Dissolvable Dress, 2023 

This project was a continuation of experimentation in materiality I had been investigating since the beginning of transfer into the Fibres and Material Practices program. I had begun this investigation by working with a dissolvable fabric material usually used as a reinforcement back for embroidery and sewing appliqué. Quickly I fell in love with the potential of the material, realizing I could use it as a temporary fabric to sew onto that would then disappear when coming into contact with water, leaving whatever thread design I had sewn. 

I quickly started making a series of individual grid designs, I would draw on the dissolvable fabric, redraw over using the sewing machine as a pen, the thread as the ink and dissolving it in my bathtub became its own special performance. Although I had an idea of what it might look like the natural inclination for fibre materials is never definite. As the backing dissolved in the water the shape of the grid contrasted and expanded impacted by the design of the grid I had made and  as the movement of the water interacted with it. What was left was irregular grids, each individual not just because of their linework but because of their reaction to the process. 

As I developed this idea throughout my years at Concordia I began to implement different materials in the grid work, specifically wool fleece as it reinforced the strength of the grid without affecting the delicacy of the final result. I knew at one point I would like to use this method of material construction in a performative way that utilized the body. For my final semester I proposed an independent study project to Kelly Thompson, an Associate Professor in my program, to design and construct a wearable garment utilizing this dissolvable grid method, which I would then dissolve as a performative act. I wore the final object and let water pour down on me from an upper level balcony, the dress slowly transforming in colour, material and shape as it clung to my body. It changed once again once the garment had dried, the imperfections of the textile explicit, where I had stretched the garment through this transformative wear.