Anne Tomlin – United Kingdom

Diorissimo: A tribute to Christian Dior

Description

Inspired by the work of Christian Dior, I wanted to make a tribute to Dior’s timeless allure of elegance and craftsmanship looking back to a time of beautiful and entirely handcrafted techniques.

The lily-of-the-valley is a symbol of celebration and a harbinger of brighter days ahead and became one of Dior’s lucky charms. I love that every May 1st, he offered flowers to all his “petites mains” and to his clients. So adored, his florist grew it all year round in a specially heated greenhouse.

In constructing the hat, I enclosed millinery wire between 2 layers of the finest antique Paglia straw braid and completely hand-sewed each side to avoid any stitches showing and to create a rounded effect. The wired strips spiral out from the centre to form a self-contained shape and are hand-stitched at each join. I attached hand-made sprays of lily-of-the-valley, and silk abaca leaves to the hat evoking a time of femininity with particular attention to detail and immaculate finish.

Materials

• Vintage Paglia straw braid
• Abaca silk
• Silk satin
• Silk habutai
• Bondaweb
• PVA
• Tussah silk
• Millinery wire
• Flower-making wire 24 & 30
• Flat silk thread
• Straw stiffener

Techniques

• Dyeing Paglia straw and abaca silk
• Hand sewing the sides of two layers of Paglia straw enclosing millinery wire
• Bending the wire to make the filigree pattern, shaping on a block as it proceeds
• Stiffening abaca and rolling edges
• Bonding stiffened satin and habutai with bondaweb, cutting out each flower individually
• Making lily-of-the-valley with heated flower tools and pointed tweezers
• Making stamens and stems from flower wire and tussah silk for pollen
• Binding stems of flowers with flat silk
• Hand colouring the stems with dye