Couture Confections in Paper are 27 inch dresses made entirely of fragile paper from around the globe.
Inspired by the 1950’s costume and couture designers, each dress is designed and sewn using more than
50 years of experience. Couture Confections in Paper debuted in Shanghai International PaperArt
Biennale in 2019. The collection continues to grow in size and popularity, with each dress featuring
further examples of detailed skill and artistry.
Paper dresses. Why?
I have been sewing for 60 years and I have created dresses in all kinds of mediums, most often fabric. But when I started welding, the first thing I made was a steel dress. Yes, a steel dress. That was hard to do. Really hard. I was new to welding, and nobody informed me that there was a lighter weight steel so I made it from 16 gauge. For those that don’t know weights in steel that is a thick steel, especially trying to make a dress. A 22 gauge would have worked more easily and even that would have been difficult. But I made the dress and I love it.
In 2013 I went to Berlin, to attend a private Masterclass in paper with the talented Inez Fritschy. I fell in love with paper and of course I would want to make what I have created most of my life…a dress. Dresses. I wanted them to be small dresses, not life sized to be modeled by people, but what is called “1/2 sized”. The dress forms are 30 inches tall, the dresses being 27 inches, and are 30-33 inches wide, depending on the fullness and length of the skirt.
I have never seen anyone do what I am attempting to do, so there are no classes for me to attend, nobody to share short cuts with me. It’s like that period of time when in skydiving you have left the plane but not opened the parachute yet. I hold my breath and go.
I started buying papers that I could use for dresses, even traveling to Thailand to buy papers.
The papers I use most often is Unryu and sheer Sanwa. The Sanwa paper is made in white only, so I need to airbrush them to the colors that the dresses become.
Paper is strong, but it is weak. Paper doesn’t drape nor does it have bias. Paper speaks its own language and will not comply with any rules of fabric. My goal is always to make the paper appear as fabric.
Paper allows no mistakes. An erroneous stitch, I can’t take the stitch out and resew the seam. There is no forgiveness, the holes of my mistake will stay in the paper. An accidental fold, that fold is there to stay, I cannot press it out and make the mistake disappear. Some of the dresses I have made have been totally reconstructed 2 or even 3 times. But, when it is right, I do my happy dance!
Inspired by the 1950’s costume and couture designers, each dress is designed and sewn using more than
50 years of experience. Couture Confections in Paper debuted in Shanghai International PaperArt
Biennale in 2019. The collection continues to grow in size and popularity, with each dress featuring
further examples of detailed skill and artistry.
Paper dresses. Why?
I have been sewing for 60 years and I have created dresses in all kinds of mediums, most often fabric. But when I started welding, the first thing I made was a steel dress. Yes, a steel dress. That was hard to do. Really hard. I was new to welding, and nobody informed me that there was a lighter weight steel so I made it from 16 gauge. For those that don’t know weights in steel that is a thick steel, especially trying to make a dress. A 22 gauge would have worked more easily and even that would have been difficult. But I made the dress and I love it.
In 2013 I went to Berlin, to attend a private Masterclass in paper with the talented Inez Fritschy. I fell in love with paper and of course I would want to make what I have created most of my life…a dress. Dresses. I wanted them to be small dresses, not life sized to be modeled by people, but what is called “1/2 sized”. The dress forms are 30 inches tall, the dresses being 27 inches, and are 30-33 inches wide, depending on the fullness and length of the skirt.
I have never seen anyone do what I am attempting to do, so there are no classes for me to attend, nobody to share short cuts with me. It’s like that period of time when in skydiving you have left the plane but not opened the parachute yet. I hold my breath and go.
I started buying papers that I could use for dresses, even traveling to Thailand to buy papers.
The papers I use most often is Unryu and sheer Sanwa. The Sanwa paper is made in white only, so I need to airbrush them to the colors that the dresses become.
Paper is strong, but it is weak. Paper doesn’t drape nor does it have bias. Paper speaks its own language and will not comply with any rules of fabric. My goal is always to make the paper appear as fabric.
Paper allows no mistakes. An erroneous stitch, I can’t take the stitch out and resew the seam. There is no forgiveness, the holes of my mistake will stay in the paper. An accidental fold, that fold is there to stay, I cannot press it out and make the mistake disappear. Some of the dresses I have made have been totally reconstructed 2 or even 3 times. But, when it is right, I do my happy dance!
