Where do I even start? This term I signed up for the infamous PD 483 Garment Studio with Tom Bonamici. I have had the pleasure of taking classes with Bonamici many times before but have awaited this specific course the whole first two years of school. I have always been enamored with pattern making and creating garments since I was a kid and always altered clothes before I wore them.
This course was the perfect amount of structure and freedom to do as you please. The first couple of weeks we made shirts, pants, robes, pillow cases, bags, and other fun smaller projects to get a sense of ripping patterns, fabric manipulation, seam types, and warm ourselves up to our final project. I'll put some photos of these projects in my general portfolio and maybe write a smaller write up for them but the real star of the show waits ahead.
Tom told us pretty early on that for our final we were going to have to create a collection of 2-4 pieces that are cohesive and tell a story. I immediately knew exactly what I was going to tackle. When I was in highschool I fell in love with wet form leather, mesh, and absolutely formless bias draped pieces. There are many phenomenal examples of this in brands like Balmain, Hussain, Margiela, etc. but I knew I wanted to do my own take.
I wanted to create a collection that moved with the wearer almost like a second skin. Something slinky, flattering, artistic, and almost "not-there". Here's my moodboard...
I have been drawing these kind of pieces forever and went back into the vault to find my favorites along the years. With some modifications and modernization I created 24 sketches to start thinking what I wanted this collection to look like. Here's the original 24...
After presenting my first round of ideation. The class and Tom helped the collection narrow down from 20 pieces down to 5-7 possible feasible options. Tom recommended I learn how to drape on my own time and drape the entire collection rather than make patterns. This proved to be a complicated task but I am so glad he told me to do it.
I knew before learning how to drape and deciding my final collection pieces that I needed to find that perfect material with enough give, weight, density, opacity, and most importantly.. four-way stretch. I searched at thrift stores, Joanns, Hobby Lobby, Mill-end (a lovely excursion with the rest of the cohert), and any where I could see fabric options. I struck gold on 12 yards of a black polyester four-way stretch power mesh that was on 75% clearance at a random Joanns in a dead part of town. I bought every last inch of it and continued to refine my ideas.
When I told Tom about my material choice he joked and said that the person who works on the mesh and spandex at manufacturing facilities are always the oldest person with the greyest hair just because of how finnicky those materials can be. I knew it was going to be a challenge but good experience. Tom recommended I meet one of his longest sowist friends Sue Prichard, a Eugene local, and I got the chance to go over to her beautiful home studio later that week. She was an absolute gem who gave me some ideas on seam construction, yards of butcher paper, and a jersey needle and sent me on my way to begin constructing these pieces.
To save us all some time (and not relive the PTSD that was the draping process) here is the general step by step process for the draping of these pieces.
Cut about a yard or more of power mesh.
Using hundreds of pins drape and cut the fabric to lay on a mannequin exactly how I want it to look on the body.
Cut the excess off every section as close as possible to the where the seam line would be.
Take fabric off the mannequin with pins still in places that will cowl or hang in a particular way.
Place these "rough patterns" on a ironed sheet of muslin and trace with pen.
Clean up the symmetry, curves, etc. (These become your "pattern")
Using the muslin, slip the draped pattern under the mesh and cut out the final garment fabric pieces.
Construct the seams, top stitch, serge or hand stitch to finish.
Is this backwards? Yes. Was it time consuming? Absolutely. Did it somehow just make sense to me? Yeah.
I'm sure I will continue to learn about clothing and garment construction the more I practice and will eventually learn what works and doesn't work for me. But this worked for this collection.
Three weeks of construction later, I had 5 pieces to show for it. A backless dress, a cowl neck off the shoulder top, an asymmetrical tank with strings to tie, an asymmetrical tank with flounce detailing, and a double fold a-line skirt with flounce detailing to match.
Is 5 pieces more than 4? Yes, but I justified that the pieces were simple to construct and therefore I should make more.
I knew I wanted to finish the pieces significantly earlier than necessary because the photography of the pieces would make or break the presentation of this collection. Off the body these pieces look like mesh formless black blobs for lack of a better term. I knew I needed Josh.
Joshua Mannila is a photographer friend of mine based out of Bend who may be one of the most talented editorial photographers I know around town. We've shot together in the past and I knew he would absolutely kill the photography for this. I asked him how early I could get him to help me out and drove to Bend the day before Thanksgiving at 6 am. Josh got a lengthy 50+ pinned Pinterest board of my pose ideas and moodboard and just ran with it. We shot for multiple hours at a golf course studio in Bend and I am so grateful he agreed to help me out.
After a lovely day in Bend with friends and a quick thanksgiving trip home. I came back to Eugene Week 9 absolutely ecstatic to put together my look book. I laid everything out and was sitting on my dining table with my lovely roommates showing and telling as I usually do. Throughout this process my roommates watched me come home late from the studio and tried my pieces on, gave me their opinions, and supported me through every step.
My friend and roommate, Raquelle Melchert (a very talented artist go check out her website https://raquellemelchert.com/) has an absolutely stunning back tattoo she designed and she was the inspiration for my dress. I knew she needed to be in my look book and wanted her in that dress. Olivia Cleary, another roommate and close friend, has an affinity for off the shoulder tops and was the target model for the cowl neck tank I created. I took them to the studio in Lawrence and photographed with them for multiple hours while listening to cozy jazz and laughing the entire time. Seeing them in my work was such a wonderful feeling and I hope I can continue to drag them to model for me in the future. They are naturals.
Long story short. The book ended up exactly as I envisioned, the final review was incredibly rewarding (Sue came and was on one of my review panels!), and I have been able to wear the pieces to all kinds of events. This collection was an absolutely lovely experience and I am excited for next term to take another junior studio (PD 484) on Bag Construction!
Thank you to everyone who contributed to my success especially Tom Bonamici, Joshua Mannila, Tyler Furtado, Olivia Cleary, and Raquelle Melchert. It's an awesome feeling to be surrounded with lots of talented individuals who are always willing to help!
As always, thanks for reading and happy holidays!
- Saachi Poddar
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