For The Love of Pleat

It seems the combination of a dismal summer and glorious rain has resulted in an eruption of mushrooms and toadstools seemingly everywhere!  Not so great for eating, but I suspect the fairies are very happy.

Texture is a huge part of my inspiration for both fashion and photography.  After spending some time photographing toadstools / mushrooms, I brought one home and ran my fingers over and over the gills until my hands smelt like compost.  (The husband was convinced I would die from fungi poisoning, or worse, he would die from exposure)!


Nevertheless, the delicate gills got me thinking of pleats and how great it would be to design some garments inspired by all things mushroomy.(This may happen one day *dream*).



Being very tactile, I have a need to touch things.  The beautiful gowns by Australian designers J'Aton Couture below, although I'm sure were not inspired by toadstool gills, have the same layered quality and I would love nothing more than to run my fingers through the layers of fabric.

I do like pleating.  I love the way it looks, feels and moves.   It always adds a sense of volume to a gown without adding bulk, which to anyone with hips is a great thing!

I am a fan of sunray (or sunburst) pleating more than knife pleating.  Sunray pleating (as shown below) is made from bias cut fabric where the pleat is narrower at the top than the bottom creating a flared effect.  Knife pleating is when fabric is folded into a succession of single pleats in the one direction.

I cannot walk out of an OP shop without a piece of sun-ray pleating. Needless to say I have quite a collection of 70's & 80's pleated skirts that I will get around to wearing or re-working one day.

Bet you can't look at pleats now without thinking of mushrooms!
Stroganoff anyone?