Day 3

Hi everybody!  Yesterday in Wind Ensemble (as Olivia states in her post below) she and I finalized our final dress designs.  Hooray!  Here is the sketch for dress #2:

In the top right corner we wrote "Fabrics: chiffon and black mesh."  On the right side of the page we wrote "Sweetheart neckline."

While we realize that this dress is a little more romantic and feminine for a band dress in comparison to our sketch for dress #1, I believe that this dress has many redeeming qualities.  It would compliment many different figures as well as making all the girls in Wind Ensemble feel confident.  To add a nice demure effect to the dress Olivia and I included a black mesh overlay over the collarbone area.  We hope you like our design!

Also, I would like to give a special shout-out to our blog readers from Germany and Malaysia.  Danke and terima kasih!

-Julia

Day 3

Happy Tuesday! 


Julia and I came up with the final dress designs today. We narrowed it down to two styles, the first with 3/4 sleeves and the second with short sleeves. Next Google day, we will survey the girls in the class! 

Below is the finalized design for Dress 1. The first dress design has a traditional scoop neck and is cinched at the waist (with folds along the midsection). The back of the dress will have a bow that will make the dress form-fitting.  

Thanks for reading, 

Olivia

Day 2

Hey everyone!

As Olivia mentioned in her last post (see below) we spent our most recent Google Day getting inspiration from various sources on the internet.  These are some of the dresses we looked at and both liked:

http://www.maxstudio.com/product/ponte-de-roma-slim-dress-30331

http://www.maxstudio.com/product/one-shoulder-evening-dress-30332?quickview=1

http://www.maxstudio.com/product/silk-georgette-halter-dress-30326?quickview=1

http://www.forever21.com/Product/Product.aspx?BR=f21&Category=dress&ProductID=2025101185&VariantID

http://shop.nordstrom.com/S/kate-spade-new-york-kimberly-dress/3321514?origin=category&BaseUrl=All+Dresses

As you can tell, these dresses are mainly to serve as inspiration for our overall design; we will not be copying any of these existing dresses.  We thought they each had unique elements that appealed to us and would add a unique look to our Wind Ensemble dress as a whole.

What's up next?  Olivia and I will narrow down our designs to two drawings of dresses that we feel would be perfect for the Wind Ensemble.  We will then create a survey and ask the girls in Wind Ensemble to give us their honest opinions.  We want everyone to be happy with our final design!  

Thank you so much for reading!  Stay tuned for more information.

-Julia

Day 2

Hi,
Today Julia and I did some research looking on various websites and started some basic sketches of what we have in mind. We discovered that there are many things to consider: style of dress, type of neckline, cinching (or none) at the waist, type of fabric, sleeve length, designs/patterns, style of the back, zipper (or none), crossover design, and possibly a peter pan collar. While we are exploring new possibilities for the dresses, there are basic guidelines we must follow: it must be black, appropriate concert-attire, and floor length. The following sketches below are based on some designs we saw on maxstudio.com, nordstrom, and some other websites:

The sketch on the left shows a 3/4 sleeves black dress with folds on the upper part and a scoop neckline. Folds in the fabric, also referred to as a wrap front design, are seen in the sketch on the right. Both of us particularly like the wrap front and are also considering the sweetheart neckline (pictured above) in contrast to the scoop neck we see on original wind ensemble dresses. Another possibility is the pleated design, shown on the right, cascading down the dress. 

Future plans? We will continue drawing more sketches and doing research on both dress designs and fabrics. In the near future we will also purchase fabric and conduct polls in class, among the girls, to pick a final design. 

Thanks for reading, 

Olivia