All posts tagged: commissions

Carolyn’s dress: finished pictures!

But only the ones I took before it got sent off to her. I know, I know, you really want to see pictures of her in it! And you can, if you follow me on facebook.  Because I posted the first informal pics of her in it there, and she looks amazing. Actually, you don’t even have to belong to facebook to see them, you can just go to facebook.com and look up ‘The Dreamstress’. Or you can keep waiting, and once the professional photos come out, I’ll post them. For now, here is a gallery of my photos of the finished dress.  

Kerry’s steampunk burlesque bustle

Kerry approached me after the talk on historical underwear I gave back in February, wanting a Steampunk-inspired bustle based on my 1870s bustle petticoat to use in her burlesque performances. After nailing down design ideas, we had lots of fun picking fabric.  Because Kerry is using this for performances, and needs to be able to have it cleaned frequently, we went for synthetics instead of natural fibres. Together we found a really nice, heavy, bronze-coloured satin: It is being contrasted with a truly lovely rayon with slightly irregular black and silver stripes: The whole outfit is about contrasts: shiny with matte, stiff with flowy, structured with draping, masculine and feminine.  Steampunk is the perfect foil for these contrasts, as steampunk is all about the contrast between modern technology and the less industrial, handmade aesthetic of pre-assembly line days. There are lots of fun things going into the bustle: And as the obvious follow on to that: I hope you enjoyed all the sneak peeks!  On Saturday for my finished project I’ll show you the completed …

Carolyn’s dress: The belt

I promised one more post on details from Carolyn’s dress while we wait for her to get married so you can see pictures of the whole dress in all it’s glory. I’m naughty though, the only part of the dress I am really going to show you is the belt. The belt is an important part of the design for Carolyn’s dress: it’s the focus of a lot of detailing and beading, and provides a visual break in the skirt and bodice.  We had to get the design for it just right. This is what Carolyn drew: This is what I drew: The design needed to be finalised and polished once a buckle was selected.  This is the buckle we picked: With the proportions and lines of the buckle in mind, I drew 6 different possible beading patterns: Then I decided that the top two (A & B) sucked, and I re-drew them. This turned out not to matter at all, as Carolyn liked E best.  Clever girl! I love the scale effect of pattern …