Teaching moulage: a full-day draping workshop in Lisbon

Daniele Orlandi led a moulage (draping) workshop at O Apartamento in Lisbon on 24 March 2018 — a full day teaching the fundamentals of garment construction through toile draped directly on the mannequin, working toward a finished bodice. O Apartamento is a Lisbon-based communications and PR agency whose clients span design, hospitality and culture, including Vitra, MAAT (Museu de Arte, Arquitetura e Tecnologia) and the Belmond Reid's Palace.

About the workshop

The day was split into two sessions. The morning covered the fundamentals: an introduction to draping terminology and preparation, followed by participants observing Orlandi manipulate toile on the mannequin before practising the basic principles themselves to construct a bodice — the technical foundation for a wide range of garments. The afternoon moved into variations and a more open, individual draping project, with each participant working toward a personalised bodice in toile. Rather than claiming full mastery of moulage—a technique requiring years of dedicated practice— the workshop provided a working grasp of its foundations that participants could continue developing independently afterwards.

The workshop ran from 10am to 7:30pm with a lunch break at O Apartamento's space on Avenida Duque de Loulé in Lisbon. Orlandi was assisted during the session by Michael Gagliotti, a collaborator with fashion-industry experience at houses including Salvatore Ferragamo, Giorgio Armani, Coach and Hugo Boss.

How Orlandi frames the technique

In his own preparation notes for the course, Orlandi describes moulage — the French term for draping — as a way of sculpting directly in cloth: design and pattern achieved at the same time, by arranging fabric on a dress stand from a sketch or a rough idea, rather than working the two out separately on paper. As he puts it, this back-and-forth with the fabric itself can surface problems, or ideas, that a flat sketch would never reveal — a three-dimensional dialogue with the cloth that makes proportion, fit and balance visible immediately, and that he treats as central to developing and refining a design through fittings, rather than merely executing a predetermined flat drawing.

Source

  • Event Page: O Apartamento, "Daniele Orlandi & Michael Gagliotti — Moulage Workshop", March 2018. [Event page]

  • Announcement: O Apartamento official Facebook page, 18 March 2018. [Event page]

  • Location: O Apartamento, Avenida Duque de Loulé, Lisbon.