Felt Dress is the third dress from The Girl in the Wood Frock series, based on a fairy tale in which a girl runs away wearing a set of dresses that save her life. Each dress is an exercise in controlling one’s most immediate environment. They are also explorations of material technique and are made through a combination of high and low-tech methods, with architectural construction informing their detailing.
The dress is made of firm pressed wool felt typically used in printing presses, filters, and padding applications. The tiles of the dress are coded according to a grid that was mapped onto the body. For areas around the shoulders, breasts, and hips, the coding ensures that specially sized and shaped tiles are stitched into the proper position. The stitching was done by hand with hemp and silk threads.
Felt Dress, August 2006. Pressed wool felt, silk, and hemp yarn.