Fashion in Motion: Curvaceous

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October 2001

Fashion in Motion is a series of live catwalk events presented at the V&A. Featuring some of the greatest designers of our time, Fashion in Motion brings catwalk couture to a wider audience by modelling it against the beautiful backdrop of the Museum.

Curvaceous is an exciting collaboration between the V&A and Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design which looks at historical undergarments and their influence on contemporary design. 

Taking the form of a competition, Central Saint Martins' second year ‘Womenswear’ BA Honours students were briefed to use 19th-century corsets, crinolines, bustles and brassieres from the Victorian silhouette, from the V&A’s collection, as inspiration to create contemporary designs. Highly innovative designs have been created, ranging from spiralling papier-mâché structures to tailored garments incorporating inverted bustles.

Fifteen of these designs were displayed in Gallery 40, alongside the historical garments that inspired them. The display ran until 7 January 2002.

Seven of these designs have been selected to appear in the V&A Fashion in Motion in October 2001, demonstrating the diverse nature of the students’ interpretations.

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  Curvaceous Fashion in Motion

  Curvaceous Fashion in Motion

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  Curvaceous Fashion in Motion

  Curvaceous Fashion in Motion

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  Curvaceous Fashion in Motion

  Curvaceous Fashion in Motion

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  Curvaceous Fashion in Motion

  Curvaceous Fashion in Motion

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  Curvaceous Fashion in Motion

  Curvaceous Fashion in Motion

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  Curvaceous Fashion in Motion

  Curvaceous Fashion in Motion

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  Curvaceous Fashion in Motion

  Curvaceous Fashion in Motion

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  Curvaceous Fashion in Motion

  Curvaceous Fashion in Motion

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  Curvaceous Fashion in Motion

  Curvaceous Fashion in Motion

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  Curvaceous Fashion in Motion

  Curvaceous Fashion in Motion

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  Curvaceous Fashion in Motion

  Curvaceous Fashion in Motion

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  Curvaceous Fashion in Motion

  Curvaceous Fashion in Motion

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  Curvaceous Fashion in Motion

  Curvaceous Fashion in Motion

The designers featured

Deborah Pak

Deborah’s black silk organza dress design took its starting point from the seam lines of the Victorian corset. Her preferred way of working is through draping on a mannequin to create lines and ideas that she feels she wouldn’t necessarily achieve through drawing. To create this particular dress, she draped 4m of organza on a mannequin, pinned each line as required and then stitched the seams. In this time-consuming process she has created a deceptively simple and graphic piece, which is a modern interpretation of the corset : her dress certainly highlights the figure but, unlike the corset, does not restrict it in any way.

Disaya Prakobsantisukh

Disaya’s design for her organza top and skirt links corsets and bustle-style padding in unusual and innovative ways. Her criss-cross fastenings with metal eyelets are laced like a corset. Disaya drew her inspiration from ‘swap the body’, an interchangeable head/body/legs game extremely popular in the Victorian era. In the process of the game many funny combinations of the figure are produced. She took the Victorian silhouettes from the cards as a starting point for her design. The organza jacket and skirt, filled with tiny polystyrene balls, enhance the youthful and fun nature of the garment.

Iku Furudate

Iku’s inspiration for her denim dress came from the Victorian corset and the concepts of restriction and transformation. She wanted to create outfits which suggested the very shapely and beautiful body shape created by the corset, but which allowed movement and freedom. She has done this by creating asymmetrical dresses which are controlled internally with waist tapes. The feeling of movement is created through the draping over the shoulders, the wide skirts, the tulle underskirt and the asymmetrical hemlines. Iku’s use of denim as her preferred fabric highlight the modernity of the dresses, but the blue dress has been washed to make the fabric softer and slightly washed out, playing with the ideas of worn and unworn.

Renault

Jacket and bodysuit; organza boned top and breeches, shaped jacket with puffed sleeves and curved back.

Renault’s design explores the complex and contradictory ideas of beauty from the Victorian age. The outfit was inspired by the both the details and the spirit of the era. The silhouette of the jacket incorporates elements of Victorian fashion : a puffed shoulder and a curving back-sweep which evokes the shape of a bustle. The constricting sleeves reflect the physical confinement of Victorian women by their clothes. The organza undergarment reflects a fragile and more childlike mood and its shape is reminiscent of crinolines and the protected space that they provide.

Ka Yee Kitty Ng

Kitty was inspired by the padding used to support Victorian skirts. She looked at how some women had petticoats ‘wadded to their knees’, while others experimented with inflatable rubber tubes to create a bell-like framework. Using gingham to add a “seaside” flavour to the garment, she produced five padded rings in red and white cotton gingham. These can be adjusted in size and arranged on the body in any order or position. Kitty chose red to echo the colour of some of the steel crinoline cages. But the dynamic and jaunty element of her design is opposed to the staid and constrictive nature of Victorian body-shaping garments. Unlike the cages and covered hoops, Kitty’s rings are not fixed together in a restricting circle.

Hee-Seung Kim

Kim’s dress design examines the relationship between the corset and the crinoline, and how these undergarments determined the shape of the outer dress in the Victorian age. By overlapping layers of fabric, visible at the triangular neckline of the dress, Kim has created a garment which is shaped by both its under and outer layers. The use of the layers, which slightly overlap one another, is inspired by the idea of standing in front of mirrors, looking at a reflection which can be seen in infinite ways. The stitchwork on the garment echoes the stitching which holds the boning of a corset in place. Three metal hoops give the crinoline shape to the skirt.