Woodland Dress on show at Spellbinding Textiles Exhibition

Article Added: 27/01/2009
Vikki Lafford came a very credible second place in our Spellbinding Textiles Competition with her fabulous piece, the ‘enchanted woodland’ dress. I spoke to Vikki to find out more about the making of her piece and the other projects she is working on at the moment.

With Vikki’s love of nature and fairy tales, our spellbinding theme lent itself very well to her style of work. Vikki heard about the competition through our Facebook group you can join us here and was inspired to submit an entry. She says, “I had wanted to work on a new project and the competition provided an instant brief to work to. I was excited by the challenge.”

Vikki’s dress went through a very long and intricate process to create all the incredible detail that is evident when viewing the piece on display. She began the process by creating the dress from a standard dress pattern using silk dupion. She then used free-machine stitching onto the main body of the dress for extra texture, which was then hand-painted. Vikki then moved on to the most nerve-racking part of the process – dyeing the dress. She explains, “I was very nervous about dip dyeing the dress as I had already spent so much time making it and was fearful that it might all go wrong. But I wanted the process to be organic and not at all controlled so I just took a deep breath and dunked the dress in the dye, then continued to brush colours into the fabric and just kept hoping it would work out!” Which, much to Vikki’s relief, it did!

Vikki then put the finishing touches to the dress by hand-making the flowers and butterflies and stitching them to the dress. The flowers are all made from hand-painted raw silk and beaded in the centre. The butterflies are machine embroidered onto raw silk and then hand painted and beaded. Vikki then completed the project by adding the embroidered spiders and centipedes to the bottom of the dress to give it that spellbinding quality.

The spellbinding theme was at the forefront of Vikki’s mind throughout the process and she added several features to enhance this. She explains, “I produced flowers and butterflies in magical colours and sizes to add extra sparkle. I also burned holes in some of the fabric to create a worn effect, making the dress appear mysterious.”

The dress has already found fame after a friend of Vikki’s, Samita Atkins, a singer based in Oxford, modelled it for the cover of her new single, Butterflies. Samita felt that the dress was perfectly suited to the style of her song and Vikki was excited to see the dress worn. She says, “I was aware of Samita's work through a friend and felt that there was a very natural chemistry between our styles of work. It was great to see the dress being modelled. Working with a mannequin gives you a defined structure and form, with which the dress adheres to. Seeing the dress take shape against a body allows you to fully appreciate the fluidity of the fabric and the positioning of the detail. Seeing the dress become animated and alive is magical!”

Vikki is no stranger to exhibiting her fabulous dresses, as this is the fourth dress she has displayed since completing her masters degree in textile design in 2006. She told me, “For my masters degree final show I exhibited two dresses that were inspired by old versions of fairy tails – Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. They were very detailed and quite romantic on the surface, but I used very subtle symbolism to suggest the sinister and brutal nature of the old versions of popular fairy tales. I also showed a dress based on the nursery rhyme ‘Who Killed Cock Robin?’ at the London Alternative Fashion Week.”

If you would like to commission Vikki to design you a bespoke evening or bridal dress Vikki will be happy to hear from you. She can also help you with wedding stationery, custom-made corsages and personalised purses, which all make fantastic gifts. You can buy accessories from Vikki’s website, www.liliia.co.uk, where there is a contact form for anyone who is interested in bespoke work.