Kaori’s Dresses

Last saturday I attended my cousin’s 21st birthday party held at her parents beautiful farm in northampton. I arrived at the party after flying back from a week’s holiday in Tuscany that morning, luckily the weather was just as great as it was in it had been in Italy. Back in February she had asked asked me to create a fabulous turquiose dress for her to. She wanted a long silk gown with an empire line and a low back. I wanted the dress to hang beautifully - to cling to the body in the right places and flow out at the bottom to create a striking silhouette. As I had never attempted a dress like this before I opened up my pattern cutting books to find out how to start. After looking in the lingerie and eveningwear sections I was able to draft a great pattern that elliminated the use of darts. The fabric was sourced from a shop on goldhawk road - I bought four metres of silk satin, which was enough for me to cut the entire skirt on the bias and leave enough for the top section too. The dress was fairly easy to construct, I did notice the fabric puckering in a couple of places so will have to try sewing with tissue paper underneath next time I use satin. Initially I wanted to bead the dress along the empire line, however I couldn’t find any beads that I liked so I decided to use buttons to add an extra elegance to the dress. I put twelve buttons along the left hand side of the dress with only a fraction of fabric in between each one, which gave an extra detail to the dress.

The party itself was a great success, with loads of beautiful dresses including a floor length silver gown with 20 turquoise buttons running the length of the dress that I wore. The brillant turquoise of Amy’s dress certainly made her stand out from the crowd and the beautiful 1930’s feel of the dress gave her a beautiful elegance perfect for such a wonderful party.

I saw a dress in vogue with a really pretty pleated bodice; it was a more unusal take on the classic prom dress. I wanted do to something similar but with a great print, that would show off the pleating detail.

As soon as I saw this black, orange, red and green floral fabric I fell in love with it. It has looks as through the fabric has been painted with rich oil paints, as the vibrant colours really stand out. The fabric is actually cotton, which is great for me as it was fairly inexpensive and easy to iron.

The pattern for the dress was a basic bodice and bias cut full skirt. I wanted to do lots of pleats on the bodice, so I divided the bodice into 16 strips about 2cm apart, then after the fabric had been cut out I was able to carefully iron each pleat perfectly into place. I added gold buttons to the back of the dress as buttons always look so much prettier then zips and seem to get more attention too.

Underneath the knee length bias cut skirt a layer of tuelle was added both to add volume and also to make one feel more like a princess in the dress.

The dress has enough character to get away without accessories, but some ehnic gold jewellry along with a great tan would really show the dress off to the best of it’s abilites.

I’ve just added a boutique section to the site, where you can buy my designs - check it out!

Every time I go to buy fabric I seem to get attracted to raw silk. Sometimes I have the intention of buying something else but silk has such a nice look it wins me over every time!

One of my first silk dresses was this white dress I made for my friend Sarah’s 21st, it was a black and white ball, so I made a white silk dress with a giant flower on the front decorated with some pearls from a broken necklace. A couple of weeks later I made a black silk skirt with tulle underneath, staying with the flower theme I added another one to this skirt!

For my own birthday I made a dress from a pink sari I picked up from an Indian shop in London. It had this amazing gold embroidery on the bottom which I was able to keep on the bottom of the skirt. The shape of the dress is great because it makes your waist look tiny but covers up your hips, it gives you a great hour glass shape.

Last OctoberI did a course at central st martins in fashion design and from the theme romantic into fantastic I came up with this design for a dress:

I looked at the shapes of fantastic modern inventions such as computers or airplanes, which are clear, bold definite shapes and layered them to create a flowing romantic dress. To make the dress itself I first made a lining which was just a satin strapless dress which fits the body exactly, I then cut out loads of long strips out of gold silk for the outside of the dress, as these have no visible seams there was a lot or ironing and hand sewing involved. Each strip was slightly longer than the last one to give an asymmetrical look. Next stage of sewing all the strips onto the lining, I then added a really chunky gold zip, the kind you would use in a coat to give it more of a modern feel.

…However, when I finally put the dress on it didn’t really look very nice, so I tried turning on the side to see if that would make a difference. The dress was so much more flattering this way around and has a cool tail at the back. I thought it looked nice without the shoulder strips so I left it strapless.

These are just a few of my silk dresses; I’m currently working on a floor length silk silver dress which I will add pictures of soon! Read the rest of this entry »

I went on holiday to France a couple of weeks ago and thought I would check out the fabric shops in Paris. To be honest I was quite disappointed with the selection, one of the shops had 5 floors but everything in there was pretty boring. London may not have such large shops but it definitely has a better selection. I did however find this chinese style fabric.

Sadly it’s not silk so it isn’t beautiful to touch but is is quite heavy and should hang in some interesting ways. I’m hoping to create an interesting neckline with lots of gathering and draping. The dress will be backless to create a contrast with the high neck at the front. I’ve put my old newspapers to good use and cut out some pattern shapes for the top of the dress:

Front Pattern Piece

Back Pattern Piece

 Here is the completed dress:

Pink Floral Fabric

I managed to get some great fabrics in Hong Kong, there is so much choice you can literally get anything you want or need there, the only problem is having enough room in your suitcase to bring it back. One of my favourites was this pink floral fabric:

I managed to make a dress and a skirt out of it, and had enough left over for my mum to make a dress for herself!

For my friend Rags’ birthday I made her a cute pleated skirt with buttons all the way down the back. This was really easy to make and didn’t require any sort of pattern just measuring the waist (which luckly for me is the same size as me so I can wear it too!). The plus side is that you can wear this skirt either way round, with the buttons at the front or the back.

I also made a pretty summery dress, that would be perfect to wear to a picnick or tea party. The top is gathered, but if I were going to do this again I might adjust the pattern as it does not hang in the best possible way. There is a sash which ties around the waist with a long bow at the back, which means that the dress should flatter most people. 

Here are some pictures (I’ll add a gallery soon) of the dresses that I showed in the 2009 KCL Fashion Show last night. All the models looked so great in my dresses and really showed them off! If you like any of the dresses and would like one for yourself then send me an email. 

Welcome to my page! Here you will be able to see all the dresses I have designed and made. I love making party dresses that I can wear around London. I’m always on the lookout for colourful and interesting fabrics, which I pick up all over world as well as in some great shops in London. If you like what you see send me a message and I’d be happy to discuss creating a customised piece.