The Dress Collection

Keith Henkel
2009

Dormouse Prize
Major: Biomedical Engineering & Classics
Graduate Student

Art, Fashion

About the Designer

I didn't really start out as a fashion designer. I'm studying Biomedical Engineering and Classics here at USC, and I want to pursue a career in prosthetics. Nevertheless, I've stumbled upon clothing design just under two years ago, and it started  when I wanted  to be a Grizzly Bear for Halloween. I couldn't find what I was looking for so I decided to make it. I took a giant teddy bear, cut off its head and sewed it by hand onto the hood of a sweatshirt. That one instance grew into a  hobby and  then into an obsession  very quickly! I loved that I could make something from scratch with my hands and when I was done, it would be presented on someone's body. People became like walking art galleries to me.

I tried to go too far too soon, though.  I was in a student fashion show  last year where I displayed my first "collection," and in retrospect, everything was horrible. When I first started, fabric was fabric, and the idea that satin needed to be sewn more carefully than cotton made no sense to me. Every seam was puckered,  the interfacings  were too thick, and so on and so on.

But I wasn't discouraged. Since then, I don't think I've gone a week without sewing or patternmaking. I'm always looking to make new things, and the Wonderland Contest provided me with a great opportunity to look at fashion in a different light. I never used a fabric like fur before working on this project, but while I've been making this collection for the past few months, I've grown to love it! Leaming to work with fur was like being Swedish and trying to learn Danish; the languages are similar but there are so many inter­ esting and quirky differences!

And quirky is the key word there. Lewis Carroll's books are so quirky that when I thought about translating them into clothing, the quirkiness of fur stood out. I wanted to use it as the main fabric in my dresses, both to recall the animals I wanted to portray, but also to give these clothes that twist that says "It absolutely has to be from Wonderland!"

I don't think I've ever been so inspired to make quirky (though of course, like Wonderland, beautiful) clothing as I have for this competition. The Wonderland Contest has been a great outlet for my eccentricity. Nevertheless, despite the months of pattemmaking and sewing, I still feel like there's so much more that I have to do with fur, satin, wool, denim, cotton, silk and all the other fabrics I used to makes these four looks! No matter the outcome, this contest has started a design frenzy that's taken my sewing skills and my passion for design to unpredicted highs.

GRYPHON

I really wanted the Gryphon's dress more than the others to exude a certain kind of fabulousness. The Gryphon is intensely mean to both Alice and the Mock Turtle, but he never seems to be mean on purpose. The Gryphon is completely ignorant of how Alice judges him, and that ignorance gives him the confidence to say whatever pops into his head, no matter how scathing, though cruelty is never his intention The Gryphon's confidence and bluntness are so shocking and so incredibly fabulous. My dress needed to have the same qualities.

Once I had the feeling of the dress, I started out designing the piece by first defining a couple of the  Gryphon's physical characteristics. First of all, the Gryphon is two different creatures in one, the differentiation between the animals  occurs around  the waist, and it has fur and feathers. I don't particularly care for the look of feathers on dresses, but the fur I could work with.

I took the idea of mixing two creatures and translated it into the mixing of two fabrics. Satin usually lines fur, or vice versa, so I figured for this dress I would combine the two so that they would  have to share the spotlight. I didn't want to use the fur only    as a trim, because the Gryphon is half eagle and half lion, not eagle with lion trim. Also, the use of fur as a main fabric is something quirky and therefore fitting for a Wonderland inspired dress.

The change from fur to satin happens in a wave pattern across the hips and waist. This is to prevent a clear distinction between "the fur  part" and "the satin part,"  uniting the two materials into one dress. This also gives a huge emphasis on the hips of the dress' wearer, and creates an hourglass shape. By accentuating the hips, I was hoping to ameliorate the waist, which would look thicker when surrounded in fur.

White Rabbit

The White Rabbit always looked so dapper for someone in such a hurry. I read into the White Rabbit that though his life is in shambles, and though he's always scurrying about like a nervous wreck, his clothing is always classy and well kempt. It's not the same as having a stable personality or some valium, but it seems the White Rabbit controls his appearance to make up for his inability to control his life (or time).

