For the first semester of sophomore year, our final was to create a garment out of a recycled material.  I chose to use wine corks as my main material because my father has been collecting wine for many years and I have always been inspired by the different designs on not only the labels of the wine bottles, but also those printed onto the wine corks. Of the hundreds of corks I used, each one was very distinct in its color. 
For the top of my dress I decided to use the tops of the corks because I found the variation of colors to be very beautiful and I wanted to use them to create an ombre look. I also chose to cut the corks into very small slices to create a textile with different patterns and to show skin with the translucent areas. In some of the open spaces I added gold leaf to reflect the gold band that is often wrapped around the top of the bottle and also used as a detailing on the wine bottles label. All of this was glued onto recycled plastic vinyl that I had sewed together into a separate bodice and skirt to begin with. 
For the separate "cage" part of the skirt I was inspired by the shape of the wine glass. I used copper wire to create the structure that the wine corks are strung onto. I also soaked these wine corks in wine so that the entire cork would change color.