Mystique

Van Tran, San Francisco State University
Kelly Reddy-Best (Faculty Sponsor)

Keywords: manipulation, resist, scales, tablecloths

A significant amount of textile waste goes into the landfill each year. While some textiles can be reclaimed, only a small portion of what can be sorted is reused. For example, the San Francisco hotel industry discards 100 tons of tablecloths into the landfill a year.

The purpose of this design was to illustrate how discarded textile waste, such as tablecloths, can be turned into an aesthetically pleasing garment. Fish scales served as the aesthetic inspiration for the jacket and dress. I focused on fabric manipulation in order to turn the simple tablecloths into an interesting design, and to reflect an abstract fish scale.

The dress is made from 100% discarded tablecloths. This fabric was first dyed with a natural dye. Then, I resist-dyed the scale-like pattern onto the fabric by hand-painting bleach with a small paintbrush. The two princess panels on the front of the dress were hand pleated and stitched. The sequins on the body of the dress were hand applied to represent the reflective nature of scales. The dress is completely lined.

The jacket fashion fabric is made from vinyl, and a 100% polyester material was used for the lining. The jacket sleeves were machine-quilted with a 100% cotton batting. Nine horizontal slits were cut in the back piece of the jacket, then this fabric was twisted once and stitched in place to create a scale-like effect. The slits were cut with an x-acto knife. The low-back silhouette on the dress allows the viewer to see the wearer's skin through the manipulated slits on the back of the jacket.

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