The Aesthetic Qualities of Fabric

It is interesting to look at the many types of fabrics that are now available for designers to manipulate and play with in order to create interesting new designs.

Here are a few pictures of fabrics and their interesting and unique qualities they might embody. I removed any color from the photos as to avoid an emotional response to color as opposed to the more basic form of the cloth.

The reason I think this is important to this blog is due to the fact that fabric itself can express so many things and allow such a variety of manipulation. Do we really need extra ornamentation added to our clothing in order to stand out. The pure beauty of fabric should not go unnoticed. It is can be modest yet so intriguing.











The sequins connected by a thing string allows for a certain degree of transparency and layering.

















The gauze-like quality gives more structure to the crinkling fabric. There is still a level of transparency allowing on to play with the different levels of light or fabrics when layered.














This fabric is obviously thick enough for pleating. The tension of the pulling on the fabric is more apparent and makes us want to see what
is causing that stress (conceptually).
















The lace is so feminine and so light.

Istanbul- The Silhouette

While visiting the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey, I noticed an interesting combination of fabric and architecture. Covering one of the main doors of the mosque is a plastic tarp that is used to create a smaller doorway (as opposed to the original 7 meter tall door). The need for a smaller opening is probably to keep birds out of the prayer hall as well as to protect against rain.

The interesting aspect of this piece of fabric is the way they chose to accent the original frame of the door with a floral design.
The green color of the tarp is very prominent and makes a very distinct impression on the overall aesthetic of the mosque.

I want to show how this relates to fashion...

It is interesting to look at the color change in the abaya. The lighter cream color obviously highlights a thinner and more pronounced silhouette of the female figure. This is attractive to us because the female figure is, of course, beautiful and highlighting it with a subtle outline does not go unappreciated.

It relates to the above photo of the tarp at the blue mosque with the use of an embordered design which highlights the frame of the original door.

It is another example of how fashion and architecture is related. We can start to take elements of architecture and apply it to fashion or vice versa.

Do you think it is less modest to have these subtle outlines of a female silhouette on an abaya?