New clothing inspiration

Thanks for your comments on my dress; I was very pleased with the way that it turned out. I feel a lot more comfortable in my sewing skillz than I used to and I think I'd be comfortable tackling even harder sewing projects.

Now that I've finished a project, I'm looking around for something else to do. I have lots of patterns, of course, and I'm thinking I'll do something with one of the fabulous knits I bought... but I can't help but be inspired by this Spring 2010 Marc Jacob's dress, recently worn by Christina Ricci:

To me, this dress shows a new, interesting technique; it's a reinvention of the texturing we've seen lately in clothing what with all of the ruching and pleating and geometric forms. At the same time, it's ethereal and floaty and light. Apparently it's made of tulle and she chose to have it lined (which I think was the right choice; it just didn't look right unlined).

I love love love the way this dress also looks like an abstract pen-and-ink drawing. I love the subtle asymmetry of the design as well as the emphasis on the middle. And I love the emphasis on the shapes the fabric makes and the randomness these shapes contribute to the overall effect. I love that even though the dress and fabric have been designed to have a general look, the specific look cannot be determined because the fabric ultimately makes its own shapes on each person.

I could look at this dress forever. And I'm totally inspired by the technique of edging many, many, many layers of sheer fabric and combining them in their own abstract shapes. I wish I was comfortable enough in my own designs and ideas to design something like that dress... I'm not good at asymmetric or abstract things; even my doodles tend to have a very regular shape and tend to be more geometric.