HALLOW FW 2020
HALLOW is my first exploration of dress history of the Renaissance and Middle Ages. I loosely interpreted, or “historybounded” fashion from these periods through construction methods, versatility, layering, and silhouette in this collection into modern and modest silhouettes.
HALLOW is a celebration of femininity and mindfulness through how we dress.
1/5 was heavily inspired by 1490s Venitian dress. As far as my research told, Venice was an odd spot for fashion during this period of the Renaissance. Shaping undergarments were seldom worn and waistlines were drastically higher than their general Italian and European counterparts, resulting in a soft and forgiving silhouette.
The dress follows a similar silhouette to a Giornea, a Venitian Renaissance lady’s loose-fitting overdress, with its neckline and waistline, but it is adapted to a more modern silhouette to be dressed up and down. Underneath is a bustled walking skirt to add structure and dimension, as well as coordinating bloomers.
2/5 is intended to be more masculine than the rest due to the shapes and layering of the garments. The top was loosely inspired by the shapes of gambesons, a common protective garment for Renaissance men that typically were worn as armor. Gambesons are made with padding and quilting and were functionally needing to be durable, so I shirred the fabric to provide a similar appearance to a gambeson while giving it the appeal of looking casual.
3/5 was a really fun outfit to draft. The pants have waist-to-hip pintucks for shaping, with long pintuck creases down the front legs. The top is drawcord gathered and tied to the front. I could only find very little of the sheer undershirt fabric, so I tried to waste as little of the fabric as possible, and only the neck hole cut was wasted.
It was a lot of fun exploring seam finishing on this outfit. Both tops have binding and french seams.
4/5 I spent the longest time on this set of garments compared to the rest, and it was easily the most satisfying couple of pieces to develop. The eyelet chemise is the only thing in my thesis that I didn’t draft from scratch, and was based on a 16th-century extant chemise with drastic modifications to the shoulder’s width, neckline, and sleeve openings. All of the seams are felled, which was really fun to do around the bottom gussets. The cartridge pleats and beading are hand-sewn, both of which I plan on playing with in the future.
Both the stays and raw silk pants are self-drafted. This was my first time arranging lace onto something, and it was a very fun process as well.
5/5 The jumpsuit is shirred until the underbust then falls into a peplum until the hips, and the pant portion is lined until the knees. I wanted the two sheer undershirts to resemble a partlet around the neckline but play off of each other to create layers and texture with the sleeves all ending at different points.
The outermost top is knit and beaded by hand, which was very time-consuming yet satisfying (I learned a lot through it and picked up a passion for knitting!). I have many things that I would do differently with this knitted top after making it once, but I still cherish it as part of my thesis.
