Helen Storey's Disappearing Dresses

Designer Helen Storey is working away in a studio at the London College of Fashion creating dresses that will then disappear. Since January 29th Helen has based at an open studio at the London College of Fashion designing a series of 10 polymer dresses which when emerged in water disintegrate and eventually disappear for a project called Wonderland.

Working with scientist Tony Ryan, Helen has placed one dress in the window of the London College of Fashion's John Prince's Street window and over the course of the month she's working there, the dress will gradually disappear. SHOWstudio is hosting the online version of this and has positioned nine cameras around the dress in the window and is capturing stills every 7 minutes. Eventually, there will be an edited version of the dress disappearing 1 minute and 17 seconds long. After February 29, the dresses will tour to Sheffield in May and June and then Belfast in October.

Helen Storey stopped designing for her own-name label in 1995 despite huge catwalk success and legendary praise for her 1991 collection 'Prresent Times. She has since been involved with projects that explore live science. You can meet Helen and her collaborator from the University of Sheffield Tony Ryan on February 26 12.30pm-1.30pm at the London College of Fashion to find out more about this practical investigation into biodegradable clothing which has exciting possibilities for an ecological approach to clothing.

Words: Marian Buckley

Find out more about Wonderland here: http://www.showstudio.com/project/wonderland
Book to attend the free talk with Helen Storey here: http://www.fashion.arts.ac.uk/events/41226.htm
The Helen Storey Foundation: http://www.helenstoreyfoundation.org