V&A Visit

Yesterday I visited the V&A to do some research for both my Induction Brief and the FAD project. Looking round the new look Fashion Gallery with its extra floor, that is currently dedicated to the Ballgown Exhibition, and what an exhibition!!!
Many of the dresses where amazing, the Giles Deacon 2007, Carwash Dress with it multitude of pleats
http:/www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/features/fairytale-gowns-you-shall-go-to-the-ball-7743282.html?action=gallery&ino=3;

This is inspiring as I have quite an interest in fabric manipulation and what can be done with fabric to make beautiful dresses. Also the shapes bring me back to my paper folding origami research.

This was placed along side an Alexander McQueen dress made from what appeared to be pinky grey feathers. It is quite interesting to use alternative fabrics for dress making, or alternative pattern cutting, but still producing something beautiful and glamorous.http:/www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/features/fairytale-gowns-you-shall-go-to-the-ball-7743282.html?action=gallery&ino=6;

Gareth Pugh exhibited a dress made from silver interlocking pieces of leather, that appeared to have been formed without seams or darts http:/www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2012/may/15/vanda-ballgowns-exhibition-red-carpet;

I like the idea of using metallic colours to create a beautiful, dress fit for bridal or evening wear collections

The last dress that made me gasp was a canary yellow dress by Erdem AW08, It had an amazing print at the bottom of the dress that included applique, embroidery and embellishment
 http:/www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/features/fairytale-gowns-you-shall-go-to-the-ball-7743282.html?action=gallery&ino=2;
I would like to include some form of embellishment on my dresses, not sure how or in what form, maybe I should look into other designers that have used embellishment within their collections.

1. Look into metallic fabrics
2. Research embellishment
3. see what shapes you can achieve from paper folding, or try and use some fabric and fold that

After the Ballgown Exhibition, we went downstairs to the Fashion Gallery to look at the collections.

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O71739/tuileries-evening-dress-and-antonio-castillo/
within these I liked the Lanvin, Castillo evening dress with its net and taffeta skirt

Castillo used net over taffeta, and attached small cream circles to the net to help form with evening dress. This is something I have never considered, the use of net over fabric could create a different look if the net was a different colour to the underlying fabric


http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O120798/evening-dress-pierre-balmain/

Balmains evening dress from 1957 showed beautiful use of colour in a dress that could be a bridal gown, with pleats over the bust and applique over the skirt, it reminded me of Douglas Hannants Spring Summer 2013 Bridal Dress design, using floral print instead of the traditional Ivory or White.

This may be something I could use for my fabric, patterned fabric that ma not ordinarily be used for bridal wear or even evening wear.



Things to do - Look at patterned fabrics, use maybe stripped or checked?, maybe drape on stand to see how it may appear in a full skirt