FOUNDATIONS REVEALED COMPETITION ENTRY
Olimpia Dress
(click images to to enlarge)
Other Credits
Photographer: Miriam Schönfeld
Outline the story …
Olimpia is a character in "Der Sandmann" by E.T.A. Hoffmann, written in 1816, in the style of the black romance. Don’t mistake it with the children’s TV-Show, this is very scary and not for children. It’s a book about a young man who falls in love with the beautiful Olimpia though he is engaged to another woman he knows a long time. At the same time his encounter with the childhood figure of his fears the ‘Sandmann’ brings him a dark foreshadow. After finding out that Olimpia is an automaton, the obsession about her and the fear of the Sandmann eventually make his mind snap.
Originally my plans were of a different type – more crazy and scary, but due to the difficulty of the fabric I planned to work with and that I think that Olimpia actually would have worn something that made her more human I made it the way it is now. An Automaton is unlike humans perfect, but too perfect. Olimpia would dance to rhythmical, she would’nt blink or sneeze, her complexion was probably very symmetrical but missing that interesting bit that makes real beauty. With my dress I wanted to make something historically inspired by the early 19th century, and give Olimpia something soft and human – something not rhythmical. That is why I decided on ruffles!
Outline the construction…
My base pattern was Diagram XXXVIII from Nora Waughs "Cut of women’s clothes". I made changes to the front and left out the sleeves, since it’s not historical accurate but inspired. The fabric I had in mind first was a white muslin-polyester mix I had from Greece. The polyester fibers made the work very difficult, especially when you had to make ruffles. I wanted a light colour for Olimpia, so I used a light sateen I had in stock. The fabric was better to work with, though difficult. It frays and because of that rips very easily. For the decoration I used white chiffon, because of his fluent look, and some dark red fabric for the contrast.
For the construction of the pattern I first sized it up an adjusted it to my measurements. After that I made one horizontal cut in the front piece and altered the upper part, so that it’d have horizontal pleats instead of vertical ruffles. For the lower part of the skirt I took a longer piece of the chiffon fabric and ruffled it every 20cm to the length of the underfabric. As a closure I used hook and eyes on the centre back.
This is really beautiful and i love how the materials flatter each other! good construction too!
A lot of details in such a simple looking dress! I’m impressed♡
You’ve done a great job, well done 🥰 I’m really interested in checking this story out!
Beautifully done! I love how you used the touches of red.