The Chandelier Dress
I created this piece during my Freshman year Wintersession at RISD in a Apparel Studio course. I was inspired by the Fashion Designer Paco Rabanne to create my own "Chandelier Dress". I began by buying 150 feet of chain at a local store in Providence which is all used for the top, skirt, and headpiece and ordered 40 crystals, 20 are an icicle shape while the other 20 are a drop shape.
I enjoyed how Rabanne was different from other fashion designers by working with his hands in a unique way. Instead of taking the fabric to a sewing machine he worked with metal and pliers much like a jeweler or a metal smith would do. The piece to me had to have these elements and style of work to look like a deconstructed chandelier to shine on my model.
Light is what I wanted to use for my advantage. I wanted the piece to make noise while my model walked and shine brightly as it catches all of the light in the room. I capitalized on this during the photo shoot which are my images shown above by placing lights in various places around my model.
