Earlier this year we shared our plans to participate in the IIDA 2018 Product Runway. This event challenges interior designers to create couture garments from the same products they use in their design projects every day. Design firms are paired with one vendor who supplies the materials used to make their garment. This year, we were paired with Architex, one of our favorite commercial textile vendors.
A minimum of 80% of the finished garment had to be made up of the vendor’s materials. In other words, only 20% of the final look could be made up of alternate materials such as thread, garment glue, embellishments, or accessories! Everything else had to be sourced from the vendor directly!
Designers from the Crimson Team including Emmy, Jessica, Esra, and Katherine, worked closely with a seamstress and consulted with an extraordinarily talented costume designer, Alisha Lawrence, to create a garment that encompassed this year’s overarching theme, “Express Your Wild Side” and represented our assigned theme, “Circus Performers”.
Our team decided to create a garment that would emulate the essence of the Golden Age of the circus. We wanted the piece to have unexpected details, hidden layers, and surprising twists. Representing the Ring Master’s attire, we constructed a vest made of Architex’s velvet upholstery as well as a sateen fabric. We embellished it with rhinestones and pearled buttons that could be unsnapped to reveal a tiger striped bodice beneath.
The first skirt look was bustled up to look like a circus tent, with a Crimson Design Group twist, of course. In the back, the skirt was a true bustle, a nod to the early days of Ringling Brothers.
A tab was sewed in and, when pulled, the full skirt was revealed constructed of a shimmery Architex fabric embellished with flame like embroidery.
Our final look represented a tiger, jumping over flames!
As in all things Crimson Design, we delighted in including little details. On the gloves and leg pieces we added gold, lion head buttons!
While we had an incredible time creating our garment, we were impressed by the ingenious designs of our colleagues!
Photo Credits: Courtesy of IIDA Columbus
After months of hard work, we were thrilled to participate in this year’s show. We can’t wait for the next one!
Many thanks to our extraordinary team!
