Three years of making clothes, and I somehow never made a dress.
It started with a piece of patterened silk over 50 years old, gifted from my mother’s aging friend. I started sketching simple, bias cut dresses, but I wandered into a cutout shape that would suit a conventional grain cut, and fell in love with it.
The cutout shape is softly inspired by the rooflines of some Thai buddhist temples. The fabric was a salvaged striped cotton from Ricrack. We used it for mockups, and Vanessa liked it so much we used it as the finish fabric, too.
The first time she put on the finished dress, Vanessa said it looked like New England summer. Only fitting, then, that she would wear it first on our trip to Maine. She styled it flawlessly; all she needed was a red Alfa convertible. An old one. Well, next time.
From the first time I met Vanessa, I dreamed of making clothes for her. This dress is the first garment I’ve designed for her.
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