This week I attended a screening of a documentary about the construction of a Dior couture gown, which was amazing to see! The film was originally commissioned as part of an exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum, and a crew filmed the entire making of a dress from start to finish. The design was from Galliano’s last collection for Dior, and all during the film I kept wishing I could stop the progress and get closer to the action to see exactly what the tailors and petites mains were doing at each step along the way. It’s such an incredible, painstaking process to construct a couture garment. This dress took over 500 hours and 166 metres (181 yards) of silk faille and tulle to construct. But to see the amount of labor and dedication involved really gave me a new understanding of couture. Here’s an image of the finished dress, which is named Passage #5.
photo from Style.com
Sadly, the complete film isn’t being shown to the general public. But here is a short version of the documentary.
Don’t have time to watch the whole thing? Here’s a video of the dress being unpacked, which is quite interesting in itself.
And you can read more about the dress and the show here.
Now, let’s have a little weekend inspiration, shall we? This is a short one because I’m wrapping up a fabric collection that is due next week, but here are a few fun bits I collected for you this week.
Pinterest Picks
I spent the better part of a subway ride the other day studying a woman’s two-color knitted scarf. As it turns out, the pattern is right here on the Purl Bee!
pinterest link
Isn’t this photo great inspiration for a Playdate Dress? The pockets would be an easy change to the pattern (maybe we should do a tutorial for them?), and the colors are beautiful.
This Stella McCartney dress reminds me of a grown-up Pinwheel Dress. Love the pale pink with the orange-y red.
Other Links
- The fascinating story behind Warby Parker, the company that’s completely shaken up the eyeglass industry.
- And speaking of shaking things up, Thom Browne has done the impossible and altered the landscape of menswear, which generally moves at a glacial pace.
- I’m not feeling quite so bad about being a night owl now. But I’m still tired.
The videos for the Dior dress and unpacking are truly awe inspiring. They are worth every spare minute to watch. Sewing is shown in it’s true art form. Wonderful!!!! Thank you for sharing this.
That Dior gown is spectacular, looking forward to watching the videos this weekend!
Spectacular video! I need to practice more hand stitching. Do you know of a good resource for the different hand stitches. Also, please do atutorial for the pocket change on the Playdate dress (inspirational photo above.) I would like to make that girls dress.
Just one word: YUM. That video is intriguing. I want a job in that workroom.
That Thom Browne article is fascinating, although to my eye those proportions are completely terrible to the point that the photos are uncomfortable for me to see (which I actually do not mean as a criticism of them — it’s just a question of what I am ‘tuned’ to, and I’d imagine that with more exposure my tuning would change). I love stories that give you a glimpse into not only something different but also how it came to be.
The Dior gown is mind-blowing. If you ever find that the full length movie is available for public viewing, please let us know. Can’t wait to see what your fabric collection will look like!
Wow that dress is a work of art! I have watched this video so many times now but every time I have the same wonderful spectacular feeling about the process. I wish I could watch the full length movie.