Romina Goransky, an origami teacher based in Buenos Aires, Argentina created this beautiful origami tessellation dress to wear for her brother’s wedding. A ten day project, the dress was built using two pleated pieces and hand sewn using taffeta, which is a crisp, smooth plain woven fabric made from silk or synthetic fibers, which is also used to line clothing. Prior to sewing the pieces together, they created a treatment for the fabric by mixing glue and water so that the pleat would remain in its shape while the fabric was hand folded.

What a beautiful dress!

Inspired by origami’s three-dimensional frame, Lianna Sheppard created Modu_gram – a series of 3D wearable structures, named Octa, Tetra, Edra and Poly. A recent graduate in Fashion at Kingston University, Lianna created a fashionable sculptures, allowing the fashionista to wear it at different positions on the body. Constructed with elements such as light, movement, structure and color Modu_gram is quite a lovely piece to sport at a nice dinner party.

I normally make a quick attempt to fly (okay, speed walk) by Herald Square Macy’s on my way to karate every night because it’s just so busy around that area. But what gave me pause last Thursday was Macy’s beautiful window display featuring a collaboration between Pratt and international designer Ralph Pucci. Pratt Institute’s School of Art and Design worked exclusively in paper to dress Pucci’s Spring 2011 “GIRL2″ mannequins. They are so beautiful; the featured ones are my favorite. If you live in NYC, you must walk by, your jaw will drop…well at least mine did. =)

A graduate of London’s Royal College of Art Tine De Ruysser, Ph.D spends her days investigating production methods and folding patterns with a metal and fabric, a new material she invented while she was a student.

“Banknote Jewellery” is a conceptual and even political piece articulating the relationship between paper money and gold. A timely piece during our world’s financial crisis, Tine explores the symbolism and relationship between the value of paper money and gold.

Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana’s Professor Claudia Fernandez and Mauricio Velasquez Posada explores the use volume, space, and environment to recreate the meaning of origami and the human body. Learn more over here and here. It really makes me pause and say, “hey! whoever created this amazing piece has a truly unique mind!”

A shining star Giota Kaiopoulou from Thessaloniki, Greece did a spectacular job blending two very complicated arts together – origami and fashion. Started in 2004, Giota was a pioneer weaving these two concepts together. She created this project titled, “Origami Flowers”, which was also the perfect final project for her Fashion Degree at a local university in Greece. What a visionary Giota is because today we see origami fashion everywhere!

Upon her graduation, she applied and was accepted for the 13th Biennial of Young Artists from Europe and Mediterranean. It is sponsored by the International Assocation of the Biennial of Young Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean(BJCEM). This organization is a network which gathers 71 members from 20 countries, locals, ministries, associations, cultural institutions, and is open to the membership of local and national bodies from Europe and the Mediterranean.

The mission of this organization is to promote the creativity of young artists, encourage international exchanges, and develop pacific relations across the Mediterranean. What a great accomplishment, Giota to be recognized with this wonderful organization!

It’s been a little over a month since my move from San Francisco to New York and over the next couple of weeks and months to come, I’ll be creating posts of and about origami I discover in this bustling city I now call home.

I live near 5th Avenue and one fashion trend that reappears in each and every store are folded and sculptural dresses, skirts and tops. My small Asian eyes bulge when I first discover these beautiful pieces of clothing, because my mind is screaming, I WANT NOW!!!!!!! But upon closer inspection, my mind quickly adopts this new attitude – great concept, bad craftsmanship.

So I go from store to store feeling evermore disappointed with each origami inspired piece of clothing, until I came across this Max and Cleo origami dress I found at YAMAK! The details on this dress is folded neatly just like I would with a piece of paper and the color selection for this style is also vibrant and fun.

An added bonus to this story – after my relocation, I went from a size 6 to a size 2, so now I have a new figure, new city and a new dress.

John Galliano’s spring 2007 collection for Christian Dior was simply smashing and left a long lasting impression in my memory. The collection was chock full of vibrant colors, beautiful kimonos and origami. It was nice to see it finally influence and grace this year’s oscar fashionistas. We liked it most on Heidi Klum, Cameron Diaz, and Marisa Tomei. And a big congrats to the night’s biggest winner – Slumdog Millionaire. A tune in the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack, M.I.A. Paper Planes has super kewl origami airplanes in its music video.

Raymond Queneau was a French poet and novelist who told the same story 99 different ways and Exercices de Style is a lab that makes a bold attempt to apply the same idea, but in fashion design. A recent project called Walking City was a study on modular structures of a garment and seeks out how fashion arts and technology are to be intertwined.