This past weekend I had two of my original designs walk in the Merchandising Inc. fashion show. The fashion show was completely student ran. We were in charge of ticket sales, advertising, styling models and the overall set up of the show. This was my first experience running an elite fashion show that was not in a high school auditorium. Honestly, it was a lot more stressful than I thought it would be only because I had to make sure my models were dressed for each section of the show and it went as planned. After the amount of time I put into each of my pieces, it was super exhilarating to see my work walk down the runway. For the past few weeks I was working on these garments and I was so excited to show them off. I’ve always been into upcycling clothes and I have been actually doing it more often since I thrift more than I should and I have my sewing machine by my side. Almost everyday, I was working on these garments and I had to basically take the original item apart in order to create my final idea. Initially, my inspiration for both looks were the classic, psychedelic styles from the 70s. Both articles of clothing have a bell aesthetic feature added to represent this era. It all began with a simple pair of men’s jeans and a plain denim blazer.
I started with the jeans and cut them directly in half down the middle. I sewed the pant legs back together with one side being inside out. Once they were a complete pair of jeans again, I slit the legs on each side in order to attach a darker piece of denim to create the bell bottom effect. This was one of my biggest struggles because I had to figure out the best way to do this through trial and error. A few times there were bunching in the fabrics and it didn’t look right, so I took them apart and started over again. Certain details that these pants have are the butterfly embellishments and the back pocket included in the front.
The patchwork jacket is what took the most amount of time to complete. The front of the jacket is very professional and has two butterflies featured on the shoulders. Of course, this little bit was inspired by the one and only swallows tattoo on Harry Style’s chest. The back of the jacket is completely covered in patchwork denim. I created patchwork design samples from old denim I had and added them to the jacket. Some patches had to be hand sewn on in order to fill in empty spaces to ensure the back of the garment was fully enhanced. My favorite feature in this design is the added pocket on the back shoulder where you can have a hidden compartment to store any surprises you may have.
I am trying something new with this storefront and I want to start adding my designs to be sold on here as well. Each piece is going to be unique and will be personally designed by me. My brain is overflowing with new ideas that I will be executing very soon, so this is the place where you can call DIBBSONTHAT article of clothing. <33
Allison C Dibble 