Design Details: Sculptural Pleats
One of my favorite things to do on Pinterest is collect images of inspirational design details on a board, appropriately titled Design Details. Every now and then I scroll back through to see what I've been subconsciously collecting a lot of and this time I noticed a lot of images of sculptural pleats. Some of these pleats are quite soft; the upper right for example is a completely unpressed pleat in what looks to be some sort of melton wool. Contrast that to the extremely sharp pleats of the blue skirt to the right, it's amazing what a pleat can do!
While all of these images are quite extreme in the realm of pleats, I think there's definite inspiration here to take into your everyday wardrobe. The image in the top center would be lovely on a skirt or blouse in a smaller controlled area. I might not want that diamond detail on the far right blouse right across my chest, but it could be a fun detail for a sleeve or coat. And doesn't the pleating on the green dress in the bottom center remind you of an extreme version of a paperbag waist? I find it really fun to think about ways that I could interpret these into more of an every day look. Or if you're bolder than I am, how to just wear something like this day to day!
Pattern Magic: Stretch Fabrics
These images remind me a lot of the exercises in the Pattern Magic series of books (shown above). I've been slowly collecting these books as they've been released and love thumbing through them but never did anything with the info contained inside. Of course now I find myself itching to apply this info to create my own statement piece!
