The Gardener: Cabinet of under sea memorabilia#

Outfit inspired by the deep sea world#

Cabinet of under sea memorabilia it’s the final outcome of two main research: natural dyes and a study on the digitalisation and re-interpretation of sea creatures in the fashion field.

The result is a made-to-measure cocktail dress and accessories that brings together accessible digital technologies and the value of haute couture.

The philosophy#

The Gardener aims to start a conversation about crafts, heritage crafts and combining those with new technologies, bringing attention towards a more sustainable future.

The one garment and the accessories embodies part of the technical research conducted at the crossing between digital fabrication and craftsmanship.

Technologies such as laser cutting and parametric design both translate and enhance the possibilities in fashion and accessory design, by speeding up and automatizing repetitive and precise tasks, technologies allow us to create more accessible solution for a much larger public.

On the other hand crafts such as beads embroidery and hand dyeing gives the product the authenticity of a handmade product.

The look#

The look is composed by:

• Naturally dyed velvet dress;
• Tulle top with laser cutted computational texture;
• Full tulle Skirt;
• Embroidered belt with beads and silicone injection on naturally dyed velvet;
• Laser cutted velvet purse with computational texture;
• Embroidered earring with silicone injection;

Outfit collages#

The very first idea was to create an outfit with a simple velvet dress with a tulle dress on the top. The tulle dress would have had on the top some application from my research on the digitalization of marine cratures.

The velvet dress#

The dress is entirely designed using a made-to-measure pattern generator called Tailor Nova.

How it works#

• Create an accoun
• Customize Your 3D Fit Model
• Choosing the pattern
• Personalize the pattern
• Download the pattern in DXF
  
  
  
  
  

Natural dyes, Natural cryes#

Elements of the art of dyeing, by C.L. and A.B. Berthollet

Dyeing process:#

• Washing the fiber in the washing machine with two spoon of soda for 90 minutes at 60° degrees.
• Mordating the fiber with allum from 30 minutes to 1 hour, let the cool down in the water.
• 620 g velvet fabric dried;
• 10% of alum
• pot of hot water;
• Prepare the hibiscus dyes.
• 1⁄4 WOF Hibiscus dried flowers for bright fuchsias - 155g dried hibiscus;
• 1⁄8 WOF Hibiscus dried flowers for pinks and lilacs - 77,5g dired hibiscus;

Struggling for the right color#

I really don’t know what went wrong but I’m struggling and crying for reaching the color I wanted. I did many many beautiful tests and I found a nice purple-blu-green color that reminds me the Betta fish.

I over-dyed my fabric, since now, two times and I haven’t reach that color yet. The firt time I had a really pale pink (not really an happy color!) and the second time has been even worse…

I had a pale, sad, washed yellowish green (I swear I cried!!) that looked like “una granita di pistacchio con la panna quando si inizia a squagliare!” ->“a pistachio granita with cream when it’s starting to melt”.

Pistachio granita is actually one of the best food in the world but maybe not the best color ever for this project!

If it will ever happen that you’re having an holiday in Sicily near Ragusa I really suggest you to try Bar Riviera in Donnalucata (Via Pirandello 11, 97018 Donnalucata, Sicilia, Italia), a nice cafè with the best granita ever!

Pistachio granita recipe(in italian)

Tulle top with laser cutted computational texture#

via GIPHY

On the left: Computational Texture for Tulle top | On the right: Computational Texture for Velvet purse

I struggled a lot to create a texture using the top pattern as a boundaries…but it was never working.

So I decided to create my texture in a simple rectangle and then adapt it to my model.

Here are some tutorials I followed:

• Modeling a parametric rosette with Grasshopper
• Voronoi Panels
• Grasshopper Voronoi Attractor
• Lesson #34 : Image Voronoi Attractor
• Laser Cut Design (Pattern #1)

Useful links to understand something on Computational Design#

• Computational Couture Fabricademy Presentation
• Tutorial 1 Grasshopper, Aldo Sollazzo, Fabricademy 2018
• Coralia Dress Tutorial Grasshopper, Aldo Sollazzo, Fabricademy 2018
• Grasshopper guide
• Food for Rhino
• Install Grasshopper plug-in

The different techniques investigated#

I wanted to realize a computational texture on the dress but I wasn’t sure what technique I wanted to use to recreate it on my dress. So after generating the texture I started to investigate which was the most suitable technique.

Screen printing#

We already had some plates with the photo-sensitive emulsion for screen printing. The first hypothesis was that of using puff paste paint for silk-screen printing, but then I saw that only very large cans were on sale and I would only need a small amount.

Stencil printing#

I then thought that I could use simple silk-screen paint and that I could use the vynil cutter to create a stencil. The result was beautiful because it created a transparency effect with tulle but was too flat.

Stencil silicon injection#

Later I tried to make the stencil to create a silicon injection, but the fabric was too elastic and the vinyl glue was not strong enough to prevent the silicone from going between the two levels of vinyl during extrusion.

Laser cutted texture#

The final solution was to laser cut the same fabric used for the dress and then transfer the texture (as in the wooden textile method) to the tulle fabric of the top.

Full tulle Skirt#

The full tulle skirt is composed by two layers of tulle.

How to create your full skirt:

• Fold the fabric in 4;
• Measure the waist circumference. Calculate the radius R = C / 2 * 3.14;
• Cut the waist and the bottom of the skirt as in the immage;

Silicone injection#

• I took the embroidery hoop and used a non-elastic tulle.
• I extruded some silicon mixed with acrylic paint trought the tulle.
• I waited utill the silicon was dry

Purse with computational texture#

• I used the same velvet of the dress to make the purse.
• I ironed on the non-furry-side of the fabric a thermosetting cotton in order to make the velvet stiff and to prevent it from slipping off once it has been laser cut.
• I used the same computational file, changing the number of seeds and the population curve, to create the pattern to be laser cutted.
• I lasercutted the velvet and I sew the two sides of the bag
• I created a smaller bag made out two layers of tulle to put inside the velvet one.
• I created a slightly bigger tulle bag to put on the outside to avoid objects getting stuck in the holes of the velvet texture.
• I putted the zipper and a small chain.

Embroidered belt#

• The belt is created using pieces of cloth from the dress.
• The waste was cut by hand into small rectangles of 3 cm x 7 cm.
• I sewed the rectangles together and I sewed on one side along a lining.
• I’ve put some citric acid to crate some pink-fucsia spots.
• I put the belt on the emboridery hoop and I started embroidering the silicone injections and beads.

Earrings#

The earrings are made with silicone injection with some beads embroidered on.