(shown here with accompanying Jeogori)Accession Number: CR.356.66.1b
Label: Wedding Dress, Skirt, Korea, c.1960’s
Note: This project is not considered complete until every scrap of deaccessioned fabric has found a use. Often this means that a single deaccessioned garment may yield raw materials for multiple new items. In this instance, the garment has previously yielded a garment bag.
This chima is made of a gauzy, hot pink, synthetic material with a woven medallion pattern. At the bottom of the skirt there is a 3” stripe of similar green fabric, a 3” stripe of pink, and a 3” hem of green. The stripes are printed with silver characters and stylized peacocks while the dress is stamped with silver medallions. In places, the silver ink has seeped through to the red tulle lining. The pink skirt is gathered into a series of pleats and attached to a red tulle band that has two red tulle shoulder straps. The dress closes with two large hook and eyes just beneath the left arm.
During previous deconstruction, the tulle band was removed, all pleats were taken out, and the lining was removed. The three stripes on the bottom of the skirt were also removed.
A wooden tennis racket was obtained, and the damaged strings were removed. A semi-elliptical paper pattern was drafted and used to cut two pieces from the red tulle lining. These pieces were sewn together, leaving one end open, to form the butterfly net. A piece of a green fabric stripe was cut, and the short ends hemmed. This piece was then sewn to the open edge of the tulle net and stretched around the open frame of the racket. Finally, the raw edge of the green fabric was folded over the wooden frame and hand sewn to the tulle, securing the net to the racket.
The accession number has been embroidered to a piece of tulle and sewn to the top of the net.
Dear Robert,
ReplyDeleteI wanted to comment on a post of yours from June that mentioned the NASA art program, but I couldn't post my comment there. You have a thought-provoking project, and an interesting blog that I've just found. I'm curious how you came to know about those details regarding the NASA artists, since I'm currently working with some of the works on paper that were created as part of the program.
Kile,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your interest in the project. As for the NASA program, I first heard about it from one of the participating artists. Much of the rest of the information was readily avaliable on the internet.
-Robert