Fabric Design by Christina Binning Wilson

Story and Illustration by Sandshoe

I designed the image in the early 90s and printed it onto a business card.

An elegant and charming Italian woman I sat next to on a plane out of Brisbane a year or so later told me she was a fashion buyer. She had come to Australia “for the parades”. She had been to one on the Gold Coast. I showed her the design. Did I…maybe…was this shown at the Parade, she stumbled. There was a cloth very like it, she said, that she liked a lot.

There are a number of fabric design programmes on the current software market. I came up with my tattered remnant of cloth playing with the Clarisworks programme on my old Apple Mac.

I do love this design.

I imagine it woven in a light merino wool fabric or with a mix to make it a little heavier and a coat pattern draughted with pockets to reinforce and mould its shape into a curve – when a model wears the finished garment, bell-like. The sleeves of the coat are raglan, comfortably straight and not cuffed.

The skirt is a plain straight skirt darted at the waist with four conventional darts, two front and back, with a side zip and a front kick pleat. Its length is only just below the knee.

A second mix-and-match outfit is a trouser suit that has a narrow legged trouser with a lightly reinforced cuff, a side zip and four conventional darts. Its alternative suit coat is waist length and darted only from the front shoulder seam of each shoulder. Reinforced and lined the coat provides a box effect above the narrow legged, cuffed trouser.