How to draw a wrap dress

Every designer would love to step up their dress game to a wrap dress. This tutorial will show you how to draw a wrap dress that can be worn for casual events. A wrap dress adds both style and sophistication to your look. We are going for a formal look but you can change the details around and make it your own. So, Let’s begin!

6/10

15 min

drawing paper
pencil
eraser
black ink
markers
colored pencils

Step 1: Basic Wrap dress Guideline

For this tutorial I used one of the free fashion croquis available at I Draw Fashion. You can download Figure Template #35 and follow along or draw your own croqui from scratch.

Once you have your figure template ready, you will need to draw 5 guidelines. The 2 on the top are for the sleeves.

The top horizontal one defines the waistline level – where the belt or the button is to be placed. The bottom horizontal line shows the hemline of the wrap dress. Make it shorter or longer if you like.

The vertical guideline between the waist and the hemline indicates the overlapping of the two sides of the wrap dress. This guideline should not be in the middle but placed towards the right side of the dress.

Step 2: Draw the dress silhouette

Draw a curve on the outside of each shoulder guideline. Initially your lines should reach the chest level only.

Now joint the outlines to the waist guideline and continue down until you reach the hemline level.

Make sure to leave space between the body and the dress outlines to add realism and volume to the dress.

Step 3: Draw the overlapping

Next, it’s time to draw the 2 curves on the inner side of each shoulder guideline. These curves show the overlapping.

The left curve starts from the shoulder and reaches the vertical overlapping guide. Make sure the top part of the dress has enough thickness – we are not going for a spaghetti straps look. The right curve curve requires more attention. It needs to cover as much of the breast as the other one. Otherwise the wrap dress will not look symmetrical.

Step 4: Draw the rest of the dress

Add the finishing touches to the dress. What is important to know is that because of the overlapping, the left half of the hemline will always be slightly longer tan the right one. For the hemline shape I have drawn a V line but you can go for a traditional straight hemline cut also. Just make sure the left is slightly longer than the right.

Step 5: Add the belt

Time to draw the belt & knot for our wrap dress. Start the belt a little away from the dress outline to show that the belt is over the dress. Gradually decrease the width of the belt as it reaches the knot.

I don’t recommend you to draw the belt know right over the overlapping. This will make your design busy and hard to read. Instead, move the knot slightly to the right.

Draw the right side of the belt that is again tapers towards the knot.

Step 6: Add the knot

Draw the knot following the illustrated steps. You can draw the loose ends as long as you like, but make sure they are not significantly thicker that the loops.

Alternatively, you can check the ‘How to draw a ribbon” tutorial and go for a more formal look of the wrap dress.

Step 7: Add Folds

Different fabrics will have a different fold. This particular fabric does not have a lot of drapes so the folds will be thick and long (unlike when you’re drawing satin fabric). You will be drawing folds in the pressure points which are the bust area, the waist area and the lower body.

Step 8: Color the dress

You can pick any base color depending on what mood you want to go for. I’ve chosen to go for a formal mood and hence, picked burnt red. Your aim would be to color the dress as flat as you can. Do NOT use color pencils for this step. Markers are the drawing media that will give you a nice flat surface to work with. I like to color my fashion sketches with Copic markers.

Step 9: Add Highlights & Shadows

Add shadows and highlights on the folds using colored pencils. Notice that the inside of each fold is darker in color. The highlight is placed in an asymmetrical manner around it.

Don’t forget the shadows around the belt, under the hair and one separating the two sides of the wrap dress.

Hopefully, this How to draw wrap dress tutorial was helpful to you and has inspired you to draw new fashion sketches, to create more innovative designs! You can check our ‘HOW TO DRAW SUMMER DRESS‘ to experiment with drawing different kinds of dresses or explore the whole “How To Draw Clothes” section of the website.

Happy drawing!