In my pursuit to be inspired with a design I just kept moving forward. I bought a new sewing machine and started sewing.
I had been desiring this Donna Karan dress for months, my pattern was waiting for me when I arrived in the States, so the minute my machine arrived I started it.
I am sewing it out of New Zealand Merino. Believe it or not it is the lining that holds it together and gives it shape.
It seemed simple enough, but it was mentally taxing, the shapes made no sense and I couldn't get my head around how it went together. I just moved forward on faith.
I hardly managed to sew two seams a night. Methodically I plodded on, revising what I had completed the night before. This went on for two weeks and I just trusted it would all come together in the end.
And Oooooh, did it ever.
I had looked at a similar dress at Saks Fifth Avenue, that was part of my required research. I didn't even have the guts to touch it let alone try it on. It was nearly $900. I found out later it was 95% rayon and unlined.
The night I wore my new dress out to dinner heads turned. My neighbor who I had been chatting with for a few weeks said "I was hot". The waiter at the restaurant was waiting on our every want. Dinner lasted three hours.
Donna Karan seems to have a knack for making a woman feel beautiful. She knows how to flaunt and express the curves of a woman's body to their fullest.
In architecture Frank Gehry comes to mind as one of the first to exploit this idea of curves in architecture. I've seen this building, it is impressive, moving, the works, but it doesn't have the visceral expression of the user like Donna Karan has for the wearer.
Now, I could no more draft Bilbao than I could draft this dress, but I am aspiring.
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