For my senior thesis collection, I meticulously designed bespoke beading on each garment to illustrate a whimsical narrative where nothing is as it seems, celebrating escapism and self-expression in my couture capsule collection, Reverie Between Realities. I created a space where the pressures of life are lost to time—a party where anyone can be free to embody whatever or whomever they choose without fear of judgment.
The silhouettes are rooted in the elegance and flair of the 1920s, capturing the boldness and fluidity of the era while adding a contemporary twist. Each piece is a nod to a time when fashion was about liberation, both in movement and form, blending jazz-age influences with modern aesthetics. Custom beading, machine embroidery, rich textiles, and couture techniques are combined to create a surreal and dreamlike world where time ceases, inhibitions are lowered, and the true self can emerge.
Mood, color & Sketches
The collection takes inspiration from the Rothschilds’ famed Animal Ball of 1972, a gathering remembered for its theatricality and its embrace of surrealist fantasy. References to the work of Salvador Dalí and other surrealist artists further anchor the collection within a tradition of visual experimentation that sought to dissolve the boundaries between reality and imagination.
Silhouettes are informed by the fashions of the 1920s, when women rejected the restrictive structures of corsetry in favor of looser, more fluid forms that embodied a new sense of autonomy and modernity. This historical precedent resonates with the collection’s central theme of escapism and the freedom to assume alternative identities. The use of rich, complementary colors amplifies this effect, lending the garments a boldness that underscores their alignment with surrealism’s embrace of spectacle and transformation.
Drawing on the visual language of surrealist art, a series of motifs was developed to serve as the foundation of the collection’s decorative program. Conceived as fragments of narrative, these hand-drawn designs were arranged and combined through beading and embroidery, allowing the garments themselves to operate as sites of storytelling. Each motif functions on multiple levels of perception: what appears at first glance is deliberately deceptive, rewarding close examination with hidden imagery and layered meaning.
These surrealist-inspired motifs recur across the collection, unifying the garments through a shared vocabulary of form and symbol. In doing so, they construct a continuous narrative that extends from one piece to another, situating the collection within both the tradition of textile ornamentation and the broader legacy of surrealist exploration of the seen and unseen.
Look one
Constructed from vegetable-dyed Indian silk velvet, this garment is designed with the nap positioned upward, producing a deeper saturation of color. The velvet is paired with silk chiffon, dyed to harmonize with its vivid red and orange tones. A cream silk crepe-back satin serves as a contrasting element, highlighting the vibrancy of the velvet and chiffon. For stability, the satin is reinforced with a heavy cotton facing, while the interior is fully lined in silk crepe de chine. The garment is finished with a hand-stitched narrow flat hem and bias-bound armholes, reflecting a high level of craftsmanship.
Final fittings were undertaken to ensure the garment was accurately represented on the model. Beading was applied to achieve chromatic balance and to visually connect the ensemble with related garments. A lobster clasp was incorporated at the back shoulder to facilitate dressing. A coordinating headband was constructed in matching velvet, centered with a pearl brooch set in gold and accented by cascading beaded strands. On the right are runway images documenting the completed garment and its accessories.
Look two
The bodice decoration was conceived through the careful arrangement of original hand-drawn motifs, translated directly onto the pattern piece to integrate artwork with form. This design process reflects the intersection of artistic draftsmanship and garment construction, where surface ornamentation is conceived in dialogue with the silhouette. The motifs were subsequently refined into a scaled technical illustration, calibrated to the precise dimensions of the selected beads. A comprehensive technical package was produced, specifying bead type, size, and color, along with detailed construction notes.
The embroidered indian silk velvet was draped to emphasize the bespoke beading, allowing the textile’s ornamentation to shape the garment’s overall silhouette. A chiffon drape was arranged across the hip, integrating jeweled brooches, a belt buckle closure, and additional beadwork that accentuated the garment's opulence. The headpiece was fashioned from the same silk chiffon, its form enhanced by embellishments and cascading beaded strands arranged along the front. The headpiece was completed with a gold shell hook closure for adjustability, with beaded strands linking the fastening points.
Look three
The decorative scheme for the skirts was developed through hand-drawn motifs that were carefully arranged on each pattern piece to ensure alignment across seams and symmetry within the skirts. This process ensured that the surface ornamentation was conceived in direct relationship to the garment’s structure. The motifs were then refined into scaled technical illustrations, calibrated precisely to the dimensions and placements of the selected beads. Each tier of the skirt required an individual rendering, allowing the scale of the artwork to correspond accurately to the proportions of the garment. The resulting technical package served as both a design record and a construction guide, specifying bead type, size, and method of application, and embodying the integration of artistic vision with technical execution.
Beading development was undertaken through swatching and the careful alignment of patterns to ensure accuracy in cutting. The beadwork was mounted on cream silk chiffon, providing both depth and chromatic cohesion, with a silk chiffon lining completing the interior finish. The construction emphasized precise alignment and symmetry throughout. The garment was executed as two separate components: a top and a skirt. The top features a hook-and-eye closure at the center back with an accompanying keyhole detail. The skirt is composed of three fully beaded circle tiers, each backed with silk chiffon. All hems of the ensemble are finished with a baby hem.
The collar and cuffs of the coat were designed using motifs consistent with the rest of the collection, revised to reflect the precise coloration of the machine embroidery. These motifs were digitized using Hatch embroidery software, with careful specification of stitch type, density, understitching, and directional flow, allowing for an accurate translation of hand-drawn artwork into embroidered form. Each pattern piece was embroidered individually on a single-needle machine.
Constructed from vegetable-dyed silk velvet, the coat was draped after construction at both front and back to enhance volume, movement, and silhouette. Tailoring techniques were employed to achieve structural precision and refinement characteristic of high-quality garment construction. Beaded strands were applied to accentuate the drape and create visual continuity with other garments in the collection. The coat is secured with a vintage gold clasp, and all edges are completed with a hand-finished, narrow flat hem, reflecting meticulous attention to detail and the integration of ornamental and functional elements.
*Photoshoot Coming Soon*
