Purposeful pathways: holiday 18/19
purposeful Pathways Holiday 18/19 is a collection inspired by the winding sidewalks and pathways seen in blueprints of Washington University in St. Louis’s campus. The pathways create intricate shapes, purposefully leading the person walking to different views and structures on campus. Pathways was designed for woemn ages 35-65, and after conducting market research and interviews, I took my findings and translated them into a collection cocktail dresses. The cocktail dress constructed for Pathways features laser-etched and laser-cut leather panels down the front of the dress to the bottom, leading the viewers eye around the dress, mimicking the same perspective seen from the pathways on campus.
‘Pathways’ Inspiration & Color story
After visiting the exhibit at the Kemper Art Museum on campus, I found that I was really inspired by the aerial views of campus. The most prominent part of these views was the way the sidewalks and pathways snaked around campus grounds, It reminded me of typography maps. I decided that I wanted to focus on the aesthetic of the pathways on campus, incorporating those design elements into my cocktail dress. As a class, we decided on our set group of fabrics that we could chose from and tat dictated our color story (seen underneath my inspiration board). Fabrics included burgundy satin and leather, silver melange woven fabrics and velvety black fabrics.
Laser-cut Cocktail dress Illustrations
These four illustrations were the four other designs I illustrated for potential cocktail dresses. Each design incorporates pathways into the design of the dress. This is done through different silhouettes, as well as laser cut pieces and laser etched designs onto those laser cut pieces. I conducted four interviews with four women ages 40-58 to understand what they would look for in a cocktail dress. Below is my final design that I came up with for this project.
Final Cocktail Dress
This strapless, fit and mermaid flare cocktail dress is made from a burgundy satin and pleather. I chose to contrast the satin on either side with the pleather running down the middle and onto the bottom, this reminded me of the pathways on campus. I then laser-cut a snaking, pathway shape that I laid ontop of the burgundy leather. The pathway laser-cut pieces also feature laser-etched lines to incorporate the horizontal lines seen in pathways and sidewalks.
