Journey of a dress

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

"It's a sequin but not as you know it!" exclaimed Jasper when our textile designer held up a swatch of patent leather discs attached en masse to a piece of toiling fabric.

This initial swatch, which caught Jasper's eye and imagination, was developed into a striking shift dress with hand cut patent leather sequins cascading around the front and back panels. The swatch had been black - the final look was a vivid cardinal red.

The dress shape was sketched and passed to our pattern drafter. The pattern was prepared and the shape cut in calico to be made into the first toile. This was fitted on Olivia, our in-house model, and then re-cut and fitted again until every line was perfect.

In the meantime, hundreds of 'sequins' were individually cut, placed and hand stitched on to the silk panels.

Once finished, the dress was tried on several girls who had been cast to walk in our show. Jasper selected Dutch beauty Michelle Westgeest as the model of choice for this Look and the dress was fitted and altered for her to wear on the catwalk.