The Cutting Class

Gareth Pugh, SS12.

The Spring-Summer 2012 collection by Gareth Pugh built in an interesting way, especially through the disciplined black and white pieces. While there are basic forms and silhouettes that are being continually remoulded by Pugh season after season, the treatment of the shapes is always very different on a structural level. So much of what creates the interest as the collection unfolds is in the comparisons - Pugh will give you both extremes of the one idea, so you can compare the effect of the rich black and the stark white, or watch as the most rigid structure is turned into flowing self stripe chiffon.

In this particular collection the pieces came out as opposites of each other at times, identical pieces presented in both black and white, with the two opposite tones merging towards the end of the collection into stripes and grid patterns. The use of black and white striped fabric seemed newer in this context - more representative of the positive and negative spaces in the cage structures, rather than just a simple stripe. By comparing the black and white versions side by side it is interesting to see what your eye is drawn to first in each version, how it effects the shape of the body and what becomes more or less flattering in each of these extremes.

The cages themselves appear as though they could have been made of carefully constructed channels of fabric made rigid with boning - though a closer look would definitely be needed to examine this as boning typically has all sorts of issues with curling and bending, not generally characteristics conducive to hard line stripes and grids.

Images from Vogue.co.uk».

House of Worth, Couture, AW11.

Boning is a structural material most commonly used hidden away inside garments to form cage-like structures that support the body or the garment. It is a material often associated with corsetry, where boning is often inserted into channels in the fabric or enclosed under bias binding in strips that run vertically up and down the torso, moulding to the curves of the figure.

Despite being primarily a structural device, boning has been used in the Autumn-Winter 2011 Couture collection by the House of Worth to create curved and woven effects that make it more akin to embellishment and decoration rather than simply being functional. In the garments below you will also see how the boning is used to create cage-like effects that are visible outside the garment and not hidden away, and this is becoming a common use of boning seen over the last few years alone in the collections at Valentino and Thom Browne. This is largely due to the fact that it is the strongest and thinnest material for creating these types of structures, also having the benefit of being extremely lightweight and flexible. When boning is encased in an outer layer of fabric, such as here where a layer of velvet or velvet ribbon appears to have been used, this allows the boning to be sewn against itself, to create tension and form structures. The cage-like appearance is also a reference to the way that boning would have previously been used - to create cages over which long skirts and dresses would be worn.

House of Worth, Couture, AW11.

Valentino, Couture, AW10.

Thom Browne, AW11. From the post Internal Structure at Thom Browne».

Boning is available in different varieties, with the most common varieties now available in plastic versions and sewable variations though there are still metal versions available for stronger structure as shown below:

Catwalk images from Vogue.co.uk for House of Worth», Valentino» and Thom Browne». Boning images from VenaCavaDesign».

Thom Browne, AW11.

To create the off-the-body silhouettes seen in Thom Browne’s show you need to have a strong understanding of internal structure. The internal structure of the garment is everything that goes on between the outer fabric and the lining and involves a number of different elements used in combination with each other to create the look you want to achieve.

No matter how perfect the fabric is for a particular garment there is always some area that needs some extra reinforcement, some help in rolling a certain way, or forming a certain shape off the body. The shapes below seem to be most likely achieved through a combination of fusings and boning. The last image below especially seems to be the clue to how the other shapes may have been achieved when the skeleton of boning is shown as a decorative feature in itself, not merely as a structural underskirt.

Thom Browne, AW11.

Most garments have some form of interfacing or fusing to help give the fabric shape. Interfacing and fusing are basically like another form of fabric as they can come in woven or non woven, stretch and non stretch varieties, different degrees of thickness and different colours (although predominantly black/white/grey). In tailoring there are also even stronger types of interfacing used such as horsehair and canvas.

Some interfacings are simply stitched into place in the seam lines, some are blind stitched into place using small stitches across the fabric and many fusings actually have an adhesive backing which is activated by heat and which can be joined direct to the back of the fabric using an iron or a heat press.

These fusings vary in thickness right from very fine meshes that can be used on transparent fabrics, right through to fusings as think as cardboard or even some that have a slight padding. To achieve the look of the shapes in the Thom Browne collection above it seems that some heavyweight fusings were probably used in conjunction with some boning inserts or possibly a whole cage of boning.
Bonings stem from the steel and whale bone materials which originally would have been used in corsets and cage underskirts. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes and different levels of flexibility. Some are made so that you can sew through them, while others come encased in fabric otherwise you can create channels of bias binding or grosgrain on your garment that you can slide the boning into.

Catwalk images from Vogue.co.uk». Interfacing images from Freudenberg». Boning images from VenaCavaDesign».