I first started developing ideas for his look back in the summer of 2022. My initial idea used denim yarn made from thrifted denim pieces. This was an unnecessarily tedious process to get even close to enough yarn, so it was quickly scrapped.
Going into winter break of 22/23 I started researching upcoming trends in denim and knitwear.
I also spent time testing out natural dyes. I originally wanted the yarn to be pink. I used beats which ended up being a stain rather than a dye
Going into the Spring semester I decided to instead go with tea dying since it was more accessible and more permanent. For the final project, the yarn was dyed in skeins instead of piece dyed.
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I ended up designing the crochet stitches for the bralette. You will see here that the yarn dyed by itself is a slightly lighter color; this is because of unintentional staining that happened more prominently during the piece dying.
technical flats of chosen pieces
Constructing the shrug went relatively smoothly, just needing to be lengthened.
Most of the issues with the bralette were fixed by changing the strap length and expanding the size of the cup a bit.
The jeans were the problem child of this look. My model’s proportions were working against me. Resulting in multiple fittings where the jeans just were way too tight around her butt, this was fixed by making a pretty dramatic curve on the back rise. Then awkward fabric gathered in the front, which was fixed by making a very flat front rise. The two rises had different issues.
There were also issues with swinging but this was just a rookie error that was quickly fixed by balancing the seams.
This look ended up winning two separate awards. Best of Jury: Denim. And the award that left me and everyone else in shock. At Stephens, two awards are above the rest. Best Collection, which goes to the best senior collection, and Best Look, which goes to the highest-scoring individual look from all the looks submitted to the Jury of Selection. Typically both of these awards go to seniors (usually the same senior). As a junior, my denim look scored the highest out of all looks submitted to the jury. This was truly an honor.
Juliet Maire Forehand 