dissecting is the new breaking

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In a video that Sarah Burton did to celebrate Beijing’s new McQueen boutique, she breaks down how exactly those mosaic dresses from her fall 2011 collection. Turns out they were composed of plates that were painstakingly made to look broken — you know, instead of just breaking them the old-fashioned (er, cheap) way. Burton explains:

We hand-painted 10 different plates. Then we sort of dissected them as if it was broken, so we did a pattern like it was broken. Then we engineered the image onto a bodice. Then we handcut all the porcelain pieces out from the mold we had. Then we made each of those pieces again individually and numbered them. It was like a jigsaw puzzle.

If that wouldn’t drive you to fling crockery around your atelier, then goodness knows what would.

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