annaglasbrook

Constructions, edges and structures

With any project I love the sampling phase; this is when I really get to play and have fun experimenting with materials and constructions. I tend to put on Radio 4 and lose myself in the materials, not thinking too much about it, but just seeing what happens intuitively and with an open mind about the outcome.

Playing with edge lit plastics
Playing with edge lit materials
Ribbon stitched through edge lit material
Ribbon stitched through edge lit material
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More experiments in ribbon stitching edge-lit material
These beach finds have been sitting on my window ledge for months because I love the orange/blue colour combination. The blue deconstructed fishing line is proving interesting to stitch with
These beach finds have been sitting on my window ledge for months because I love the orange/blue colour combination. The blue deconstructed fishing line is proving interesting to stitch with

I am also thinking about the construction and proportions of my shift dress for the seam shiftWorks project. I don’t have a fashion background so I will probably be building my dress directly onto the mannequin rather than much planning in two dimensions first.

Some great inspiration for different constructions detailing came from recent seam collective research trips to the Fashion Museum, Bath were we had a handling session with a selection of fantastic historic shift dresses from the archive (touch with white gloves on), and the Clothworkers’ Centre at the V&A (no touching – hard for tactile textiles people!). Here we got to see a Stephen Willats ‘Optical shift’ PVC dress with zipped panels that could be changed around and a ‘Dispo’ paper dress from 1967, suitable to be worn a few times only!

Mary Quant 1965/9 wool woven dress (#2000.412 Courtesy of the Fashion Museum, Bath & North East Somerset Council)
Mary Quant 1965/9 wool woven dress (#2000.412 Courtesy of the Fashion Museum, Bath & North East Somerset Council)
Rocha 1968/9 woven wool dress (#1.09.638 Courtesy of the Fashion Museum, Bath & North East Somerset Council)
Rocha 1968/9 woven wool dress (Item #1.09.638 Courtesy of the Fashion Museum, Bath & North East Somerset Council)
panel detail (#1.09.638 Courtesy of the Fashion Museum, Bath & North East Somerset Council)
Rocha panel detail (Item #1.09.638 Courtesy of the Fashion Museum, Bath & North East Somerset Council)

You can read more about our trip to the Fashion Museum, Bath on Penny Wheeler’s blog post for seam.

Anna Glasbrook