As a young girl I dreamed of being an Olympic gymnast and having spent the past twenty-four years as a coach that dream never faded. In 2016 I had the opportunity to travel to the Olympic training center for an invite only developmental camp with some of my athletes. Those dreams and experiences inspired this Olympic themed photoshoot and I used some of my gymnasts and fellow coaches for this project. All the coaches wore gowns the colors of the Olympic rings and an additional white gown to represent team USA, while the gymnasts wore corresponding leotards to match the coaches patriotic colors. For the girls leotards, I used a mix of velvet and spandex as velvet was once a quite popular fabric for leotards and is currently making a comeback.
In my draping class I was tasked with multiple weekly assignments ranging from Glenda the Good Witch, the iconic Chanel jacket, corsets, skirts, tops, collars, and sleeves. This was on of my favorite classes in grad school as I could quickly see the design coming to life on the dress from and was able to make design changes without having to wait for a fitting with the cast to see changes that needed to be made.
This dress was deigned for the annual ITTA fashion competition where the goal is to make advancements in the textile and apparel profession while exploring the use of different mediums for the designs. This piece was designed to focus of the loss of a baby and the hope of a rainbow baby that women often long for after such a loss. Using tyvek envelopes that I cut into strips, painted and sewed onto strips of ribbon, I then hit it with a heat gun to create the wavy shape. Afterwards I draped the stripes on the mannequin to create the bodice. For the skirt I dyed taffeta fabric using the stove top method and created an ombre effect. After sewing the gown together I hit the skirt with a heat gun to add more distress to help create that feeling of loss while still having these beautiful bright colors of hope for the future.
This was another piece for an ITTA submission where I created a transforming dance costume. This piece can be used for storytelling throughout the dance while also saving on the costs of dance costumes as dance is a costly sport. This piece transformed into three different looks, one being a greek chiton inspired look that transforms into an attached A-line skirt, which offers an additional skirt that can be attached to give the illusion of butterfly wings.
This Alice in Wonderland inspired Cirque piece was another photo shoot I did with some of my gymnasts, where we recreated the classic Lewis Carrol story.
Desiree' Nicole Designs 