The Widows From Waste: Madam

The second Widow transformed very little after the first sketch, gaining only on the embellishments. She was nicknamed Madam.

In Madam, we can see and feel the story of the clothes that we kept for a year or two. We loved them sincerely for a while, but as the love grew cold, we sold them forwards. The others would then pick up these clothes, fall in love and be in love with them for a while, until the cycle would run its course and start again from the beginning.

Madam knows that she has the charm that the children of the fast fashion lack. In her beauty there is something that lasts over time and the changing trends. She walks slowly and proudly, her head is held high as she knows that her mature beauty will always turn heads. Madam knows that the new, young lovers come and go in her life. She is not bitter for the end of the relationships and she knows there will be others.

The cleavage of Madam is very deep, but quite narrow. A mature, tasteful flirt with the onlooker. The back also shows and hides at the same time. Not only on the top part but also in the hem. The back part of Madam’s hem is made of the transparent lace that runs from the knee high to the floor, forming the trail of the dress. These little windows are there to draw in the admiration and curiosity.

The falling, full shoulders turn in to sleeves before reaching the elbows. They have an expensive look fit for the precious Madam. Their design has also a hint of a shawl, an item that used to be quite common in the mourning attires. The lace details are concentrated on the shoulders and on the front as well as the back of the waist. There are more on the hem, following the many seams that widen up the skirt towards the floor. All the lace details are placed symmetrically, a way which seemed to suit the Madam in a natural way.

The Madam was a very straightforward design to execute. To get the shoulders to fall exactly as on the paper, a linen prototype was made. In The Widows From Waste there was as little prototyping done as possible to create a minimum amount of textile waste. The top parts of Young Widow and Madam were made as linen prototypes, and later on the first try of the corset of the third Widow was made out of canvas (but this was reused as a supporting layer of the final corset).

When I was designing the hat for Madam, I wanted it to have a feeling of the historical hats of the royal and proud women. The triangular shape on the forehead might remind you of the medieval queens while the lace tail falling on the back could be from the Victorian era. The higher part in the middle is like a modest tiara of an aristocratic lady.

While all of Madam was very nice to work on, the hat was perhaps my favorite part. It was challenging and inspiring, and using those thin, leftover strips of lace to make such a lovely item, the hat was embodying the idea of the collection: how the things that seem like trash can still be used for something beautiful.

The next time, I’ll tell you more about the Widow who walked to the church in a revealing corset.

Until then!

Sincerely,

Iina