Class and taste are what motivated me to create the White Rabbit's dress. Even though I barely find the time to sleep most nights of the week, I spent a great deal of time ensuring that the White Rabbit's dress was impeccably classy, elegant and well executed. This is the only dress which has 100% silk satin {the others use an acetate), and the shirring on the shoulder straps took more precision than I anticipated. The pearl color of the silk was meant to evoke the classiness of the White Rabbit's attire.

More obviously, the white fur sheath is supposed to look like the White Rabbit's fur. In almost all renderings of the White Rabbit {except for the opening sequence in Disney's version), the poor little fellow has no pants. His fine taste in clothing ends at the waist. In my design, the silk satin ends rather high up on the body and from the chest down, the dress resembles the figure of a naked, white rabbit.

This isn't an easy dress to put on, however. Because most of the dress is white fur, a zipper was not a viable closure. There are 14 hooks and 14 eyes running up the right side of the dress, and to put it on would take a considerably longer amount of time than the other dresses in this collection. Furthermore, the fur needs to be combed or brushed before each use because if not combed down, the fur could make the wearer look much thicker than she is. The combing process is another timely procedure; wherever you want to go in this dress, expect to run late.

CATERPILLAR

The Caterpillar is such a dreamy, smoky character. The hookah aside, his personality is smoky and sensual like a 40s movie star. His slow manner of speaking and his brief retorts and queries remind me of an Eva Green quote on seduction: "To win the heart of an audience you must not explain or show too much." Therefore this dress was intended to seduce with old Hollywood glamour, and to simultaneously provoke in the same manner as a blunt "Who are YOU?"

As enticing as the Caterpillar's mannerisms are, his words and contradictory nature make him off-putting at the same time. His attitude even causes Alice to seethe. There's a diva quality to the Caterpillar which fits right in with the Hollywood glamour theme.

This also had to be part of the dress: the wearer should be able to vex whomever she encounters with her attitude while concurrently seducing them into further conversation.

I also wanted the dress to resemble the Caterpillar in a physical way also. The dress was made to have definite horizontal sections, very different from the waistline of the Gryphon's dress. These sections are meant to look like the segmentations of the Caterpillar's body. Included in the photo spread on the next page is a 3-strand faux-pearl belt I strung, which is meant to further segment the dress while retaining the Hollywood feel of the dress.

Also worth noting: the Caterpillar's Dress is the first that I actually constructed, before I had any of my faux fur. Though all the other pieces in this collection are made with completely fake fur, this uses recycled fur. I deconstructed a fur-trimmed coat and used the trimming to make this dress. Since this is real fur, I understand there may be a certain controversy about it, but regardless of one's stance on fur, recycled fur is one of the greenest materials due to its recyclability and biodegradability.

DORMOUSE

DORMOUSE

My final look is the Dormouse's. As I read of his inability to stay alert during a conversation, I'm overcome by the excess of cuteness.  I absolutely adore the little thing  and had to make an outfit that said "furry little creature," without giving off any wrong ideas. Some of my friends have asked why  I end  with the Dormouse and didn't make a fifth look: the Cheshire cat. Well that's simple. I can't stand the thing. Onto the Dormouse!

The Dormouse's outfit, a three-piece look, is technically more an outfit than a dress­ however, I can't imagine a modem interpretation of the dormouse becoming a "dress." This is the only look to use two colors of fur, as well as the only look to use a patterned fabric. Furthermore, the skirt is the only garment to have denim. Considering all of this, the Dormouse's outfit could easily have stood out as the piece that doesn't fit in. But just as the Dormouse is the only narcoleptic at the tea party, and easily could have felt out of place even for Wonderland, who can envision the tea party without him?

The skirt is made of white stretch denim and white maxima cotton, and its shape most closely resembles the Gryphon's dress-the pleating and "wave" seam are repeated. The blouse, which is made of my friend's curtains, has a very Wonderland-like print which I knew I had to incorporate into this collection, despite the absence of patterned fabrics in my other pieces. The vest is reversible (hence, no fasteners) and is fully lined in the same black satin used in the Gryphon's dress.

As for the fur parts of this outfit: all of the furs used in this outfit are the same faux furs used in the Gryphon's and White Rabbit's dresses. They were both meant to warm the body and to render the wearer so excessively comfortable, what choice would she have but to fall asleep? And it's true-falling asleep in that vest is extremely easy.