Deus Ex Machina

Karolina Zarzycka, Denmark (Karolina Zarzycka Corsetry)

Photography by @paw_some_photography
Shoulder harness by @kittysmortensen

The Design

We strive for the perfect society, so we explore, discover and build things of exceptional beauty. But we forget what we abuse and ruin to get there. And what we create and worship is nothing but an empty shell. With no God erupting from the machine to save us!

A city of steel and glass and lines. Immense, unbelievably tall skyscrapers touching the heavens. Utopian Metropolis, put down in calculated geometric patterns. Perfectly happy people in perfect designer garbs with perfectly drawn smiles, like automatons, they mingle on the streets. Everything shining brightly. But underneath the veneer, is desperation, bleakness and no meaning of life to be found.

- Decade: 1920s Germany spun into a futuristic dystopia
- Genre: The geometry of Art Deco and Bauhaus
- Buildings: Slim, blinding skyscrapers
- Movie: Metropolis, about a beautiful futuristic city build of scientific progress and human despair.

Challenge:
I wanted to make something crazy and over the top awesome but my mind was blank. It took me a long time to realize that I was holding myself back by focusing on greatness in form rather than what I loved: detail.

Goal:
To use the stripes to their best advantage, depending on where the pattern is placed on the body, visually enhancing it. By looking on the light, the dark and which way the stripes should turn. Same way as an architect decides which way to place the building and its windows, depending on the sun and incoming light.

The Construction

Materials:
- Rose metallic cotton canvas with stripes of black flock
- 5mm artificial whalebone
- Boning channels from 1cm black satin ribbon
- Flat steels at CB on both sides of eyelets

My two biggest challenges:
1. Deciding how to cut the fabric for each pattern piece.

I knew only the following beforehand:
a. having the centre front (CF) and centre back (CB) with diagonal stripes
b. having the stripes on the three diagonal pattern pieces to go into the point of the panels.

I started from the CF, laying each piece on the floor before moving to the next. I also had the mock-up next to me, so I could see where each piece would end up on the body. This helped me to visualize where I was going, and showed me how to place the larger top pieces, with the stripes pointing in the same direction, curving around the body towards the back.

Not only was I looking on the placement of the stripes for each pattern piece, but also where to place the darker and the lighter parts. For instance: the hip piece is lighter, while the pieces above are darker where they join the hip. This visually slims down the waist.
I was going back and forth between fabric, already cut out pieces and the mock-up. By the end my mind was one big stripey knot!

It took seven hours to place, mirror and cut the fabric!

2. In which sequence to sew the pieces together.

Normally I would sew from CF towards CB. I discovered this could not be done here because of the diagonal pieces cutting through the others. It was a fun puzzle to figure out.

Surprisingly, the two pieces to start with ended up being the back hip sewn with the back skirt, working my way up towards CB before going towards CF, with the CF being the last one sewn. Also, one piece was sewn halfway before being sewn fully later in the process.

My pattern pieces ended up having letters as well as numbers, which set the sewing chronology (some pieces had several letters). But I still had to have the mock-up next to me, checking constantly, to make sure each piece was turned the right way and sewn in the correct order.

What was it like to compete this year? What would you say to someone who is on the fence about entering next year?

Do it for you. Don't compete with the others but with yourself. Set goals about your entry; when you reach them you have already won :D.

More information on my entry can be found here.

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galadriel 1 year 3 months

I've been fascinated by your entry since I first saw the in progress pictures - it turned out really nicely! Congratulations on a lovely entry.