The Yamamoto Rectangle Dress

photos from SAM

I first saw this dress on the last day of the Future Beauty exhibit at Seattle Art Museum in 2013.

(I only got to go that one time)

https://erniekdesigns.blogspot.com/2013/09/future-beauty-finally.html

I was smitten.

From the Barbican book of the exhibit:

Black is such a bitch to see details on.

I took awful notes in a notebook, and then I lost the notes.

I made one for myself out of black poly crepe, and I put an instruction sheet up on Craftsy, but I wasn't happy with it. And Craftsy is no more. I'm still not satisfied with the original instructions from 2013, but I can't seem to correct them to my satisfaction, so I'm just putting up this illustration here. It's dead simple. The central pleats are the conceit, otherwise it's just another rectangle dress.

The trick on this is to cut the front piece in two, and make three big pleats up the center seam. Finish armholes and hem and neckline to taste. I suggest making a facing piece for the back of the neck for comfort and stability. 

After a crepe dress hangs for 5 years, the folds flatten out in front.

I needed to puff them up.

So I cut stuffing pieces from some super fat felt I have in the stash

And stuffed them into the seams

(yes, these are the overexposed versions of these photos)

I am going to redo this dress, probably in a different color of crepe, with the bigger gathers as in the original, and some organza in the folds for floofiness.

I even wore it out of the house to Seattle Frocktails 2018.

Yes, all photos taken in a cave, in the before-times.

Once again, a tip of the hat for the reminder that it's a rectangular world of free patterns
http://rhondabuss.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-magic-rectangle-dress.html