Literally Chic: Book-Inspired Dresses by Sylvie Facon

French designer Sylvie Facon creates enchanting handmade dresses that look as though they have stepped out of a storybook, sometimes quite literally. Her book-inspired series transforms discarded volumes into sculptural garments, giving old found books with no particular value a poetic second life.

The dresses are crafted from a rich mix of materials and techniques. Weathered leather spines become corsets and bodices, pages are folded into pleated skirts, and fragments of text are layered with tulle, lace, rattan, embroidery and delicate translucent fabrics. Some pieces look like wearable libraries, with rows of antique book covers wrapping around the body. Others open out like blooming pages, turning the dress itself into a living pop-up book. Each dress takes between 150 and 350 hours to create and is one of a kind, tailored to its wearer.

Sylvie’s broader practice is shaped by painting, poetry and textile art, with inspiration from figures such as Gustave Klimt and Paul Verlaine. That sensibility is clear in the way each of her garments feels romantic, theatrical and deeply crafted.

For more of Sylvie Facon’s work, visit her website and follow her on Instagram.

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