In all, I’m not entirely happy with the project. While I’m proud of what I accomplished, I think this concept would have been executed a lot better with more experience and planning on my part. This only means I should keep going, learning, growing.

What I am extremely grateful for is the patience and support of my model and friend Diana, the efforts of the engineers on my team (SeiHui, Fanyee and Kent) and the help and encouragement from my Professor! They were truly the heart of this project, and I’m glad they all contributed to this semester of growth.

Here are some of the amazing final photos of the garment:

Waitress pose for good luck!

The process of creating this garment came in two parts, with the first part being incredibly labor intensive and time consuming. This was the construction of the inner layer.

To create this layer, I used a water soluble fabric (originally used for embroidery). This fabric would be cut into the desired pattern pieces (with a one inch “shrink” allowance, as the fabric bunched and folded very easily), and doubled so the thread and yarn can be sandwiched between the two layers in the desired pattern, which was all pinned into place. At this stage, it looked something like this:

From here, I sewed lines of black thread through the piece repeatedly, first horizontally then vertically, to lock the yarn in a homemade mesh.

Afterwards, I ended up with patterns that I’d create very basic shirt patterns with. When sewed together, it looked like this:

Sleeves! (One of which I ended up ditching…because…of fashion.)

 

After the pieces were completed, it was time to dissolve them, to remove the fabric and leave only the thread and yarn.

After a stressful and honestly very gross and sticky session at the sink (as well as a 24 drying period), here’s how the garment doing:

After this, I linked up with my engineering counterparts, who were in charge of lighting construction and design. There was a lot of negotiating and compromise regarding the LEDs, but eventually this is how they came out:

IMG_5633-240gfr5

The second outer layer, sewn from a white water soluble fabric with different properties than the clear (quicker to dissolve, and closer resembled fabric than plastic), was done with great haste! On the day of the show, so there aren’t many process shots. However, its construction was simple enough to relay easily without much photo reference:

I took an old sleeping shirt that was several sizes larger than my model, and traced it out onto the fabric (which was folded in half so I’d be cutting the front and back out at the same time). Then, I moved the armpit down and sleeves out considerably, creating a more kimono-looking shape, so it would be easy to fit over the actual garment, and so it wouldn’t be too difficult to remove during the show.

The fabric itself wasn’t opaque, but I liked the light transparency it granted.

Shoes now remains as a functional product to provide comfort. What more can it do?

As a sneaker lover and a product design student, I intend to design a sneaker that has technology, activated using voice recognition to trigger different functions in the shoe.

Some of the function of the technological shoe includes location tracking, lights when walking in the dark, traffic crossing light signals, etc.

This not only make shoes a wearable product because of its asthetics, but also improve peoples lives and enhance the experience is wearing a sneaker.

It’s hard to make new friends.

It’s hard for me to meet new people, it’s hard for me to feel confident and friendly and “me.”

 

And so I sweat.

 

I think sweating, and the concept of deteriorating to exposure was something that was at the heart of this project. So, I tried to incorporate the act of melting – the outer shell intended to be dissolved while on the runway – with something that looked personal and raw – the red and blue veins paired with LED strips meant to signify blood racing.

That’s where the homemade mesh idea came in – the repetitive act of sewing again and again felt like the laborious process of empty conversations almost. The drone of the sewing machine was like menial conversation, and ironically both still make me extremely nervous.