More Drapes

I started draping using cotton silk. This time I experimented with Electric colours from my electric colour story. I mixed the two colours to create an electric visual appeal and started twisting the fabric to create cowls. I also tried loose rouching to gain excess. 

                      

Rouching done very loosely at the back along with cowls.

                    

I liked the way I got an asymmetrical silhouette with the lime green part hanging loose with cowls at the left side and the electric purple part shorter on the right side of the garment.

Excess Layers

I created a base dress in muslin and created panels in different lengths with pastel coloured organza and tulle. I stitched 20 layers of each panel together to get the excess effect.

After I got the silhouette of the dress with 140 layers (7panels of different lengths, 20 layers of each) stitched together, I started rolling up the already existing layers that gave a totally different look to the whole outfit.

Everytime I used to roll up a few more layers, I used to get a different silhouette all together. This was a very interesting and helpful exploration exercise for me as I could play with the silhouette so many times and get a different form in front of me every single time. I got the tulle fabric ombre dyed, one from light grey to dark grey (which included three shades of grey) and another one from sky blue to a deeper tone of blue (which also included 3 shades of blue from light to dark). The ombre dyeing gave an interesting effect to the whole ensemble as when I rolled the tubes, I could see different pastel shades of blue and grey mixed together giving a very interesting form.

As I was experimenting with the whole process of getting excess in different ways and get new silhouettes out of it, I rolled up the layers in different widths. Again I got very striking forms with each roll of a different width, length and position. I rolled up 2 organza layers together, then 2 tulle layers, rolled organza and tulle together, sometimes 2, 3 or 4 layers together in different widths.

As a result of experimenting with this rolling technique, I changed the original plain silhouette to an absolutely dramatic one with a combination of different pastel colours (from my pastel colour story). In the process I developed many distinct silhouettes from one original silhouette combining tulle and organza in different pastel shades. This was something really new for me as, in draping I played with the rolling technique for the first time and learned a lot from it. Not only this technique gave me the excess effect I wanted, but also I got a very prominent final silhouette which obviously came after the different silhouettes I had already explored. I liked the asymmetrical silhouette that I achieved in the end with the tubes hanging down from the left side longer than the right side and the torso full of excess fabric draped in 140 rolls.

Draped Pockets Trouser

I was experimenting with the balloon skirt and trying out different variations in terms of the silhouette through draping. I thought it would be more interesting to incorporate this silhouette in the form of large pockets in a trouser. I made 22 panels for each of the two pockets.

For the trouser body, i started with making pleats on the waist to gain excess at the bottom and increased the length of the trouser to have many folds on the ankle. 

By converting the idea of a balloon skirt into huge pockets for a trouser, I got an interesting silhouette for the same. 

DRAPE EXPLORATIONS

THEME: FABRIC OVERDOSE (Excess)

I started with exploring different ways to drape and get new silhouette out of the drapes. I started with making pleats with organza fabric and twisted and turned the fabric in order to achieve new silhouettes. Here I experimented with a new colour story- pastel colours (from my trend magazine).

I mixed pastel colours- soft green and light pink to get newer drapes.

I wanted to see the drape effect in trousers as well. So I started with making pleats from the top and continued till the bottom to gain fabric excess. I got two looks of the same trouser from this exploration.

In the first look, after making a few pleats, I let the fabric loose and started making cowls at random distances getting a new silhouette for the trouser.

The second look has a more tighter silhouette with the width of the folds increasing at the bottom.