My daywear dress design, conceptualized & constructed in 2017 for Spring / Summer 2018. The dress is inspired by the floral motifs of my childhood as well as sanzienele or fairies: beautiful, effervescent women that adorn their hair with flowers and have magical abilities, which appear in folklore since the Dacian times. In designing this daywear dress, I researched traditional Romanian fairytale books as well as the depiction of florals in traditional costumes, blending traditional elements and methods of construction into a modern wardrobe.
For the bodice of the dress, I used a hand technique called smocking, in which careful stitches are placed on the fabric to create a 3D effect. In the middle of the smocked flowers lay real pink pearls. The buttons, hand picked and sourced, are resin encapsulating 18K gold flakes. With over 100 hours spent on sewing and details, I wanted to create a one of a kind dress that makes the wearer feel special, but that is also wearable in a daily context.
