This was my first assignment from last year, where the challenge was to design an outfit using only muslin.

My idea began with a book I read, West with the Night, written by a female adventurer I admire. It evoked memories of my childhood and inspired reflections on my personal growth, which together became the foundation for this collection.

When I was a child, I loved playing flying games with my friends, swinging on curtains and pretending we were soaring through the sky. In those fleeting moments, I felt a connection to the world—light, weightless, and free.

As I grew older, I realized more and more that my life was bound by the gravity of rules. Yet, the yearning to capture the essence of flight never left me, eventually evolving into a passion for fashion design.

This collection is grounded in my childhood obsession with flying, further developed through historical research into the attire of early aviators like Beryl Markham, author of West with the Night.

Here are a few pages from my journal.

This collection is pretty personal. The design process felt like a form of self-reflection, revisiting past experiences and my inner world. Adventure isn’t just about outward exploration—it’s just as vast inwardly.

Here are some hand-drawn stages of the design process, from initial drafts to color choices and the final lineup.

Here are some final looks; the second one is the final piece I made.

The draping process began with paper then a square piece of muslin. After quickly shaping the rough outline I wanted, I revised the measurements on the pattern and then re-draped it, incorporating pleats based on the previous shape.

The silhouette of the dress is primarily supported by boning. The construction is somewhat intricate: the outer skirt is double-layered, with fine pleats ironed on the inside and large pleats secured with stitching on the outside. The pleats are fixed at the armholes and neckline. The shape of the bottom is supported by another detachable boned underskirt. The top is fully lined, with boning added at the tail and key structural points to create the illusion of weightlessness, as if the garment is floating mid-air.