Slow fashion - using Reverse Applique

Somewhere out there, there are people still using hand stitching to join and sew togther a dress! Wow!

Lots of technical question marks in my head. eg. is the hand stitching gonna be strong enuff to hold it together?  How much time is it gonna take?  Quality of the stitching? Are there people willing to sewer it?  And the final two marketing question - how much more will it cost? & will anyone buy it?


Here's the link to the story :  http://blog.fidmmuseum.org/museum/2011/03/project-alabama-reverse-applique-dress.html
 

Here's some excerpts that may answer my questions :

PROJECT ALABAMA
From 2001-2006, Project Alabama earned rack space in boutiques from Tokyo to New York City and appeared in Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and many other publications. All this despite Project Alabama's location in Florence, Alabama, far from the fashion centers of New York or Paris.


The company got its start in 2001, when native Alabaman and former stylist Natalie Chanin needed something to wear to a party in New York City. Chanin deconstructed a t-shirt, cutting it apart and sewing it back together with visible stitches. The one-off shirt was a tremendous success, earning compliments and inquiries about where it was purchased. Based on the success of her spontaneous design, Chanin decided to make similar t-shirts for retail sale. At first, Chanin wanted to produce her t-shirts in New York, but quickly realized that she'd have more success producing garments with a handmade appearance if she hired sewers skilled in hand-sewing techniques. This led Chanin back to Alabama, where handwork, particularly quilting, was still an important part of local culture.

Tank dress with reverse applique

HAND-SEWN DRESS
Each Project Alabama t-shirt or dress was handmade, start to finish. Local sewers, called stitchers in company parlance, worked from home to produce garments with a distinctly handmade appearance. The basis of each garment was cotton jersey, which was then hand-stitched into t-shirts, dresses, skirts or other garments. The unmistakable appearance of Project Alabama's garments resulted from multiple types of embellishment, including applique, embroidery, stencil. beading and visible stitches.

Project Alabama garments rely entirely on hand-stitching, no machines allowed!

Bodice of the reverse applique dress

PRICE ?
Because they were entirely handmade, Project Alabama garments were expensive. T-shirts were priced from $150-$300, while a dress could run as high as $3,000. These prices, however, allowed stitchers to earn a living wage in an area with little industry. At its peak, Project Alabama employed 200 stitchers.


SLOW FASHION MOVEMENT

Project Alabama was also an early purveyor of what is now called Slow Fashion, a movement that rejects the quick turnover of contemporary fashion and advocates quality over quantity. Slow Fashion is also concerned with reducing the ecological impact of fashion by re-making, mending, shopping second-hand and examining the supply chain for the production of new garments.