MORE ABOUT SOFT METAL

Every fashion design student is tasked with creating a garment out of unconventional materials at least once, And it's very easy for students to lean towards the safety of materials that aren't technically considered fabric but behave relatively like fabric, in hopes of ensuring success with said material. To make the most of this assignment I chose materials that did not move like fabric in the slightest. I'm always up for a challenge and learning new ways to problem solve, so I ended up picking sheet metal as my main material for this project — the most un-drapable thing I could think of, to create a garment. That material itself was the main inspiration for this garment, and while it was a huge undertaking to get this look come together, I am so proud of it. I would make a whole collection of metal dresses if I had the space to store them.

I created this look by draping a rough pattern on a dress form with poster paper. I then cut and bent pieces of aluminum sheet metal to match the poster paper to the best of my ability. When that was done, the pieces were hot glued and duck taped together, and some electrical cord, and nuts and bolts were used for design details. I added electrical tape to all the raw metal edges of the garment for safety and a finishing touch. Watch the look walk in a recording of the runway below: