The neuron in black Lycra

Out of the whole collection, writes Perminder Kalsi, my favourite design to work on was the black "neuron" dress made from black Lycra jersey with an asymmetric hem and embroidered twisted yarns threaded with fibre optics. The design represents the cells' specialisation in the fertilisation process.

I made a first draft of the design from the patterns produced by the pattern cutter. We found that the fit wasn't quite right - to make the dress fit with no darts and to be strapless we had to create an under-bodice, supported by boning.

Having solved this design problem I transferred the alterations to the original pattern, then cut the new pattern in the black lycra jersey. At this point we realised that the jersey fabric had stretched a lot more than we expected so I recut the dress in a way I had never tried before. The fit improved dramatically - it was extremely satisfying to see.

The finishing touches were the hand sewing of embroidery and the placing of fibre optics which were threaded through the embroidered yarn across the front of the dress. It was time-consuming - but the creation looked brilliant when it was finished...

Perminder Kalsi is a third-year BA design technology student at the London College of Fashion.