Modern Fashion

I'm technically majoring in Fashion Design, which means that I'm required to occassionally make clothes du moment --fasionable right now, not five hundred years before now, and hopefully no more than 5 years from now. (I think that's the technical boundary between being "fashion forward" and just plain weird.) Anyhoo, I present for your enjoyment a few dozen photos of my work from the CoD Fashion Show, 2007. I was priveledged to work with some *amazing* models, who were able to make impossibly tiny clothing look good. (The official "model size" is, literally as wide as my thigh. No kidding. I can wear any of these dresses -- as garters. *snork*)

This should go without saying, but all images and designs are copyright to yours truly. Be good.

My Collection

A collection is supposed to be a group of garments that are linked together in some way that's obvious, without being, well, trite and overdone. I think. Honestly, it's hard to pin fashion teachers down to a firm definition, in my experience. I wanted to keep the pieces conceptually related, as well as physically related, without actually copying much between the dresses. The basic inspiration is sort of a silk road caravan -- asian and arab merchants, tents, fabulous brocades being traded, etc. All three dresses also have at least a major pattern piece that is a rectangle, slit up the middle. The strap and mental fastener element carries across all three dresses. (Note: the fasteners I used only come in silver. Nail polish works on metal. ;) ) The straps are sort of an homage to my father -- he looked at me about a week before he passed and asked me if I'd "finished that construction dress yet". That makes no sense unless you know that dad was suffering from severe vascular dementia at the end. And, really, even once you know that it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But rule #1 is "Never argue with a crazy person", so I just said "No, not yet." But he kept telling me that a construction dress was really important, so the orange one was for dad. Safety orange and mock cargo straps -- pretty much the essence of "construction". It was the first one of the collection I did, so I wanted to use an element from that dress to tie the rest in. The red is, obviously, kimono inspired with a detatched set of collars. The black was more modelled after a burnoose. And really, the idea of doing something inspired by any aspect of arabian culture and making it into a backless mini with a plunging neckline amuses the snot out of me. ;) Maybe that's evil, but it is a giggle...

Other Dresses

The first dress was my final project in Tailoring first semester. It's an underwire blustier foundation, with an overlay of bias cut silk strips at the chest. (That has to be done by hand, and it's a total pain in the patootie!) The skirt is a linen with various grasses printed on it. It was actually an exercise in using up fabric samples, most of which are 10"x10" squares. When I was almost done with the dress, I backed up to look at it (like ya do) and almost fell over laughing. The classmates who were still in the room were clearly a little worried that I'd finally cracked, and I was laughing so hard that all I could say was, "I dun made me a coo-ture grass skirt and coconut brar!" The dress is actually made to my size, because a) I made if for me, and b) I still think that curvey girls can be just as fashionable as the prancing anorexic insect women that normally show up on runways. Unfortunately, after seeing our amazing plus sized model wearing it, I decided that I was about 5" too short for my dress, and sold it. (To one of the judges from the jury show -- it's a Good Sign when a judge approaches you about buying one of your entries. ;) It looks so good on her that I think I made it for her without knowing it -- the blue and green silks are even the exact same color as her eyeglass frames.)

The second dress was my final for my Draping class. It's really an aubergine colored silk. For reasons that are totally unfathomable, someone decided that it would be a peacky-keen idea to use colored stage lights for a fashion show. 'Cause, you know, really I put no thought at all into picking colors. *grumble* Anyway, I wanted to make something that was both strapless and backless. The bodice does stand up on it's own. (My teacher promptly told me she'd like to see me make something that *wasn't* constructed to within an inch of it's life.) The princess panels at the side of the bodice do curve in to the side seam (the pieces look sort of like a U), and it was a booger to get that seam flat with an organza underlining. I made the hat as well, last summer in my Millinery class. I love it, and I'm so glad that the girl who is wearing it saved my butt -- my scheduled model was a no-show, but once I saw Robyn in this dress I was glad. She was so elegant, and I think there are only a handful of people who can wear a hat like that an not look a little foolish.

And now for something totally different.....

I was asked to provide a couple costumes to go into the show. Now, fashion shows are all about quick changes, and these aren't really quick change items, so it was sort of a disaster at the morning show. At the evening show, we had the timing down better and I had one girl who was *only* wearing a costume and could be dressed ahead of time, one who didn't have any other dresses for several minutes before hand, and only *one* that had to change quickly. (You can tell, too -- I had prelaced the bottom of the yellow venetian as far as I could, but it was such a hurry that I spiral laced the top part. Whatever. It worked. :) )

Now, there's a couple things worth pointing out here. First off, this is what period costumes look like devoid of all proper underthings. The venetian faires best, as most of it's support is built into the dress. The other two.... Eh. Support skirts would have helped, but then there's no way they would have gotten through the backstage area. It's also more than a little entertaining to watch a "real" model try to move and pose in a historical costume. *laugh* But I do think that the woman in the venetian looks better in it than I do -- she really might have just walked out of a painting. I included the profile shot because once we got it on her, she looked at me and asked, "Is this dress supposed to be loving my hips quite this much?" Yep. Then I had to chase her half way to the stage and yank the back of the skirt out of the back of the bodice. Ahem. Oops. I guess maybe not that much lovin'.....

Bragging Rights

There's me with several of my models, after winning what amounts to the Pick of the Litter award for my class. Yay! I did make the jacked that I'm wearing as well, but I'm a lousy model, so that's the only picture I'm posting of it. (That's also why there are no pics from last year's show -- they made me wear all my own work. I sew. I am not one of the walking props. It's a thing.)