White Dress Workshop w/ Beehive Clothing
Beehive Apparel in Salt Lake City Utah and BYUI Apparel Design hosted a White Clothing Design workshop, where students had the opportunity to represent our age group and culture and have a real-world design and manufacturing experience. We went through each stage of the design and construction process of manufacturing a garment from research to pre-production in the development of a clothing item.
Stage 1 - Research & Design
Stage 2 - Pattern Work & Tech Pack
Stage 3 - Sample Making
Stage 4 - Presentation
Research
A Modern Day Pioneer?
To know where we’re going, we need to know where we’ve been. Keeping a mind of circular fashion, the new industry focused on innovation is more about pulling garments from the vault and finding new ways to upcycle them, not so much releasing new seasons of clothing. So what can I make that will age beautifully, pull from the ancestry of the LDS Temple Dress, and connect it with the modern day LDS woman? As well, what is a dress I can create centralized into one area in support of degrowth by focusing on decentralisation?
Decentralisation in support of sustainable fashion requires local communities to co-create their own fashion ecosystems. One reason why the Beehive Clothing is hosting this workshop for our major, is to seek out new designs that can support their future goal which is to release a new temple dress in coordination with each new temple. The upcoming temple to be built that I chose to focus on is the Rexburg Idaho temple, my hometown. I found my center thus participating in planned reduction. Rexburg was founded by the Latter Day Saints as they crossed the plains in order to seek Zion. Rexburg is built on pioneers, and it makes sense that their history reincarnate into their future.
1900’s Pioneers of Rexburg Idaho Apparel
Inspiration from the modern day pioneer look from #cottagecore to Alexa Chung rocking a bit of a throwback to the 1800s
Temple Dresses Available Now
My Design Process
Left: Inspired by a very classic 1900’s corset like shape, was a bit more narrow in design choice and more detailed when our research reported that more minimal design with minor detail was more favored.
Middle: Our research showed that woman would get cold in the temple which brought discomfort and some were looking for a higher built in collar. The trick with this is that a flattering collar differs exponentially.
Right: Here you can start to see the our final bodice beginning to form. The heart shape almost feels to harsh of a proportion line in contrast to the gentler flow of the rest of the dress. The heart bodice shape with the square neckline was a bit of a clash as well.
The final in process…
The Final Dress
Main Key Focus’s for this piece was creating a dress that can be timeless and wearable for all shapes and sizes. According to our research, one mother was concerned that she had to purchase multiple temple dresses during her pregnancy and requested a dress that could grow and shrink with her. Thus came the cinch waist held together by elastic that would comfortably hug the waist or upper torso. This design choice is also so fluctuant that it supports all weights from XXS to XXL.
Tying in from more historical design choices, the bishop sleeves and collar chest was added along with the lace details. My mom said she would wear this, and she’s the reason why I’m so picky about what I wear today. Proof below.
Making The Dress
I need to take a moment here and praise Casey and Hannah. We blazed through the work this weekend and our dynamic created something amazing.
The Team
Casey (Research)
Hannah Varner (Pattern Maker)
Marisa Bone (Designer)
Shoutout to Casey for letting me take a picture of her hand.