It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that for quite a while I have been somewhat obsessed with botanical dresses. Never mind that I do not wear dresses – I only love to create the botanical kind!  I’ve marveled at so many pictures on social media over the years and have often fantasized to design several dresses for a runway show.

As you can imagine they are very time consuming and expensive projects – however, it has been fun to experiment with ideas and create some miniature versions. This week I designed the first ‘woodland dress’, using some textured birch bark that I had brought back from Grovfor in Wisconsin last summer. The next step will be to make one for a model later this spring.

I have been fortunate to be hired on a few occasions to make botanical dresses:

The first one was for a window display during the holidays here in Portland at a bridal gown shop Divine Designs. A couple of years ago Milieu Magazine  in Houston dreamed up a magnificent dress for the cover of the magazine. A few months later I designed a dress for the grand opening of the most exclusive in women’s luxury ready-to-wear store Neapoliotan Collection in Chicago.

Last November I taught the mechanics on how to make a dress to students at Cohim in Beijing. The results were stunning and after posting images on social media, many designers expressed interest to take such a class. I am offering 2 workshops, one in Portland next month and one in San Francisco in March.

If you are interested to learn the mechanics for this exciting trend,  check out my upcoming workshops schedule  or contact me for private instruction and editorial design.

Thank you Gwen Severson for the fabulous pictures!