If you’ve ever seen a construction site (and given the number of them here in Vancouver, it’s a miracle if you haven’t), you may have noticed buildings wrapped in Tyvek, a white, plasticky weather barrier. It’s also the stuff that disposable wristbands are made of (it is summer concert season, after all) and if you’ve ever received a parcel from the United States, chances are it was wrapped in a flimsy-but-waterproof USPS Priority Mail Tyvek envelope.

For Vancouver-based fashion designer Nathalie Trudelle, Tyvek is also the material of choice for making sculptural dresses. “For 10 to 12 years, I made costumes for fun,” Trudelle told the Straight, her gentle French accent indicative of her Montreal upbringing. “I thought, well, it’s kind of old-fashioned to use fabric,” she continues, “there must be something more fun!” After hunting for an innovative material that would fit through her sewing machine, Trudelle found Tyvek, which she describes as a synthetic paper.

“It’s not as thick as printing paper, but looks like real paper,” she explains. Because of its synthetic makeup, Tyvek cannot be recycled but it can be washed and dried, and under heat, it shrinks and behaves like melted plastic for a “cool effect”, she says, making it perfect for creating clothing.

“When I’m doing a fitting, I can just heat it and it’ll shrink to fit perfectly.” Excuse me, but heat it? “I use a tool that’s used to remove wallpaper,” she says nonchalantly. “I could use a hair dryer, but this gives off more heat.”

The fantastical, pleated "Vert Souffle" was created on a mannequin, without a pattern.

At my shock, Trudelle laughs: “I do it very quickly, and it cools very quickly too! Of course, if I’m doing a fitting for a model, I’ll put it on a mannequin.” Turns out she only applies heat directly when a friend is trying on a dress.

“I have one friend in particular who is pushing me a lot, saying I’m ready to do more,” Trudelle says, “but I still feel like I need to be better; it’s not perfect!”

“At the beginning, it was my idea to sell the pieces,” continues Trudelle, who started experimenting with Tyvek about two years ago, “but I got so busy making them that I never really marketed them.” Instead, Trudelle has let her creative juices flow, making everything from men’s costumes to wedding dresses with handmade couture detailing such as ruffles, stand-up collars, pin tucks, and pleats. (See more at www.ntrudelle.com/.)

Through word of mouth, Trudelle’s pieces have been featured in numerous fashion shows, competitions, and art installations. She dreams of someday creating costumes out of softer paper for Ballet British Columbia and loves seeing her pieces being used by other visual artists—she even made a jacket for painter David Antonides, who then used it as a canvas for a watercolour cityscape.

Trudelle herself is a true artist. Between working graveyard shifts as a caretaker at a North Vancouver ESL school and spending daylight hours in her studio, she juggles two children of her own and works as an art teacher and artist-in-residence at Pauline Johnson Elementary School. “People think I’m crazy,” she says, “and of course, money is tough, but you find a way when you love it so much you need to do it.”