The name Lorelei means "a siren" or "a temptress". The Lorelei collection is a 5 piece inclusive athleisure collection that is designed for a transgender, autistic client with themes of the ocean, the beach, and feminine power. The collection has a comfortable knit poncho dyed with indigo, an inclusive dress style bathing suit, a lightweight mermaid style cover-up, a pair of harem style elastic pants, and a detachable hood to cover the face.

Client: Lorelei Smith

• Age 22 (gen Z)
• White
• Recent college graduate
  • Computer scientist
• Lifestyle:
  • Musician
  • D&D player
  • Used to be a swimmer (Grew up on swim team, but struggles with it now due to gender/sensory issues)

For this collection, I wanted to do a lot of research and ideation before I began digitally and physically prototyping the pieces. I knew I wanted a bathing suit, a knit poncho, a pair of pants with elastic, a detachable hood, and one other item, but before I started designing them I needed to learn about the details of these.

I created a styling page of the items that my client usually wears and what they could potentially pair with the pieces in the collection so that I could take this into consideration while pattern-making. 

I also knew that I wanted the collection to be as sustainable as possible, so I researched sustainable dye techniques, coming to the conclusion of using indigo dye to create a "moon jelly" effect on the knit poncho and rust dyeing to texture the knit pants. I also sourced sustainable fabric, using natural fibers for everything except the bathing suit, which will be made out of fabric from LoPo swim, which contains North Carolina-based Unifi performance polyester fiber made from REPREVE®OurOcean and Berry-compliant lycra. 

Finally, I did some simple sketches of garment ideas before hopping into CLO 3D to digitally prototype.

The next step for me was prototyping. I split up the collection into 3 sections: the knit "tops", the pants, and the accessories. Shown below are renderings of the 3D prototypes, the physical prototypes, and the plans I have to change the designs before I make the final.

The most complicated of this first section is the bathing suit. I wanted it to fit well, but have volume where it mattered. The client wanted to show off their natural bust and hips, but wanted to minimize the attention at their crotch without the client needing to tuck (term for a process used by transfeminine individuals wherein they smooth out the crotch area by "tucking" bits away). On my second prototype, I still faced some issues with gaping in the lower back and hip area, but I was able to fix that in the final piece.

The next knit top was very simple pattern-making wise, but had the added challenge of the indigo dye. I did some tests on swatches of fabric as shown below to play around with the technique required to make the "moon jelly" motif. Shown below is a rendering of the 3D prototype as well as the physical prototype, and the plans I have to change the design before I make the final.

On the first prototype of the pants, the main issue that I faced had to do with mobility. My client is a very physically active person, and expressed a need for a full range of motion in their daily life. By changing the fabric for the final piece as well as make some tweaks in the pattern-making, I was able to allow for that range of motion without too much bagginess. 

For the hood, I created a color reduced image of the hood with Photoshop and then brought that into the program with the laser cutter. The main testing that I had to do was with the size of the graphic so that I didn't accidentally make it too big or small for my pattern piece. 

Due to time constraints, I did all of my prototyping of this garment in CLO, and it turned out exactly like I wanted it. I was aiming for a simple cover up with gathering along the side that utilized the fullness within the gather to create a mermaid-like silhouette.

The final thing I had to test before I am able to work on the final pieces is my seaming. The client is neurodivergent, and struggles with many sensory issues in clothing, one of which is seams that are too big or textured. When I showed the client the seams I had created, she expressed that they were still too textured. In response to this, we decided to just use the seam designs I had created inside out.