Spring Summer 2019
Quinn’s clothes conjure a couture fantasy, with unabashedly extravagant shapes and lavish embellishments. This season the look veered between thigh-grazing confectionary frocks and a more dramatic voluminous silhouette that tumbled to the ground and swept the floor. The floral cocktail dresses of last season were even frothier this time around, bold in the shoulder and replete with handfuls of bows along the sleeves. If that sexy, legs-for-days line evoked frivolity, then the longer, grander gowns readdressed the balance.
FASHION LONDON

Articulated 3D-Printed Gown
Michael Schmidt and Francis Bitonti revealed their fully 3d printed gown modeled by Dita Von Teese.
The fully articulated gown based on the Fibonacci sequence was designed by Michael Schmidt and 3D modeled by architect Francis Bitonti to be 3D printed in Nylon by Shapeways. The gown was assembled from 17 pieces, dyed black, lacquered and adorned with over 13,000 Swarovski crystals to create a sensual flowing form.Thousands of unique components were 3D printed in a flowing mesh designed exactly to fit Ditta’s body. This represents the possibility to 3D print complex, customized fabric like garments designed exactly to meet a specific person or need.

INFLATABLE DRESS
Diana Eng, in collaboration with Emily Albinski, created this gorgeous dress way back in 2003, which ended up making its way on the cover of ID Magazine. The designers used this project to explore how they could use electronics to change the shape and color of a gown. The dress inflates to allow you to change it’s shape. Pump up the back or the sides to change its silhouette.
The designers made no attempt to hide the electronics, rather, they exposed the spaghetti-ball of wires and components as the main aesthetic.

Red stair
The notion of fashion as transgressive is so well-worn it has become a cliché. There is constant pressure to outmode, jump forward or reach back. Though showing one’s individuality is done in part through adornment and flourish, trespass has become the new order, and increasingly, the body is as likely to be altered as the hemline. Red Stair represents a departure for Nakamura. The dictates of strict form and negation are still present, as are a number of warning signs in keeping with her style — field of red, evening gown formality, blank visage.

boat dress

Ms. R. Brooke Priddy is a dressmaker and designer (and fabulous illustrator) also out of Asheville. Her little Ship to Shore studio in the West side of town is so magical. She creates custom dresses and wedding gowns with each client and each of her pieces is like a work of art in itself.

peau d’ane
For Montreal-based designer Valerie Lamontagne, the spark of creativity can come from the most unlikely of sources. In the case of her climate-reactive dresses, Lamontagne found inspiration in “Peau d’Âne,” a French fairy tale that begins with a king’s vow to remarry only when he finds a woman who equals his late queen’s beauty and virtue. Pressed to find a new wife, he concludes that his daughter alone qualifies. (Quel scandale!) The princess delays the wedding by demanding impossible prenuptial gifts, including three dresses made from moonbeams, sunlight, and the sky. Lamontagne recreates these fantastic gowns but with a high-tech twist: Each dress reacts—in real time—to changing weather conditions.