#couturedesign

Fashion Patternmaking Techniques: Technicality and Whimsicality

This technical volume by Antonio Donnanno is one of several by Promopress which show both a garment and how it would be worked out as a flat pattern. This volume’s title equates haute couture with very dramatic evening styles which overlooks all of the neat little suits and daytime dresses couture houses have ever made for their wealthy clientele. (Other volumes treat those kinds of garments). But then most of us only know famous couture houses today because of the dramatic dresses worn at well-publicized galas and ceremonies, so this may explain the approach.

A chapter on pleats, drapes and frills gives us the dress with the short layers of skirt upon skirt, while another chapter on ruffles, flounces and jabots both describes the basics of those design elements and gives us Dress with Collar Flounces and a very deep, and probably impractical V-neckline in the back. Notice the whimsicality of the blouse whose sleeves are then attached hem of its blouse. But what happens when you need to scratch your head, which is what I was doing while pondering this sketch. There are chapters on garments with raglan sleeves, with cut-on sleeves and then later ones consider tailoring and basic draping. There is also a chapter on painting on fabric, and that is the only embellishment covered.

So, this is definitely a volume that will get you imagining evening and cocktail dresses and some of the more dramatic ideas for necklines, skirts, even sleeves, if that kind of garment is your obsession.

The Two-Piece Look of the Dress in the 1960s: Vogue 1466 by Simonetta

Why would a designer go to so much trouble to create the look of two-pieces in a dress? This is the second such effort I have spotted recently among 1960s patterns, see Vogue 1522 by Patou which I blogged earlier, so there must have been some reason. It could be mere novelty, it could be the satisfaction of fooling the eyes of the onlooker, the borrowing of an idea, or it could be separates were considered a bit less informal than a dress and thus easier to choose for day-time wear. It also could make it easier to wear as one didn’t have to worry about the two pieces parting company at the waistline if one should stretch or lean. What it did not do in this case was make it easier to get into.

This dress pattern by the Italian designer Sinonetta featured what she called a “bias-cut loose waistcoat effect” created with a center bodice pattern piece and then two side pieces which are then lined after they are attached. Then an underbodice which looks like a darted sloper but cut in lining fabric front and back is attached to the fashion fabric bodice, and shuts with tiny hooks in the back under the zippered back, making it extremely difficult to get on by one’s self. The underbodice exists in order to attach the gathered skirt front to it, thus creating the two-piece look and then the whole underbodice has an attached inner ribbon belt to hold it close to the body by closing with hooks and eyes. The back belt pieces then button in place, one through the other.  And did I mention the entire garment is first underlined to give it some stiffiness and keep the A-line shape?

Yes, a lot of work for this two-piece look, and one that tends to draw attention down towards the waistline. Notice how the sketch of the pink version has a large brooch and an up-do to draw attention back up towards the face. And notice how the photograph of the black makes it hard to discern any of the details which seems a waste of all that effort.