Creative Process ~ Cabane Hand-Painted Miniskirt

Blue Nude ~ Slow Fashion Brand - Susan Protsack Working on Artwork for the Cabane Hand-Painted Miniskirt

 

The Cabane Miniskirt is the featured hand-painted piece from our La Lueur collection. Featuring a mid-rise and back zip, it's cut in sandy European linen for a soft and casual feel.

Cabane's colour scheme references three colour markers of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region - greens of the region's pine forest, sand of the beaches, and blues of the ocean. The name is derived from the understated-chic wooden cabanes lining the shoreline of the oyster farming village of L'Herbe. Motifs on the skirt make subtle reference to historical French iconography, for example, with partially exposed fleur-de-lis.

 

Blue Nude ~ Slow Fashion Brand - Cabane in L'Herbe, France

A wooden cabane in L'Herbe, Nouvelle-Aquitaine.

 

We experimented with collection artist Susan Protsack on a variety of unconventional textile paint applications. We started by using cut bok choy ends to create a camellia, but found it was inconsistent with definition across multiple applications. We then moved on to creating patches of green using isolated paper cut-outs from Matisse's Blue Nude series, layered with sprayed textile paint motifs. However, upon setting our test fabric with heat, we discovered the density of the paint caused the fabric to become stiff. After further deliberation, Susan utilized a technique of spraying natural folds on the fabric, which added randomized placement of base colour without the stiffness. She then layered on a variety of stencilled motifs, which were selectively blocked out with tape to reveal only portions of the stencil. The motifs were arranged around a larger, circular blue figure, which symbolized water.

 

Blue Nude ~ Slow Fashion Brand: Cabane Miniskirt Artwork Experiments

Experimenting with scale and placement in Susan Protsack's studio.

 

Susan applied the three layers of paint and iconography across many metres of fabric, then painstakingly heat-set the textile medium so the final product could be washed by hand without damaging the artwork.

As with fine art prints, these pieces are marked with a series number in the back of the garments, demonstrating which piece of our limited run you have purchased.

The linen used for the Cabane Miniskirts is of European-make, sourced from Ireland. Linen consists of flax, which is environmentally friendly as it requires little irrigation and is fully biodegradable.

Each skirt is manufactured at a North London based small-batch production studio. The studio specializes in high-end production, working with many emerging and established designers and brands in the city.

You can purchase the limited run Cabane Hand-Painted Miniskirt here.

 

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