Molly ACACIA DESIGN.
A deeper dive into my collection....
The final major project of my degree explored themes based on a series of photographs of butterfly taxidermy and macro photographs of wings.
Drawing on my personal style of slightly gothic colour-ways, and inspired by the forms and characteristic motifs of art deco and art nouveau.
I started this project with the idea of having reversible garments that on one side would be subtle and almost camouflaged, and the other bold and eye catching - like the reversible functions of the opposing sides of a butterflies wings.
But as the project evolved, the joy of exploring different fabric qualities including flocking and devoré, as well as hand embroidery and digital prints, allowed me to explore far more ideas and come out with a broader range of fabrics and print designs than my initial concept could have conceived.
degree show 2022
Silk Chiffon with double sided flock
The Process
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This piece was patched together using over 60 pieces of hand dyed/painted flock paper, cut to fit and placed in situ on the heat press plate.
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Through my sampling and exploration I had found that printing glue onto sheer silk, so that both sids of the fabric were saturated, and then sandwiching the fabric and heat pressing between flock fibres, meant that I could create a reversible, double sided print with a bouncy drape, and there could be 2 completely different colours/ patterns on one side than the other, this couldn't be achieved using devore.
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The shawl uses this screen design, hand drawn with pen, and repeats each half to the opposing side.
Revealing each half of my shawl.
I could only heat press one half of the length of fabric at a time,
so definitely had to figure this one out as i went...
Lepidoptera kimono
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This was the statement piece in my final collection, the print design (below) was VAT printed onto this buttery yellow silk in 3 separate panels, 2 single pieces and another reflected, combining 2 prints.
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The original piece of fabric, donated from the Alexander McQueen atelier, was light pink. Through a variety of experiments and shifting the recipe, I achieved this very soft buttery yellow. I then dip dyed the pieces after the print was set and washed off.
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The lining and collar are fashioned from black liberty lace that my mum had bought in the 90's, and the back is detailed with hand embroidered stitching to create a 'spine' or skeletal type structure.
VAT print with hand embroidered
detailing and lace lining
Madame Butterfly?
My muses for this collection comprise of singers such as Florence Welch and Stevie Nicks - floating sleeves and swishing fabrics.
My aim was to create prints and colour-ways that felt gender neutral; theatrical boldness contrasting with supple silks with rippling motifs.
This robe has such a luxurious weight to it, owed to the generous amount of fabric - floor length, lace lined and with the traditional Japanese 'furisode' pattern for the sleeves.
Video- Hand embroidered detailing
For each of the designs in this collection, from the statement pieces to the smaller coordinates, I took 1 or 2 butterfly specimens and aimed to convey the essence of that particular wing into the print outcome. I didn't want to blend and therefore dilute the unique nature of each specimen by crossing over too many different influences.
Learning through doing - Adding another print out of registration, dip dyeing the sleeves, and even the positioning of the lace trim and addition of embroidery - I worked intuitively to form a piece that closely resembled what inspired me.
Lepidoptera Collection - The Fabrics
A major chunk of my time went into hand drawing 3 screens, A0 size, that I hoped to print in registration. These 3 designs were the basis of a lot of my collection.
Some of my silk screen stencils were produced from photographic collages that I had developed from my visual research, these were used to explore and test out the techniques I went on to develop.
The 3 layers/screen designs are featured below.
DEVORÉ & FLOCKING
Reversible fabric outcomes
Instead of sewing together 2 designs (back to back) i experimented with adhesives and flocking to fuse different fabric qualities together
The collection covers a range of techniques;
- experiments with devoré & hand painting dyes
- both plant and protein fibre dyeing
- flocking as a surface texture & adhesive
- digital prints
Discharge print onto black silk
DIGITAL COLLAGE & PHOTOGRAPHIC STENCILS
highly contrasting Black & White stencils
developed From the photographs (above)
Using these digital collages as stencils meant I could experiment with techniques quickly, such as layering flock fibres in different colours, onto printed backgrounds, to see how the different surfaces interacted.
I tested to see how the drape and handle of the fabrics changed when adding flock layers in different arrangements/patterns, as well as the reversibility of each design.
3 COLOUR REGISTRATION PRINT
