Tamarin is a recent graduate of KvB Institute of Technology, Advanced Fashion Diploma. She is currently working in a dynamic company called Liquid Culture as Fashion Production Assistant, however her passion for design is her driving force. Growing up in a family of performers, Tamarin has practised ballet and many other forms of dance most of her life. Performing arts have been a major source of inspiration in many of her designs.
Tamarin has ranked as a finalist twice with her work in the annual Flair Fashion Awards, held at Taree in the mid north coast, where she has competed with many up and coming designers Australia wide. The work she is presenting here is part of her final range from college, which she has designed, patternmade, fit to models and sewn over a eight week period while completing her diploma. She has taken this opportunity to share her work with you
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Fusion
Inspiration for this dress comes from Tamarins love of theatre, particularly 1950's hollywood movies such as My Fair Lady. Cecil Beaton who was the costume designer for the film and world renowned photographer, proved her major source of inspiration. He had a certain way of portraying femininity and elegance of woman by both of his recourses, costume and photography. Tamarin was inspired by the lushes heavy draped silk which featured in much of Beatons photography. Her fusion design hence features eight metres of silk dupion to form the bustle at the back of the dress. This combined with the delicate silk tulles and hand draped, french pleated silk chiffon, forms her interpretation of 1950's elegance.
Noir
Inspiration for this cocktail dress comes from Givenchy, who is infamous for his amazing use of ruffles. This is her interpretation of Chanel's little black dress to which she has moved into the 21st century. She wanted to convey the sexiness of a modest design. This dress required six metres of silk taffeta of which, most was cut into circles to create the ruffles. Tamarin has also designed and created the hat to match her dress. Anyone for cocktails?
Calm
Calm is an interpretation of 'the dress'. Tamarin was inspired by the use of underwear as outerwear, and created her dress as a corset and bustle pad from the 1800's. She reshaped the seams in the corset to contour with the body to show off the wearers figure. The bustle pad was created by rolling layers of cotton muslin and hand stitching them to the support underneath. She then cut hundreds of cotton organdy circles and stitched them between the layers to create the ruffles between the rolls of muslin and randomly added circles of nylon net to support the organdy. The dress also resembles a deconstructed tutu, reflecting Tamarins history of ballet.
