Flowers for Fashion
Flowers? I love them! And I’m not the only one: flowers are a source of inspiration for many fashion designers. They are not only used as a starting point for prints of fabrics; flowers are also used in other ways, such as in the form of a corsage, as decoration of hats, as 3D elements on evening dresses to name a few.
Wonder how you:
- translate the flower inspiration of great designers into your own work?
- make flowers that keep their shape?
- make flower corsages?
- translate the character of different flowers into fabric?
For years we have been giving the one-day workshop ‘Making Silk Flowers’ at Dutch Couture Academy with great pleasure. This workshop is a favourite with many students, because you learn what it takes to make beautiful silk corsages, flowers for hats and flowers that can be used in embroidery. In short: a classic among the workshops!
A new online course brings together the content of this workshop with four other surprising techniques with which you can immediately start to make your own interpretation.
I think you are going to LOVE this course! Would you like to know why? Because you are going to learn the most critical secrets to haute couture flowermaking. The 20% that creates the 80% results.
Curious?
How to make couture flowers
For this course we have brought together five different techniques to make flowers:
- Loose flowers of silk organza
- Silk flowers formed with irons
- Feather flowers
- Soft flowers of silk
- Dramatical flowers
For whom is this course suitable?
This course is suitable for both
- beginners: You will learn step-by-step a number of techniques to make flowers from silk, among others, for which no specific prior knowledge is required.
- experienced creatives: expand your possibilities with new techniques and applications
- those who focus specifically on the couture client: refine your skills and expand your capabilities and technical insight.
The Basis
We cover five different techniques, each with a different look and application. Of course, we address the technique of forming flowers with ball- irons: the most well-known technique for making flowers for hats, as corsage (think for example of the camellia of CHANEL). We will show you how you can imitate this technique with relatively simple means (useful if you can’t get hold of irons in the short term because of corona!). But we go further than just these flowers: we also discuss other flowers and materials, giving you an infinite number of possibilities.
Each technique is approached in the following way:
- First of all we give you a list of materials, with requirements per technique and possible variations or simplifications
- Step-by-step work descriptions
- Photos and sometimes a video, to clarify the technique.
Deepening your knowledge and skills
For those who want to go a step further, we give two extra assignments with each technique:
- Under the heading: Get Creative, we invite you to let your imagination run wild and explore new paths with the technique.
- Under the heading: Next Level, we add an assignment or pattern at the end of each technique, with which you can take the technique to a higher level -this is for the real die-hards among you-.
Couture training
The programme of workshops, master classes and training courses at Dutch Couture Academy is aimed at (future) professionals in the fashion industry who are looking for an opportunity to specialise in couture techniques. Also enthusiastic amateurs are very welcome! In the courses a balance is sought between technique and inspiration, between knowledge and skills and artistic expressiveness. Discovering one’s own handwriting is seen as crucial in the distinctive craftsmanship of each student.
