JULIA GASTOL
Thanks to Erasmus + and our establishment, we were able to do an internship in Warsaw in Poland, at Julia Gastol a family business of making wedding dresses and high-end evening dresses.
It is directed by Mrs. Iwona Gastol, her husband and their son, the name of their company Julia Gastol comes from the first name of their first daughter. The company is made up of 8 operators, 2 assistants, and 1 model maker, and the stylist who is also the responsible.
Technical means: the company’s premises (headquarters / workshop and showroom) are located in Ząbki, a small town outside of Warsaw. The company is located in the former family home of Gastol, it is completely renewed and it hosts a large showroom, a workshop with flat stitching machine, an overlocker, an ironing station and a soldering table for lace and many wooden mannequin of an Italian brand. Then upstairs there is a cutting table and a stock for fabrics. The company also has a digital table and a pattern printer, so they have Patern software.
The style of the house is bohemian chic, where noble materials more beautiful and refined than the others are used.
The production process at Julia Gastol is by order, the creation makes only one dress per model which will be in the window and will be produced only if the customer buys it. She presents 40 models per collection.
Production process :
Mrs Gastol has her own way of creating these dresses, she never designs her dresses, her creations are in her head, and her ideas will start from the materials that she will buy for the new season. She begins by taking the main material and placing it on the mannequin, the mold, sees the fall and the model is created progressively until arriving at the final rendering. Then the molding is pointed using pins (since the model is made directly on the final fabric and not on a canvas), the pattern will then be transferred to paper with the lace details, embroidery drawn on it.
My internship started in early March, right in the new 2021 collection.
As my stay was cut short, I was only able to do a week of internship. Despite this, I was able to learn a few tasks that I performed during this week:
I learned to apply lace by hand, it is a meticulous step and above all very long, It took me 2 days to do an entire bustier.
Then I attended the fitting, the brides have only 3 appointments for the purchase of the wedding dress including the day of the selection of the dress and the day of removal of the dress. The dresses are not finished when the bride comes for the second fitting, she tries the tulle (the entire base of the dress is made of tulle) then she decides with the designer on the arrangement of the lace or the modifications to be made.
I mainly cut skirts on materials such as organza, lace, embroidery, silk, tulle, satin. And I brought patterns on paper with lace patterns.
Our project for this 4-week internship was to help create the new 2021 collection of cocktail dresses. Unfortunately, we had to be repatriated, but we nevertheless accomplished our last mission of return to France and we sent our drawings by Internet to Madame Gastol.
It was a very rewarding internship both professionally and personally with really welcoming people.
