Le nonne... A body. A sculpture.

"it all comes to an end... but its not just the end... its the road you went through to get there"

The project of the Italian Grandmothers really took over most of our 3rd semester running through the beginning of the 4th... but not only was our time/curriculum transformed, it was our perception of the female body that completely changed|IT WAS rediscovered| understood!

from below

from above

Each 2-3 people group had a lady... ours-not as old(as the other ones) neither of AGE or of SPIRIT-which is what counts the most- Sassy and Energetic, she always made me and Jessica laugh. She would tell us stories of the 50's and how she had a dress "JUST like that one" (the one that was assigned to a different group). And how clothes used to be so finely made before, and how she used to have custom made clothes.... As she spoke and we tried to understand|translate|speak back|be understood... we also tried to do our work... Adjust our drapes, pinch here, take away from there, OMG! how did we come up w that shape??? Did she loose some weight?

detail.bust

In order to be "freer" in this game... we were told to "create" a grandma' body... we stuffed the basic bodice and stuffed the basic skirt we had adjusted... to FORM a new "form". We started off with a "perfect" size 8 WOLF® form, and little by little started padding, criss crossing pieces of batting, then make a whole, add a circle, add more stuffing! Okay, we realized two people=4 hands=one area... is a bit caotic. Jessica would do the back, I would do the front, then we critique... I sculpted the bust(It was so fun)and The belly(make a wish) , Jessica the back, her unbalanced shoulders and her small almost "hump"... her deformations we came up with!

boobs.belly

A new mannequin... and our grandmother could be with us in the draping room. Of course, this one was missing the spark and charm our little italian lady had... but we could at least stay in the lab until 8' AND DRAPE AWAY... you half, I half, you the collar, me the skirt.. etc... 

back view

Once the project was over, and the show had happened, we came back to the draping laboratory to find a room of "naked, red, black, white, stitched-up grandmothers" silently awaiting, reminding us of the journey we had just come back from... We were asked to let them go... and so we did, our grandmas were gone, and the young ''perfect size'' missies came back... But in our heads, in our hands... the body was no longer a flat, asymmetrical, 34, 24, 32, balanced thing... It was three-dimensional, attitudinal, it had a lifestyle, and it had to move and be comfortable...

insides.all opened up. cut in half

Scratches... all over the place... lets re-organize!

insides.batting.threadinsides.batting.thread

insides.batting.thread