Photo By Gail
Nature and artifice coalesce in Connor Ives‘ Couture Girl Dress from the designer’s 2020 graduate collection, “The American Dream,” which was inspired by the women with whom he grew up in Bedford, New York. The garment’s bulblike shape parodies the pneumatic silhouettes of mid-20th-century fashion.
Sequin Application, Detail
The dress took five months to complete and is a testament to Ives‘ commitment to sustainable practices: the silk organza is dead stock fabric donated by Carolina Herrera’s creative director, Wes Gordon.
The paillettes — made from recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) -– were designed and produced in collaboration with Rachel Clowes of the Sustainable Sequin Company. Ives embroidered the more than 10,000 sequence by hand, basing the six shapes on his favorite flowers – daisies, peonies, dahlias, and sunflowers.
Photographed in the Museum of Modern Art as Part of the Exhibit Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.