December 2007 Archives

  

 

Baroque architects preferred curved lines to straight ones and complex forms to those which were regular and simple. The ideal form of the Renaissance had been the circle, which is symmetrical about its diameter. Baroque architects privileged the oval to the circle because it had greater variety in its changing curvature. This changing curvature was appealing because it implied a feeling of movement along its longer axes. This feeling of movement could be intensified through the use of variations or combinations of different ovals, introduced in more complex plans such as San Carlino. This effect was strengthened by Baroque architects through their use of incomplete ovals, so that one space leads to the next.

 

Blunt, Anthony. Baroque and Rococo, Architecture and Decoration, New York: Portland House, p. 41 

 

   

This was an attempt to cast a few spiral flounces in plaster. After they were sewn they were painted with wax and sand was used to provide support so that they would not collapse under the weight of the plaster.

 

I can't say that I am pleased with the result. Key qualities such as the original lightness and gentle layering have been lost. I am going to move away from this approach for the meantime, and begin looking into ways of solidifying my fabric models. A combination of a stiff or stiffened material together with structural inserts will be a better approach and more in keeping with the logic of the corset/petticoat.  

 

Opposite-Edge Gathering takes a  length of fabric and  makes its area smaller by crushing it onto a pulled thread stitching. The freed fabric collects into variable directed folds.

Shirring configures fabric with bands of rolling folds released between rows of gathering, the pinched, puckery, stitching lines form a multidirectional pattern. with a network of gathered stitching seperated by zones of fabric crowded with variable folds, shirring shrinks the original fabric while adding substance to the fabric it acts on.

Meander Shirring is improvised. The design wanders freely.




Cross-Shirring produces pockets of puffy, gathered fabric that spring up between a grid of gathered stitching. Fabric is gathered in two directions.


Pattern Shirring is produced when a design is followed.
Here a circular pattern was used.


Smocking secures and adjusts the folds of a finely pleated field of fabric. Smocked fabric aquires the same thickness as its pleats and it loses flexibility across the pleating.

 

This Alexander McQueen dress has a pleated leather shell with a thickened chiffon lining. I think this dress is a good model for me to draw from formally. In many ways it is the glam form that I have been describing. It has the double structure with a simply pleated exterior and a voluminous inner structure which deals with a more dense and complicated fabric manipulation.  

 

In the following examples we can regard the bodice as the exterior structure and the skirt as the voluminous interior structure.

This McQueen dress has a darted, bias-cut bodice with spiral semi-transparent chiffon flounces, attached intermittently along the irregular diagonal seams of the bodice. The skirt continues this method of construction, but with a greater intensity of voluminous fabric. What interests me about this garment is how the flounces are attached to the structural seams and how the bodice showcases both the structure and volume. I am interested in modelling elements of my building (the facade in particular) in this manner, a highly structured form with areas of dramatic volume.

 

Building on the discussion of pleated/darted/structured bodices/exteriors, this Versace gown shows how pleats can be combined with seams to provide a rigid shell which is detailed to describe the curvature it is navigating at a given point. 

 

Finally, the last example from McQueen showcases much of what has been dicsussed above.Interestingly, a bias-cut lattice is used to allow the bodice to fit the body. The cascading effect of the skirt is also critical. It trails onto the floor, which begins to obscure the transition from vertical to horizontal. 

 

Corsets and petticoats work together, often giving the impression of a smaller waist while accentuating the bust and hips.

 

 

The corset is a customized garment, made of seperate pieces which are stiched together, to mold the torso into a desired shape. Early corsets were made of two layers of linen, held together with a stiff paste. The resulting rigid material held and formed the wearer's figure. From the sixteenth century on, corset makers began using thin pieces of whalebone, shaped like quills or knitting needles which were sleeved between two layers of fabric. The whalebone was shaped with steam and then inserted into tailored pockets in the corset to provide structure. Whalebone was also used in some corsets in a frontpiece called the busk. The busk gave a smooth line to the front of the corset. Alternatively, boning was made of wood, horn, or steel.

 

 

The whalebone corset was much more confining than the paste-stiffened one and was often worn in conjunction with other undergarments that further exaggerated the female figure. In Elizabeth’s time, courtly fashion dictated corsets paired with large, whale bone-stiffened petticoats.

 

The petticoat is a skirt-like undergarment worn to give a skirt or dress a desired shape. The petticoat, if sufficiently full or stiff, holds the overskirt in a desired shape. Petticoats have appeared in many forms since their arrival at the end of the 15^th century including the structured variety.

 

Elaborate petticoats were worn under silk dresses in the eighteenth century in much of Europe and America, often supported by whalebone frames which were slipped into pockets in the garment and detailed with bustle-like structures made of down-filled pads. As fashion dictated larger volumes, stiffened petticoats helped give added support. The most popular type of stiffened petticoat was the crinoline which was made out of horsehair and woven with linen threads.

 

 

I am working on how to build my section. These models and drawings investigate how to build the section up as a piece of fabric that shifts between being a vertical gather to being a horizontal one.

This plan investigates how to draw a rigid, regularly pleated exterior with a soft interior that has a volume which increases in relation to how glamorous the program is at a given moment. The more glamorous the space, the more layered the wall becomes with a greater number of hidden spaces.