Monday, August 16, 2010

Episode Two!

Finally! I did it! I spent 12 hours constructing, based on my previously mentioned estimate of working time.

The challenge: Create a look that epitomizes the Marie Claire woman.

The constraints: 30 minutes to sketch, 30 minutes to shop at Mood, $150 budget. One day to build, two hours with Garnier hair and L'Oreal Paris make-up.

The prize: A billboard in Times Square of your winning creation

My Take: I decided not to sketch this time. Since my last fabric store attempt was not-so-successful, I thought it would be silly to sketch something in my dream fabric that probably doesn't exist. Instead, I thought of a silhouette and decided my first choice was a silk and my second choice would be a luxe cotton. Then, leather for a belt. The silhouette I had in mind was a belted A-line or sheath with a cape effect in the back. I headed to S.R. Harris, the Minnesota answer to Mood. (Okay, that may be a bit of a stretch, but that's the best I've got.)

Inside, I pored over the silks. I picked up and put down bolt after bolt of silk for one reason or another. I found some that was a beautiful color, but with hideous embroidery, or lovely embroidery on an awful color. Too matronly, too much like upholstery, so on and so forth. I finally found a lovely orange silk. Before I figured out my yardage, I wanted to find everything I wanted to use so I could portion out my funds. I looked at embellishments, underskirt fabric, and leather. I found a lovely piece of fuchsia lambskin that provided a fresh contrast to the orange silk. My plan was to create a hot belt to accent the piece. I did the math and bought the maximum amount of yardage I could with the leather, a zipper, and a little extra for snaps. Despite SR offering a discount, I wanted to have my total be under the $150 without the discount, since Mood sells things at full retail. This got me 6.6 square feet of leather, 4 yards of silk, a zipper, and notions.

Construction started, , and the piece morphed through the construction. I decided to add a statement piece to the dress. Then, I decided the original neckline I had planned seemed too matronly, so I decided that it would look strapless with a collar made out of pleated leather. Then, I thought the collar and the belt and the cape would be too much. So, no cape effect. For the skirt I thought about a bubble skirt, but decided that might be too young looking. So, I went for a box pleated skirt. Finally, I decided the collar should shine on its own, and ixnayed the belt.

Partway through, I learned that there was a second component, a photo shoot.

This is how things turned out:





Here you can see my mad couture modeling skills! If only I lost about 40 pounds...since I have a hard time losing any, I don't think that will happen. I am also pretty sure I am done growing. Darn. While we were shotting these, a passerby in an automobile shouted, "Nice dress!" Yay me!

I just realized that my dress was going to have pockets, and I totally forgot those during construction. That was going to be one of my key points as to why I should win. Instead, I will talk to the other points of my dress as I would on the runway to the judges. My dress is Audrey Hepburn meets Jackie O for martinis in a modern cocktail lounge. It is the perfect dress for a modern woman on the go with a hip dress that has a built in statement accessory.

What I learned: $150 dollars doesn't buy you very much fabulous fabric. If I see boning in the store and think, "do I need that?" The answer is, "yes." Due to the nature of this fabric, I should have alloted enough allowance for French seams. I had also wanted to do a Hong Kong hem (ala one of my idols, Vera Wang), but nixed it due to time. I machine stitched a hem for a finished look, then hand stitched the hem in instead. I think adding lining to the skirt and doing the HK hem would have been preferable. I would not have changed anything about the collar. I love it so much! I know I should probably be more modest, but I do love it, and thought it was well worth all the time cutting, pleating, and stitching all those wee pieces. Though I was thinking petals when I came up with the idea, I think it looks more like feathers. A sort of mod take on them, anyway.

And, in the interest of full disclosure, I had two straight pins in the dress for the shoot. I wasn't thinking, and the bra I wore for fittings did not actually work under the dress due to straps and back and whatnot. Oops. So, I dig out the only bra I own that is somewhat low backed. I wore it to my senior prom. Yikes. So, it didn't fit quite right and kept wanting to peek out the sides, so I had to pin the dress to it on the sides to keep it from making an appearance in the photos. Now you know all my dirty little secrets.

If you would like to see the outtakes of my shoot, check out my Flickr page!

3 comments:

  1. This is great! I can't wait to see more!

    sageincave

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  2. I love this dress! I think you would have made it into the top 3 for sure!

    Sorry for the Anonymous post, but that's the only option I could get to work.

    Sandy

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  3. I love the neck piece! The color would look great on a billboard and personally I think this is more Marie Claire than that boring jumpsuit. I'd have put it in the top 3!

    ReplyDelete