Team 5– Edith Chang, Maya Parthasarathy, Saanvi Desai, Shivangi
Concept Description
Inspired by the concept of butterfly wings, we decided to make this topic the focus of our project. The outfit for our mannequin represents fluidity and discovery; the large butterfly in the back of the dress is our main focus point and ties in the rest of the smaller butterflies on the skirt of the dress. We also chose the color blue to, one, create a monochromatic outfit for the mannequin and to, two, provide contrasting colors behind the black butterflies.
Photos of the Process
Ideation
sketches
Laser Cutting
Assembly
Final Product
Key Reflections
We first searched online for laser printed outfits we liked and then compiled them by category. We found lots of similar patterns in our overlapping ideas. For instance, we liked an anatomical outfit, which we initially wanted to recreate. However, we realized that this would be a better suited project for 3D printing. Other categories included Iris Van Herpen’s runway outfits and optical illusion outfits. Finally, we decided on an adaption of Iris Van Herpen outfits. We sketched and finalized our idea – a butterfly top that flows into a skirt with symmetrical lines.
The most challenging part of this project was the laser cutting itself. The cycle of printing, fitting our cut onto the mannequin, and readjusting repeated many times until we realized our design. Below is an example of the notes we would take after every round of laser printing:
First trial:Red–cut throughCyan–etchLaser cut the butterflyLaser cut the front panel, Laser cut the back panel
2nd trial changes + add:Another layer of butterfly wings (canvas material)Scale down the front and backAdd side panels to better fit the mannequinAdd mini butterflies for details