WHERE TO NOW with drape...

DRAPE

What is this word I feel like I keep tossing it around. I find myself trying to drape the fabric round the female form but I feel like I'm continuously getting stuck between trying to recreate the flesh that lays underneath the cloth and trying to work in a way that keeps with the traditional technique of Madam Gres drape. I need to develop my own method of drape, maybe I don't even drape the fabric, I think the visual representation of drape will come of its own accord, I need to just look at the skin and flesh and how it sits on the body and from there create a garment.

Using Silk crepe I have tried to develop a method of gathering that can be used in place of tucks to create drape on the female form.

These are some images that I used last year in one of my studios. It was probably this studio entitled "scrap" that I really started to become fascinated by the female form and began using it as my main source of inspiration. I first found images that resonated with me and from that I begun to deconstruct them trying to figure out what drew me to them. This is why these few images have been cut up, I conducted a few experiments to see if taking certain elements of the female form would create different relations with the remaining elements. I was drawn to certain parts of the body being... 

Hips

Waist

Shoulders

Clavicle

Breasts

It was these parts of the female form that I would further draw on and through my designing ensure that they would somehow be highlight. It was in this particular studio from last year that I developed a process of applying a series of slashes into fabric that would open up and reveal the female form beneath it. 

My current body of work is based on the accentuation of these elements of the female form through the moulding of leather as well as applying the notion of revel and conceal to create garments that blur the line between body and garment. 

JOCK STURGES

 

RYAN McGINLEY

DANIELLE VIDONI ©

DANIELLE VIDONI ©

It was through these two above images that the method of applying incisions into the fabric to reveal and conceal the female body was informed by. It was the lines in these drawings that allude to the lines that are placed on the body. I am however hoping to use these two drawings to inform my current project. I am struggling with draping or placement of fabric on the female form. The question is 

HOW am I going to approach this

&

WHY is this method of application to the female form done in this way, how does it relate to the female form?

I'm going to work less of trying to create drape and more on how to represent flesh as well as allow the body beneath to be revealed through the fabric so there is an equal play between body and garment. 

DANIELLE VIDONI ©

This one image from a collection of similar images I drew, the yellow represents the placement of cloth over the body

DANIELLE VIDONI ©

Drape over the body the lines move round the body in sync with its natural movements, highlighting and accentuating the main features of the female form. 

DANIELLE VIDONI ©

I really love these two images. 

They are of a draped dress I developed then layered tracing paper over the top and drew in the female form to highlight the areas I wished to accentuate and draw upon. This particular dress I really enjoy, the lies which run parallel with the body and the drape is not too attention seeking, it is with the way the drape created through tucks hangs from the body that I find the silhouette so attractive and communicative of flesh. 

 There is two video I developed in some of my earlier entries where I wear the draped dresses and walk up and down the hallway which illustrate how the dresses moves with the body during movement to reveal and conceal the female form. It is during this movement that I think that this  nylon mesh is most effective. The simplicity of dress helps to allow the female form beneath to interact and be seen more, I want to avoid cluttering this form, both garment and wearer must exist together in harmony.




These are the dresses I've made so far, not exactly what i had invisaged. Although they posses a feminine elegance they don't stand out, nor do they relate to the technique used in making the rest of my body of work.

DRAPE DRESS #1 

DRAPE DRESS # 1 (shoulder detail, tucking)

These images show the pleating method I have used to create the drape, however I feel this method it too closely linked to that of Madam Gres and the development of my own method it needed, It's not that I don't like the effect visually I just feel there is little to link to the work I have been doing with leather and brush latex.

DRAPE DRESS # 1 (bust detail)

The tucks allow this beautiful flow of fabric to cares the breasts as it falls gently over the bust revealing and concealing whilst hanging from the shoulder point. It is through the interaction between wearer and garment that through movement the coverage over the bust will change allowing the garment to 'reveal' and 'conceal'

DRAPE DRESS # 2

DRAPE DRESS # 3 (same dress as 2, draped over front shoulder)