PRDA challenge 1-urban autumn

EDITS: Just a few touching on a few things I missed in the description. Because yes, in spite of such a simple design, there's a LOT going on here. Every little detail in this dress was thought about, I kid you not.

For Project Runway DA, a contest being run here:

The challenge was to create a party dress inspired by this image: [link]

CONCEPT
When I was examining the image, what I noticed was not so much the tree itself, but where the tree is. This image is a prime example of urban landscaping--adding something natural to brighten up an overwhelmingly artificial, engineered environment. This contrast of natural vs. manmade is the concept that drives the design. I kept the design fairly minimalistic as lots of flash and additions would only distract from the design.

DRESS
The dress itself is intended to represent the urban (i.e. concrete) landscape. The colors of the fabric, piping, and texture were pulled from the image in question. The texture is kinda going off the idea of some of the interesting things people will do with expansion cracks in concrete in higher-scale parts of town.

The cut and design of the dress comes from what I like to call "deceptively simple" which I think describes concrete perfectly. Princess-cut and other non-dart, non-stretch dresses are pretty highly engineered, not something that can be created with just cutting things along straight lines. There's also a greater challenge in fitting. With the seams and the shoulder pads, the shape is highly formed and allowed little of it's natural drape, similar to concrete. Piping was added to draw attention to the seams and give a cleaner, engineered look with stronger lines. Additionally, the darker piping with the contrast in patterning on the different panels gives the look a little more dimension, creating a sort of step-down feel.

I drew on a simpler dress shape in that ultimately, when it comes down to it, urban landscaping is pretty standard everywhere, owing to its practical needs. The idea also desired a simple design as making it more complex only harmed the contrast of the image. Keeping it as minimalistic as I did also helps to give it a more urban, hip feel.

Fabric-wise, I envision this being done with a sturdy non-stretch fabric; cotton twill or sateen, perhaps a linen. If you wanted to take the manmade concept too far, you could also use a similar weight poly or other synthetic. >> But concrete's mostly rock and sand anyway, which ARE natural materials.

...um....I'm trained as a structural engineer if you couldn't tell by how much detail I'm going into about concrete. >>

SCARF
The scarf-belt is meant to contrast the dress in the same way as the tree contrasts the urban setting. Whereas the dress is tailored, the scarf is allowed to drape freely. The patterning on the scarf is silk painting with dyes, allowing the color to flow and bleed more softer and naturally. Most importantly, the dress is its own element, placed superficially in the concrete landscape. There's a movement contrast as well; the dress hugs the body and moves only with the body, whereas the drape of the scarf allows it move much more dramatically, whether with wind or with dancing. ^^

The colors and the patterning themselves are clearly taken from the autumn leaves, enforcing the autumn theme. The colors are bright and saturated to contrast the grey of the dress.

ACCENTS
The trim on the sleeves and collar are red-orange and brown beads intended to represent falling leaves and help to tie the dress in with the scarf-belt. They're also a fun little addition that makes this dress suitable for a party.

The bangles and shoes being the colors of the leaves also helps the fun and funky feel. I chose to use matching bangles on each arm to represent the repetitive nature of street-side tree planting. The shoes were made simple pumps; they needed to be closed toe to hide the seams at the toes of nylons/tights, and any more complexity in the design only drew attention to the feet away from the dress.

OTHER
Since there's an autumn theme going on, I opted for more skin coverage to account for cooler weather (the choice of sleeves and nylons).

DESIGN KEYWORDS
urban landscaping
tailored vs. draped
symmetric vs. asymmetric
natural vs. engineered
superficial nature
dynamic vs. static (or movement vs. stationary for the less engineering-inclined)

Template from [link]