Local fashion designer and artist Ramona Sonin’s latest exhibition, “Flowerful: Fashioning the Armored Feminine,” went on display at Dixon Gallery July 17, and will run through Oct. 23.

The exhibit features a journey along Sonin’s couture design process from producing digital and hand-drawn sketches, constructing 3D design models to making full-scale wearable, couture gowns.

Each couture gown, both 3D and full scale, are completely hand-stitched, requiring roughly 200 to 300 hours of labor per piece.

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While the gowns are ethereal and whimsical with plenty of tulle and lace, the varying materials used to make them also show their intricacies. Sonin also uses fabrics including paper clay, upcycled fabric and sequined fabric portraying a healthy medium between fashion, form and freedom.

Sonin, a Memphis native, relocated to the bustling creative town Venice Beach, California, in the late 1990s to further pursue her dreams in fashion design.

After doing adjunct work at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM) and the Art Institute of California, Sonin returned to Memphis in 2018 after an offer to revamp the University of Memphis’ Fashion Design Program and also to be closer to her husband, Memphis sculptor Greely Myatt.

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Sonin is now Clinical Associate Professor and Fashion Design Coordinator at the U of M, overseeing nearly 100 fashion merchandising students. 

“I look at my personal work as this really blurred line between fashion and art,” Sonin said. “Everything that you see is completely hand-stitched by me — there is no machine involved.”

The wearable couture gowns and 3D scale models Sonin created are named after some of William Shakespeare’s most well-known yet complex female characters, including Ophelia from “Hamlet” and Desdemona from “Othello.”

Sonin says the notability of Shakespeare’s female characters combined with their reputations of intensity and delicacy aided her decision in naming the art works.

“The women in Shakespeare’s writings and plays were looked upon as delicate as society needed them to be, but some were very strong and powerful, also playing that delicate and sensitive role as well,” Sonin said. “It’s that juxtaposition between the struggle of power and femininity that many women have struggled with. You’re armored, but in a very delicate way.

“At the same time, I always laugh and say, ‘It’s not just tulle, it’s tough tulle.’”

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In addition to the full-scale couture gowns, 3D models and sketches, the exhibit features three larger scale charcoal and pencil drawings of female figures.

One example, “Yoo-Hoo,” features a serene-looking female figure with flowing waist length hair and tattoos. Covering her bare chest with her arms as she sips the chocolate beverage with eyes closed, the work suggests feminine pride under any circumstance. 

Sonin says the drawings being interspersed with the gowns brings out the edgy factor of her exhibit, reinforcing for viewers the complex yet beautiful nature of empowered women. 

“In ‘Yoo-Hoo,’ there is this inner toughness inside this delicate exterior,” Sonin said. “The tattoo on her arm says, ‘I am not for everyone.’ Take her as she is.”

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Julie Pierotti has been the Martha R. Robinson Curator for the Dixon since 2016 and first visited Sonin’s West Memphis studio in October 2021. 

With fashion trends such as athleisure and fast fashion becoming increasingly popular, Pierotti said Sonin’s exhibition was an interesting way to remind the public of fashion’s meticulous origins and how, while her gowns are something wearable, they are art forms in and of themselves. 

“A lot of people don’t realize the steps that go into making a couture garment. Sonin’s work really speaks for itself,” Pierotti said. “When you see her garments in person, they are so impeccable because there is this kind of balance between being tough and being vulnerable. They’re not something you wear every day, but the skill and time that goes into each work of art is unbelievable.

“They kind of transcend the idea of clothing. It’s stunning to look at them and amazing we have a talent and resource like that in Memphis.”

Pierotti said Sonin’s large-scale drawings of women in the exhibition, including the aforementioned work “Yoo-Hoo,” help viewers get a better idea of not just Sonin’s artistic vision of femininity, but the exhibition itself. 

“These drawings show edgy looking women with tattoos and smoking a cigarette, but they’re wearing tulle with beautiful makeup,” Pierotti said. “When you see those tough yet lovely drawings in conjunction with her couture gowns, everything just kind of clicks. You can really feel the works coming together.”

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Memphian Ainslie Todd is a Dixon member and viewed Sonin’s exhibition. Herself a 1970 graduate of Parsons School of Design in New York City, now The New School, Todd said the in-person couture work is something she hasn’t seen firsthand in decades.

“I was a fashion student. I remember back when making clothes was truly a lot of labor, and you did so much by hand,” Todd said. “I know the process of couture, and it is not for the faint of heart. I love the gowns. Knowing what I know about fashion, I respect the work the artist put in. It’s incredible.”

Dixon Gallery and Gardens is at 4339 Park Ave. in East Memphis. Hours are Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sundays, 1-5 p.m.