Look at me go, two blog posts in a row, Hooray! This time, I want to tell you about the rest of the gowns. Like this one above that was inspired by a swath of heavy dusky pink lace I had found that I turned into appliqués, and sleeves.
The outfit was built on a skirt that I made about 10 years ago for an event, and I even wore to Fashion Art Toronto to present my line in 2015. Of course, I’m much shorter than my model Alayna (above), even when I wear heels, so I had to use the pick ups on the front.
It was such a beautiful purpley-silver silk, that I thought it needed an accompanying corset, and, naturally, heaps of crinolines too. And pearls… and two tone chiffon….
I used a different technique with fusing the silk directly to the coutil, which I was quite happy with, it gave a more rigid feel, and lightweight even with the cotton sateen lining. After the silver silk corset was made, I stitched on the lace, mostly with the machine, but adding some reinforcing stitches by hand – and then all of the pink freshwater pearls by hand as well, which is no easy feat with the fused silk and coutil! It did turn out beautifully though.
There was some of that gorgeous lace left over, so I added it to the bottom of the silk portion of the skirt to balance the look out, and topped off with a removable two tone chiffon drape.
The multi layer pearl necklace was the final detail that I created as well, to compliment the drop pearl drape on the sleeves. Oh yes, I make jewelry and veils too!
The “Dress That Brought The Drama” though, was created from the end of a bolt of “Deadpool Red” dupione silk, beginning with an enormous skirt with a train, and another detachable two tone chiffon over-layed train.
The corset was the most fun, after creating the plain red silk corset, I molded the lace hip fins overtop of corset mesh, to give it strength and body, created silk roses to prop up the hip fins, and adorned them with dripping red and black beadwork.
The upper part of the corset was also hand-stitched lace, with red and black hand-sewn crystals, and oodles of black chiffon that transitioned from an under-bust drape, to sleeves, to an upper layer to the red train. This was the most fun to toss around during the shoot for dramatic photos, and was very dramatic with all of the crinolines and hoops underneath.
I wanted a jeweled centrepiece for the corset, which was little challenging with a busk closure, so I created a clasp on one side of the jewel centrepiece, so it would drape across. The centre jewel matched the detailed chain crown.
Much thanks to Alayna Kellett, Alyssa Wainio, Martese Bell, Philip Sutherland and his awesome crew, Michelle Ancona, Mark Majewswki, The Mint Room Studios, and to you, dear reader, for getting all the way to the end of the post!
Please get in touch with me if you would like more information on this corset gown, or would like to have your own bespoke corset or corset gown created!