Lazy Girl: Episode 12

My Paper-doll Collection
When Carla Fernández told us that we would using paper dolls to design our own collection using the triangle-square approach of the indigenous Mexican garment-makers, I was thrilled. After all, playing with paper dolls and cutting out their clothes, was one of my major childhood pastimes. My father once got so tired of seeing the living room floor littered with paper dolls that he threw them in the fire place.

As I explained in Episode 11 of Lazy Girl, I was in Boston to take Carla's workshop and see her exhibition: The Barefoot Designer:  A Passion for Radical Design and Community at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

 Before beginning our paper-doll collection,

Carla showed us some of her designs which

we could try on.

Here she models a shawl which can

turn into a blouse.

 A tasseled wrap that I admired.

Pink and black is a favorite color combination.

 Kat models a huge black shawl.

Seetal models the same piece worn by Carla, 

but arranged in a different way.

We  begin our design process.

 Seetal with her exotic multi-color ensemble.

 An elaborate dress.

Tough to execute.

 Blouse and skirt

From Carla's book:

A blouse made from three squares.

 The wrap-around skirt begins with

a rectangle.

Variations on the wrap-around skirt,

with different pleating effects as used

in different areas of Mexico.

 Pants are two rectangles.

A cape is two rectangles.

My two dress designs.

I made sure I did one dress which would be

easy to make: the one on the right.

A dress is a rectangular form.

 When we had completed our collections,

we held a catwalk in the courtyard of the museum.

The museum made a video of the event.

Tomorrow...we make the garments.

À Bientôt!