The Powerful Woman

The Powerful Woman is the continuation of exploration of Transformational Reconstruction, an innovative draping and pattern-making technique (Sato, 2011). I have been working with TR for past few years. With this piece I continue to expand my knowledge of creating pattern pieces in combination with knitting and felting techniques. Iranian men\u27s clothing of Bakhtiari tribe, Chogha, inspired this design. Chogha is a white upper-bodice garment with black stripes, which represent the victory of goodness over evilness (Dashtaki, 2013). The goals of creating this dress were to (a) combine cultural approach with modern origami look and (b) combine TR method with felting techniques to emulate men\u27s clothing to design a garment for powerful woman. The feeling of the power derived by Chogha was transferred into modern and wearable dress for powerful woman by accentuating the shoulder. Felting textile technique was started with knitting the skirt piece with black and white wool yarns then felted in a hot cycle of washing machine. Pattern pieces were attached together with needle felting technique, agitation and compression caused the wool fibers to capture each other