FASN 3130: Draping - R10: Draping Digital Journal #4

DRAPING DIGITAL JOURNAL #4 - "FIELD TRIP"

This week, we had the Monday off for the long weekend, giving us a chance to do a field trip/retail research on draped garments, finishing techniques, and fabrics. My partner, Olivia, and I decided to conduct our research by sourcing dresses from a few ladies who had some higher-end garments in their wardrobes. We thought that this method would let us achieve a better understanding of the garments by being to spend more time with them and take better pictures compared to researching in stores.

DRESS #!:

"MANGO Suit - SIZE 6"

This dress is a long, beige, sequined dress that is one-shouldered and made from a light toole/netting with a satiny lining. I unfortunately could not find the care label on this dress to find out more about the fabrics.

Front view of the dress

Back view of the dress

MANGO is a brand that originated from Barcelona, and is now an international brand for women's and men's clothing at a medium price point (dresses average about $90 - $200+).

The dress has a nice sequin design that is sewn onto the layer of netting. The quality of the netting and sequins are average, but from a designer's perspective this dress is definitely not high-end. However, the idea of mimicking higher-end garments is there with brands such as MANGO.

The lady who owns this dress hemmed the dress to her height. The original hem on the netting was just a cut raw edge, but due to the sequins near the bottom, the lady could not trim off the edge of the dress without having the sequins fall off.

Interesting observation though: the lady who owns this dress is of average height (5'5", 5'6" ish), but because this dress is from a European brand, it is much longer than the average length we may see in North Amercian sizes.

Here's the lining of the dress, also self-hemmed. The original hem is a small rolled hem finish.

This dress has an invisible zipper that I found was quite difficult to zip because of the bulk at the waist, as well as the zipper always getting caught in the netting.

The finishing on this dress is what really denotes it as being slightly cheaper: the seams are all serged, there isn't really a lining on the dress so much as there is a "backing" fabric for the netting layer, and the "backing" fabric feels quite cheap and rough. From far away, this dress may look higher-end, but once you lift up the netting layer, you can tell that the satiny fabric is mediocre

The neckline edges are finished with a bias strip foldover, like the technique we used in class to finish the skirt waist! I think that this finish is appropriate to the design of the dress as a facing would be too cumbersome in the drape of the armholes.

In the sleeve, the netting is finished with a rolled hem. I almost expected it to be a small serge finish as seen in low-price point garments.

There is some gathering at the sleeve that really creates a draped, Greek goddess-like look to the garment.

DRESS #2:

"VALENTINO - Made in Italy"

This Valentino sequined A-line dress is an interesting piece we got to look at and compare with some of the lower-end garments.

Front view of the dress

Back view of the dress

Tags

The sequins used in this dress were much higher quality than the mango dress, which were more plasticy and fake feeling, while these ones were more metal feeling in a ways. The way in which the sequins were attached is also a lot neater and carefully done.

The self hem of the dress is a serged finish that is carefully tacked up. The seams are all finished with a tiny serge.

This dress has an invisible zipper which was balanced with the thickness of the fabric perfectly; consideration was definitely put into the appropriateness and utility of the zipper so that it would have less chance of breaking/getting stuck. The sequins were also a good distance away to not get caught.

This dress is fully lined, and the lining is also finished with small serging and a small 1 cm double folded hem. The dress has a separate lining that is held in place at the hem with swing tacks.

I found it interesting that the dress didn't have armhole or neckline facings, but instead, it was just the lining understitched neatly and folded in. Despite not having facings, the dress sat very nicely and flat, and there was no issue with the lining showing and looking weird.

I also couldn't find the care label for this dress, but the fabric was much higher quality than the first dress. I think the self was a light-medium weight cotton sateen, while the lining was a light weight cotton.

DRESS #3:

"LACE + VELVET DRESS"

I couldn't find the tags or brand on this dress, but I thought it would be very relevant to look at some velvet garments as we are reproducing a velvet dress by Charles James.

Front view

Back view

The necklines are finished with a bias strip of the velvet. I didn't know that would actually work/look good because I thought it'd be too bulky!

The sleeves have a beautiful lace edging, and judging from the lace, this dress could be vintage

The lace overlay on the neckline is very textured and crisp.

The black velvet is very soft and fine, definitely of higher quality. It could have a blend of silk in it that is lending the dress some softness. This fabric is a heavier weight velvet, but still has a nice balance of body and drape.

The seams on black velvet are quite hard to see, as there are darts in the dress but they're quite invisible.

I found it interesting that the back slit of the skirt had it own little strip of lining to finish it off that was separate from the actual dress lining. First time I've seen this finish.

The self hem is tacked up with a small, discreet zig zag stitch.

The lining hem is just folded up 2 cm

I found it interesting that the dress (fully lined) had raw edges for both the self and lining, because it is often seen that if the lining is separate, the seams on the inside are still serged.

Back slit

This dress very sensibly uses a regular zipper to better accommodate the heavy weight of the velvet. But because the velvet is so nappy, you can't even really tell that there's topstitching around the zipper (which is good for discreetness)

This dress doesn't have neckline facings or understitching to keep the lining down, yet the neckline is one of the flattest and most beautiful necklines I've ever seen on a dress like this. The manufacturers definitely did a good job trimming down the bulk of the seams and pressing!

SKIRT #!:

"BIANCA NYGARD - BROWN VELVET SKIRT"

This is a Bianca Nygard brown velvet skirt that was interesting to compare to the velvet dress in terms of finishings.

I couldn't find the care label again, but this velvet was probably a silk/rayon blend, which was medium weight but had excellent drape. This fabric is a bit lighter and a lot more drapey than the black velvet.

The skirt has quite a long length, probably hits around the calves or ankles.

Unlike the velvet dress, this skirt has the inside seams of the self and lining serged. The self hem is serged and tacked up.

What was really interesting about this skirt is that the hem on the lining has horsehair in it, giving the skirt excellent body and an elegent swirl to the hemline.

The seams in this velvet are also quite discreet.

There is no facings on this skirt either, just an understitched lining.

This skirt has an invisible zipper, which works quite well despite the bulk of the velvet.

Very wide skirt!

DRESS #4:

"EMILIO PUCCI - Made in Italy"

This dress has a very interesting drape to it, making it noteworthy in our research.

The skirt portion is twisted and pleated to create this swirly drape. I know that for our following class, we will be making a twist top that is similar to what is happening here!