Ever since I was young, I always wished to live in a world alongside my stuffed animals. In this world, I am a 5” plush version of myself living in a red-roofed dollhouse decorated with floral wallpapers and hand-made interior decor.
The Portal Dress is a jacquard dress that allows this dream to become reality. Beneath what seems like an ordinary floral dress is a hidden portal that lets me escape the reality of adulthood to enter this fantastical world - anytime and anywhere I wish to.
The side panel fabrics are silkscreened by hand and gold-foiled afterward. The center panel consists of silkscreen, jacquard fabric, and gold foiling. The central portal consists of the many windows in my dollhouse. Mini curtain fabrics were woven on the jacquard loom.
Various sampler patterns were woven to be tested for the tiny window curtain fabric. Curtain pieces were cut into 2" pieces and hand-sewn onto the base fabric.
Pattern development and mock-up for the dress
From right to left: pigment color sampler, acetate drawing process, silk-screening, and gold-foiling.
Jacquard Fabric
The exterior of the dress is a floral pattern inspired by wallpapers that I have dreamt of having in my dollhouse. Among the leaves and stems of the pattern are my stuffed animals playing hide and seek.
The plants in the pattern were chosen based on their flower language and how well they capture the meaning of the portal dress.
Initial sketches and Reference
Reference
