February 2016 Quarterly with Marla Kazell
For our February Quarterly meeting on February 16, 2016, Marla Kazell gave us a wonderful presentation on Koos van den Akker’s fabric collage jackets. Koos (March 1939 – February 2015) was a Dutch-born fashion designer who attended the Royal Academy of Art, L’École Guerre Lavigne (fashion design school) and then apprenticed with Christian Dior.
The morning was filled with beautiful collaged designs. Marla visited Koos’ studio several times over the years prior to his passing, and has many stories to tell. She also has made many beautiful Koos inspired jackets and garments. She has used Koos’ patterns, the Saf-T-Pockets Patterns’ “Wear with All” and “Rochelle’s Reversible” jackets and others. Her trunk show was truly inspiring.
Along with the inspiration came very helpful pointers on how to get started, what fabrics to use, how much to buy and how to choose what patterns to use. Many types of fabrics could be used. Chiffon layered over wool was particularly beautiful. Mixing prints of different sizes was visually interesting. The bias strips bring cohesion to the designs.
It was all hands-on in the afternoon. Marla demonstrated the techniques for origami texture and how to make an origami bound buttonhole. Clever! She also showed us how to do the slicing technique and make a hidden seam bias circle. The group was large and enthusiastic and the scraps were soon flying! It was a lot of fun, and there will likely be many Koos and Marla inspired bags at our next meeting.
