I was overcome with fond memories recently after reading Maddie's post "What is Leather Tanning?" ( She has some great information and some great videos in that post.) You may already know this but the Fall 2012 Runway shows showed a lot of leather garments. Well, way back in 1994, I used leather in my final collection for fashion school and whether Maddie meant it or not, she expressed some interest in seeing my final collection. So I've decided to show you all some highlights.
First of all in fashion school you are required to choose a target market, theme, and a pricing strategy to develop your line. I won't bore you with the details of all that but the theme I chose was Medieval Armour. I wanted the line to be wearable, salable, and modern. The natural fabric choice for this theme was lamb skin leather and a beautiful guipure lace. The lambs skin felt like butter in your hands and was a dream to sew!
I started out with a few sketches. There were many more than this but these are some that I actually used.
I then chose what I wanted to develop into patterns and samples from the sketches. We were required to make a minimum of 5 outfits. I chose to make the minimum simply due to the cost of the materials I wanted to use. You can see three of the outfits in these photos:
For one of the outfits, I actually managed to get some press in a local events magazine in Toronto. I remember how excited I was to see something I made in a magazine! I made this completely unlined jumpsuit which the model wore with a g-string purely for impact so I guess you can say my strategy worked.
I have to say I truly loved the design and development process. It has always been so fulfilling. Although I didn't know it at the time, I have always been stronger in the technical aspects of garment development. The pattern making and construction process is very rewarding.
I hoped you enjoyed seeing the bits and pieces of my (long ago) final collection for fashion school. Maddie's post and this trip down memory lane makes me want to put a bit of leather back in my wardrobe.
