Ciara Gan's Hand-Painted Graduation Gown: How She Made It

In April 2019 a 17-year-old student from Manila, Ciara Gan, posted photos of the gown she wore to her school's graduation ball. She had designed it herself, sewn it with her mother and painted dozens of orange and white lilies across a full emerald-green skirt by hand. Within days the pictures had travelled far beyond the Philippines, and her posts collected hundreds of thousands of likes.

The short version of the story: she did not like what a hired designer offered, so she made her own dress, learned the construction from online tutorials, and turned the skirt into a painted canvas. Below is how she did it, what inspired the colours and flowers, and what anyone tempted to try something similar should know.

Why she made the gown herself

According to BuzzFeed News, Gan first paid someone else to design a gown and was not happy with the result. Her mother pushed her to try it herself. That push matters to the story: Gan has said the real inspiration came from her mum, and the two of them did the sewing together.

She had painted before, but she had never built a ball gown. Like many self-taught makers, she learned the techniques she needed from YouTube videos, then worked out the rest by trial and error.

The finished silhouette: a strapless sweetheart bodice and a very full skirt cut in wide panels, so that each fold catches the light differently. Seen from the side, the painted lilies seem to tumble down the pleats.

The colours and flowers had personal meaning

Nothing on the dress was chosen at random. The green is a nod to Harry Potter. "I chose emerald green because I'm an avid Potterhead and a proud Slytherin," Gan told My Modern Met; green and silver are the colours of Slytherin house in J.K. Rowling's books.

The flowers came from another book. She had just reread Tiger Lily, Jodi Lynn Anderson's young-adult novel that retells the Peter Pan story through the eyes of Tiger Lily. Orange tiger lilies, with their freckled petals, felt more like her than roses or small, delicate blooms. She wanted strong colour, and orange against deep green gave her exactly that.

Gan poses with a bouquet of white lilies beside the gown on its dress form, a reminder of the flowers that ended up painted on the skirt.

Seated, the skirt spreads into a wide circle. This view shows how far the panels reach and how the painted flowers were placed to stay visible even when the fabric is gathered.

How the dress was built, step by step

Her own posts and the interviews she gave describe a project that moved from paper to fabric in clear stages.

1. A paper model

Before cutting any fabric, Gan sketched the gown and folded a small paper model to test the shape of the bodice and the fan-like skirt. A model like this is a cheap way to check proportions and see how many panels a full skirt will need.

2. Sewing the skirt panels

She and her mother bought about thirteen yards of fabric and sewed the skirt one panel at a time. The long seams visible here run from the waist to the hem and give the skirt its structured, umbrella-like shape.

3. Structure underneath

Volume like this does not come from fabric alone. Under the satin sits a layer of crinoline, a stiff net, with hoops of boning that hold the skirt out. Gan listed crinoline, boning and Swarovski crystals among her materials.

The plain gown on the dress form, before any paint. At this point it was already a finished dress; the painting would turn it into something unique.

4. Painting the lilies

Gan painted each flower by hand with a fine brush, working up the petals in layers of cream and orange and adding green leaves and stems. In her own words: "i painted over 80 flowers, sewed + stoned my dress with my mama and designed the whole thing myself!"

Painting directly on the dress form let her see where each flower would fall on the curve of the skirt, rather than guessing on a flat piece of cloth.

Reports differ a little on the timing. BuzzFeed and My Modern Met said the whole project took about a month, with roughly five days spent on the painting; a Philippine news site, Interaksyon, put it at about two weeks. Either way, it was finished in the weeks before the ball, and Gan kept it secret from classmates until the night itself.

The graduation ball and the viral reaction

At the venue, the back of the gown shows the cascade of lilies and the depth of the skirt. One classmate reportedly assumed the flowers were printed fabric, which says a lot about how even the brushwork is.

Gan with her date at the ball. The deep green of her gown is echoed in his bow tie.

Gan shared the photos on Twitter on 8 April 2019. Her posts passed 380,000 likes, people drew fan art of the dress, and some asked whether she would make wedding gowns. She said she was open to local commissions during her summer break and shares her work on Instagram and Twitter.

Art and science, not art or science

Many readers assumed she would go straight into fashion. Gan had other plans: she had just finished the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) strand of senior high school in the Philippines and intended to study a science-related course at university.

She does not see the two as a choice between opposites. "I want to bring art into science, or vice versa," she said. Her gown is a small example of that idea: a piece of engineering, with boning and panels and careful measurements, used as a surface for painting.

Thinking of painting your own dress? Practical tips

Gan's gown has inspired plenty of people to try hand-painted clothing. A few lessons apply to almost any project of this kind.

• Plan the shape first. A sketch and a paper or muslin mock-up save expensive fabric. Full skirts need many panels; count them before you buy.
• Test paint on a scrap. Use paint made for fabric, or acrylic mixed with a textile medium, and try it on an offcut of the same material. Satin and taffeta can stain, stiffen or show water marks.
• Follow the paint maker's fixing instructions. Many fabric paints need heat-setting with an iron; check whether your fabric can take the heat.
• Paint on the form, not flat. Folds hide and reveal parts of the skirt as you move. Painting on a dress form or while the skirt hangs shows you where flowers will actually be seen.
• Keep layers thin. Thick paint cracks when fabric bends. Build colour gradually.
• Give yourself time. Even with help, Gan's project took weeks. Start well before the event.

Most of all, choose motifs that mean something to you. That is what made this dress memorable: the colour came from a favourite book series, the flowers from a favourite novel, and the work from a mother and daughter at the same sewing table. For another story about turning something personal into visual design, see tattoos that incorporate scars.

Sources: My Modern Met: Ciara Gan's hand-painted graduation dress (April 2019); BuzzFeed News: This teen made herself the most gorgeous hand-painted graduation dress; Interaksyon (Philstar): Student designs, sews and hand-paints her own gown, 9 April 2019. Photos: Ciara Gan (@ciaraganart).