Christie Vilsack got the Iowa dress she wanted for the inaugural ball when textiles and clothing assistant professors J. R. Campbell and Jean Parsons agreed to design the gown.  Both members of the design team are Iowans by choice; Campbell from San Francisco and Parsons from Washington, D.C.

Vilsack plans to wear the gown, "designed and produced in Iowa by Iowans for an Iowan," when she and her husband, Governor Tom Vilsack, visit the White House next month.

Parsons took her sketchbooks along when she traveled to Pennsylvania to visit family over the Thanksgiving holiday.  She produced five designs from which the Vilsacks selected one.

J. R. Campbell spent two hours photographing the stained glass window in Terrace Hill.  He used these images as the basis for all the options the pair composed.  Images from this center panel are the ones used in the final design.

Calling it one of the "mysteries of Terrace Hill", Vilsack said that little is known about the window.  The Hubbells purchased it just before the couple married, which she said was probably around 1899.  Nothing is known about the artist or the original cost.

When Campbell and Parsons showed up for the initial meeting at Terrace Hill with a computer, Vilsack wasn't sure what to expect.  As the pair took her through the process of how the garment and fabric would be digitally designed and integrated, showing her samples of their work, the idea to use the stained glass window in the Mansion evolved.

Graduate student Bethany Angell (at left) assisted Parsons in fitting a muslin prototype of the jacket on Vilsack.  Once satisfied, Parsons took the sample apart and scanned the pieces into the computer to make the pattern.

Campbell then laid in the textile design, engineering it to fit each piece in a way that allowed the design to continually wrap around the garment - crossing seams - so that the design is not interrupted.

Wednesday morning, January 8: The Press Conference.  Journalists from the Associated Press, KASI radio, WOI radio, KCCI TV, Ames Tribune, Des Moines Register gathered to hear Vilsack, Campbell and Parsons talk about the dress and watch the fabric being printed. 

The following day the story was picked up by CNN.  ISU News Service reported more than 4,000 hits to this story as of January 15.

As the group watched the fabric print, Campbell explained how this technology has changed the whole realm of design and textiles manufacturing by allowing designers to work with photo-realistic imagery on fabric in a way that was not possible through traditional printing processes.  In addition, because it is so easy to stop the printing to make a change, this frees the designer to experiment far more than traditional methods permit.

This freedom may one day extend to consumers.  Parsons explained, "We’re also hoping it will lead to more experimentation in the industry with a process that’s called  mass customization – this is an opportunity to have patterns and designs that allow the customer to design a product; they can pick a color, they can pick pattern, they can pick design.  We are working on some products that will help to move that forward, …a project on children’s clothing that incorporates digital printing into children’s clothing."

Campbell noted that this blending of technology and art  meet the mission of Iowa State University in a unique way.

Vilsack said, "It's like a butterfly coming out of a chrysalis."

Campbell laid out the pattern pieces so they could all be printed at once.  He estimated this gown taking between 4 and 6 yards of fabric, which on this printer would take about 2.5 hours to print.  It’s about 30 minutes per yard.

Asked whether the technology originated at ISU, Campbell told reporters, "The ink jet technology for wide format printers has been around for more than 20 years but this was the first printer that was released in the United States that was specifically for printing to fabric.  That was in 1998 and since then a number of developers have come up with other ink jet printers that are engineered for printing fabric. 

We were leaders in terms of education and securing the funding to be able to purchase a printer like this and use it for research and art work.  We were one of the first schools in the nation to have access to the technology, but it wasn’t developed here.   It was developed really as an outgrowth of the graphics industry."

Vilsack (holding a computer generated image of the gown), Campbell, Parsons and Angell pose for a press photo.

Following the press conference, radio host Katherine Perkins interviews Parsons and Campbell on her noon show in the WOI studio.

The printed fabric is steamed for an hour to set the dye, making it permanent.  Steaming opens the fiber, helping the dye bind.

.Angel rinses the fabric.  When produced, the fabric was coated with Synthropal, a surface active agent that helps to access dye.  It breaks down the surface tension so that fabric will absorb water.

Parsons and Campbell wring out excess water before hanging the fabric to air dry.

Oops; a bit of the original paper backing, necessary for printing, remained and had to be removed.

Parsons instructs Angell in a detail of cutting the lining.  Weights hold the muslin pattern pieces in place.

Angell uses tailor's chalk to complete cut lines.

With an underlining and a lining, Jean spent many hours on the machine as well as sewing some parts by hand.

Parsons works to match the design across the back zipper.

Innovative designs still require basic steps, like pressing open the seams.

Campbell watches the jacket pieces print. 

Campbell earlier told reporters, "Dyes used for the fabric have to be specific to the fabric type.  This is silk, a protein fiber so we’re using acid dyes.  If I was printing on cotton  it would be reactive dyes.  In the printer I can swap out inks and use different inks to print depending on what kind of fabric I’m printing.  It is steamed after it prints, and that’s permanent, so the garment is washable and colorfast."

When Vilsack quipped that she probably wouldn't be throwing it in the washing machine, Parsons nodded, saying, "Well, it’s going to have a number of different components in it’s lining and underlining and because of those different components it probably wouldn’t be washable."

Every inch of fabric is printed so that no fabric is wasted; the area outside the pattern pieces may be used in teaching or other projects. 

Campbell and Parsons enjoy a comforable collaboration; at the press conference, Parsons talked about working simultaneously on various aspects of the project.  "I can't really divide where the two of us start and stop," she laughingly told reporters as she introduced Campbell last week.  "In some ways of the project, it’s very back and forth, we work together very well as designers and in the creative process we do a lot of back and forth discussion."

The pair evaluate how the design continues over a side seam.

Satisfying work.

Campbell has said all along that this is a fun project.

Parsons used a silk broadcloth underlining to give the silk fabric more body, but a rayon lining to reduce static buildup that might occur between two layers of silk. 

Sewing the jacket on a Saturday in the lab.

Parsons works with a jacket sleeve.

Portions of the jacket neckline and the sheer front panel of the dress are of silk organza (but you can't see either one of those here; editor error!).  Campbell designed the jacket to be asymmetrical because the dress is symmetrical.

On January 13, Parsons and Campbell do a final fitting in Vilsack's Terrace Hill office.

What woman wouldn't love wearing this gown?

Although the pair have collaborated on a number of digital creations, Campbell said this is the first project that is a "custom fitted garment that’s been engineered for a specific situation – the inaugural ball." Responding to a reporter's playful remark about "no pressure" in designing under those circumstances, Campbell said, "I can pretty much guarantee that Mrs. Vilsack will be the only woman at the White House wearing a digitally printed gown."

Asked what she planned to do with the dress after the inauguration, Vilsack smiled.  "I'm keeping it," she said.