. The discovery of Cyanotype has changed that completely and my experiments with the process over the last 18 months, have given me the tools to express myself creatively in a medium that I find consistently inspiring. With cyanotype I feel like I have found the means to depict my creative vision, which makes me feel like a proper bona fide textile designer. I don’t have to find imagery anymore I can create my own in my own unique way, and I’m really excited to see where I can take it next.

I allowed myself the time necessary to perfect my cyanotypes, because I knew I had the basic skills as a dressmaker to make things work regardless. I don’t mean that in an arrogant way, just that I know how to construct clothing in the aesthetics of the vintage silhouettes I favour. And although I might not have spent much time perfecting my sewing skills physically, I have carried out extensive research and reading on couture sewing techniques throughout the course all of which has added to my skillset. I feel better equipped than I ever have when it comes to garment construction, and it was just a case of putting that knowledge into practice with my final garment and future projects for which I hopefully have a lifetime to perfect those skills.

I always said my print design would influence my garment design and as the practicalities of developing my print methods with cyanotype and translating the results into a large-scale digital print were only worked out quite recently, I became very aware of how little time I had left to design, pattern cut and complete a finished garment. This increasingly troubled me as our deadline approached to the point of distraction. Panic set in. What had I been thinking? I’d been talking about couture for the last two years and now I only had a few weeks to complete a couture finish dress!!!!!!!! With a project entitled ‘Party Frock’ I felt like I had messed up the most fundamental aspect of my work.

As my stress spilled out, a dear friend reminded me that couture dresses are ordinarily made by a team of skilled ateliers, working for hundreds and even thousands of hours to complete their creations. It was always going to be a tall order for me to replicate that. Not to mention the fact that my project has changed considerably since I started the course. In the beginning I envisaged that I would probably create a dress for my final outcome, for which I would design the print and have the usual accompanying portfolio and look book. My final outcome now actually consists of a dress, a collection of 18 miniature dresses that chart the progression of my design, an animated catwalk show featuring those dresses, a short film that shows the stages of making throughout my project and a website. If we had been able to showcase our work to the public, the dress, film, animation and 18 miniature dresses would have been displayed together as an installation piece.

All of that has eaten into the time I originally planned to put aside to complete a couture dress, for which I had estimated a minimum of 2 months to complete and that did not sit well with my inner dressmaker. Self-doubt crept in and I began to feel conflicted. Part of that was just the usual stress and second guessing of my choices that seem to accompany the end of a project, have I made the right decisions? Have I achieved my intentions? Have I used my time wisely? Am I happy with my outcomes?

The answers to which are emphatically yes. I am happy with my decisions because ultimately my project has evolved into something greater than I could ever have imagined. And the experience of allowing that to happen, has enriched every aspect of my work.

For a while an actual dress felt less important to the culmination of my work, it felt part of the whole not the defining object. I contemplated the need for it at all, especially with the declining likelihood of our end of year showcases going ahead. As I write this now it seems inconceivable that I could have thought that, even for a second.

Ultimately creating a party frock was something I needed to do; my project would not have felt complete without it. Other aspects of my final outcome may very well have stood on their own, but they were initially conceived as a means to create that final frock. My Sindy’s used to visualise scale and silhouette, my cyanotypes, specifically developed to decorate the surface of a garment. The practicalities of print creation specifically shaping a garment design, all seemed rather futile without it.

Image photographed by Phil Lynam

My final ‘Party Frock’ symbolizes so much more than my original intentions. It exemplifies my creative journey, my development as a designer, my thoughts feelings and every decision that went into its creation. It is not perfect, and as a perfectionist I would be lying if I said that didn’t niggle me. I know that if I had stuck to my original intentions and played it safe, it would be, but for what I have gained by allowing myself to explore my creativity, I can live with that. I really would not change a thing.