Profile

Last updated 22:03 Sat 07 Apr 2007

i am designer / director of the art dress collection

art dress manifesto

art dress is the realisation of a new consideration of the elements that make up contemporary design; as a concept alone cannot be worn, art dress creates the link between concept and three dimensional form. The art dress design process is an exploration of design; minimalising external influences on designing a dress, and reducing dress design down to its most basic elements – one piece of fabric, a single stitched seam, and at the centre, the human form. Each art dress should last a lifetime or beyond, and should be wearable throughout this time. It is a dress for all occasions and for no occasion. Wear art dress to the shops, to dig the garden, to a party, to watch fireworks, to feed the ducks.

art dress is the equation body + fabric + gravity = dress. When the three elements of body, fabric and gravity are combined, dress is created.
art dress is the sum of balancing the elements within this equation. The elements of body and fabric require gravity to complete the art dress equation as gravity produces physical and visual effects on both body and fabric. art dress is cut and constructed to respond to the body beneath, forming over it and into it, becoming a second skin. The fabric metreage of art dress is equivalent to the surface area of skin on the human body; approximately 2 square metres. art dress will stretch and cling to the body beneath inclusive of size and sex.

Gravity is a force of nature; it holds us down on earth, it holds us together in our surroundings. Gravity and body work together, producing multiple effects on fabric, creating dress. Gravity anchors fabric downwards, pulling it over and into the planes and angles of the body, creating fabric tension, cling and flow, and suspension from areas of breadth. The pull and effect of gravity on fabric can be predicted and used as a design method. Fabric must be anchored to the body at the highest areas of breadth and stability (the neck, shoulders, upper chest) as the force of gravity constantly pulls downward. If suitably anchored, the fabric will remain securely attached to the body and becomes practically wearable as dress when in motion. Body joints provide the capacity for horizontal and vertical movement; head and neck, shoulders and armpits, elbows, wrists, hands, spine, hips, knees, ankles and feet. A single or combined set of body movements will produce a visual effect on fabric.

art dress works as a piece of contemporary design by utilising the wearers individual skeletal proportion, muscle tone and fat distribution as an essential (but uncontrollable) element in the design process, thereby giving the dress body and the body dress. One without the other is singular and incomplete. It should also be noted that whilst each art dress is cut identically to another, each art dress is to be considered unique because the body beneath is unique to the wearer.

Website: www.artdress.co.uk