Suspension

Toledo uses the term Suspension to refer to jersey and taffeta dresses that she crafts to hang from wide bands of fabric or to puff effortlessly from thin cords. Many of these designs use a pulley or cable made of self fabric cording.

The Hermaphrodite dresses each consist of a series of loops that undulate on a more or less horizontal axis. Toledo manipulates folds of fabric that are sometimes drawn in more tightly across the chest or pulled out to form lobes that stand away from the ribcage, giving the dresses their unorthodox shape.

The Caterpillar dress is cut with only one long, curved seam that arches up and around the right hip. Above that arch and suspended from its tank-top straps, the bulk of the dress’ fabric is pulled to one side and shirred across the torso and hip, and then down the length of the dress. This shirred volume of material is then sewn to a large lobe of un-shirred fabric.

For the Kangaroo Pouch dress, Toledo draped a wide panel of jersey so that it loops and falls down the upper bac and around the lower abdomen, giving some structure to this weighty and fluid fabric.