Showstudio Sewalong: Junya Watanabe dress from Winter '05/'06 collection

[tigralon]

Showstudio sewalong alert!  From the same website that brought us the Mysterious Galliano Pirate Jacket, comes a couture dress pattern from Junya Watanabe's Winter 2005-'06 collection. 
UPDATE: Here's the direct link to the pattern: http://www.showstudio.com/projects/dressmeupdressmedown/download/

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Here's a photo (tiny, but the only one we have so far).  Maybe we can track down larger shots of it on the runway.


And Showstudio's comments:
We are utterly delighted to announce that as part of the Liberty Ross 'Dress Me Up, Dress Me Down' project, the brilliant Japanese designer Junya Watanabe has offered to contribute a garment pattern from his forthcoming Autumn/Winter 2005-6 (not-yet-in-the-shops) collection. Picked out by Liberty Ross from Jonathan Kaye's draft selection for the live event at the end of next month, the pattern is for a wool and pvc dress (pictured above). The pattern will be available (free of charge) for you, the viewer, to make up in advance of the event (urging you to engage with the draping and cutting techniques of the designers represented forces you to enter into the spirit of the coming season, no?). We expect it to be launched in 2-3 weeks. Forgive me for gushing, but Watanabe has been a heinous omission from our contributors list and this is a longstanding personal aspiration fulfilled. Hurray!

So come aboard and join the sewalong - it should be a great one.  While we wait for the pattern to be posted, we'll be talking about Watanabe's previous collections, theorizing about what the dress might be like, and generally getting excited!

[tigralon]

Oh, and IndividualFrog provided this link to an archive of Junya Watanabe's Fall 2002 Collection.  Definitely worth a visit!  Watanabe is so talented.
http://www.style.com/fashionshows/collections/F2002RTW/complete/thumb/JNWATNBE

[IndividualFrog]

Good lord, PVC.  I think this time, assuming I have any time or money left to do this one, I shall be less fanatic about accurate recreation.

Here it is from style.com (shhhh don't tell the mods):
http://www.style.com/slideshows/fashionshows/F2005RTW/JNWATNBE/RUNWAY/00030f.jpg

http://www.style.com/fashionshows/collections/F2005RTW/complete/thumb/JNWATNBE is the place for the entire collection.

[tigralon]

Good lord, PVC.  I think this time, assuming I have any time or money left to do this one, I shall be less fanatic about accurate recreation.

I don't want to speak before I leap (to mix metaphors), but from that single photo, this does look a bit simpler than the jacket.

It is a little unclear whether that fabric description is accurate, because in a later post, Showstudio says, "As it turns out, it was in fact this dress that was photographed over the weekend, to accompany the forthcoming downloadable pattern," and shows this photo (of the pinkish dress), instead of what was apparently an incorrect photo (of a completely different dress) shown with the original caption.  So...I'm not sure if that "wool & pvc" description still applies to the pattern we're receiving.  Though from the photo, it looks like it could indeed be a pvc bodice and wool skirt.

Well, despite Watanabe's original design, I'm not sewing a dress made of plastic and heat-retaining fabric in the height of summer.  I'm wondering...what other fabrics might be nicely substitutable, to respect his vision for the garment yet make it more wearable in hot months?  Something with sheen & body for the bodice, and a different, heavier skirt fabric with a rougher texture, I think.

[munsters2004]

I cant find the Galliano Pirate Jacket on their site can you help?
Luke

[juniperl13]

I have shinily delicious poplin that will sub wonderfully for the bodice, I think. It's heavy enough to provide the necessary structure but it actually breathes, which is nice. I think I'll have to get a huge thrift store wool blazer or something for the skirt....

[skye691]

I think this is a sewalong I might actually get into.. it looks more like something I could do, and something I'd wear out on occasion.

[tigralon]

I cant find the Galliano Pirate Jacket on their site can you help?
Luke

Showstudio constantly rearranges their website, for some inexplicable reason.  I'm pretty sure it's currently in Archives.

I have shinily delicious poplin that will sub wonderfully for the bodice, I think. It's heavy enough to provide the necessary structure but it actually breathes, which is nice.

Nice idea...for my aesthetics, I want to retain that shininess of the bodice, using non-pvc fabric.  Shiny poplin could sub really well (it doesn't need to be mirror-reflective, just have a sheen).

[rachel_]

After watching the sewalong of the pirate jacket I think I might actually get involved with this one, seen as my exams will be finished by then. Only problem is going to be purchasing fabric, there are very few places that stock a good variety of fabric that I know of around here. Just a quick question though, maybe a little off topic, how did you manage to print the patterns for the pirate jacket?

[tigralon]

After watching the sewalong of the pirate jacket I think I might actually get involved with this one, seen as my exams will be finished by then. Only problem is going to be purchasing fabric, there are very few places that stock a good variety of fabric that I know of around here. Just a quick question though, maybe a little off topic, how did you manage to print the patterns for the pirate jacket?

Check out the earliest pages of the jacket sewalong for our comments on trying to print.

And I have the same issue - I have to walk for over half an hour, literally across the entire downtown  city, in order to get to the fabric shops.  It's a pain!