The Black Magic Dress

Photography by Victor Ciccarelli For Erynz.com

 

Taxi: Simka and The Price Of Tea In China

I'm trying out a new style: Boho Punk!

Simca on Taxi, was a freak.  That is what made her adorable.  She was foreign (from a "European Country" that they never specified), didn't have a lot of money, wasn't always that intelligent, and also wasn't always that nice. Bohemian Punk!

I built everything off of this unusual skirt.  It's a tiered gathered skirt (Boho) held together with zippers that are open in areas, giving it an unkempt, jagged industrial look (Punk).  I also did a treatment that gives some panels a permanently wrinkled look by scrunching the fabric and pressing it on top of iron-on interfacing, so the wrinkles will never release.  The skirt is terribly impractical and would probably scrape your legs up, but I think it looks very cool.

And much like a European story, the rest of the tale is not such a happy one.  I made a gathered crop top to use as an undershirt for a Boho Punk jacket, but the jacket turned out too clean, which is what I am used to making.  I put on exposed zippers for the pockets and made the collar normal-sized on one side and large on the other, and even added a bullet-holder thing on the shoulder, but it still looked too flat!  Maybe a different fabric choice would have been the key, but I knew I liked the blouse underneath, so I removed the jacket and went with a new concept.

I took the top and added long kimono sleeves appropriate for the very sheer fabric.  I like this better.  It's dramatic even though it is soft and flowy, the amount of exposure adds a hard edge that goes along with the hard/softness of the skirt.

Bewitched: Serena Wants to Blow You A Kiss In The Wiiiiiiiiiiiind.

I got a few comments from my last outfit that Samantha's shirt dress (or at least the print) looked Serena-appropriate.  While I agree that Serena would like the wild print from that dress, she would never wear something that subdued.  Serena thought of herself as a rock star, so I made this slightly-off-kilter combination for Serena (something Samantha would never wear) as inspired by her living room rock number, "I'll Blow You A Kiss In The Wind."

I'm not sure WHY this scene still stands out in my mind after all these years.  Maybe it was the awkwardness of the camera movements trying to do the 60's psychedelic rock video thing.  Maybe it's that the song is memorable thanks to the "wi-i-iiiind" hook, but not necessarily that good.  Maybe it's because I didn't fully appreciate Serena until I became an adult and realized she was fabulous (I used think she had an annoying voice and always wondered how someone wearing such an ugly wig and bad makeup was so mean).

So here is Raine's Serena Rock Star outfit, complete with altered eye makeup and "beauty mark." (I know it's on the wrong side, but her hair is covering her face where the original would be.  Did you know Serena drew different symbols as her beauty mark with each episode?  I didn't.)    Many of visible seams are a little bit off and have a funhouse mirror quallity, just like Serena.  You can obviously see the collar is sideways, a feat that was not easily accomplished while still making it fold and stand up in the right places.  The button closure in front is also off center. (but it's fake. The garment actually zips up the back.) And the yoke of the skirt is on a severe diagonal at the front, and a severe curve in the back.

In the end, I really like the skirt.  I think it's adorable.  And as for the top, I like the way the collar turned out.  I would definitely consider doing something like that again in an even bigger proportion on top of a dark cocktail dress. with a really full skirt.

Bewitched: Samantha Stevens' Pebble Magic

Look! It's a one-piece! I've been doing a lot of separates lately, so I wanted to make something less complicated (and less time consuming!) while still hopefully keeping it interesting and beautiful.

You know, Samantha Stevens may not be as dear to my heart as a character as, say, Jeannie, but I sure liked the way she dressed and she had good hair.

I remember Samantha often wore shirt dresses on Bewitched. And, it being the 60's, there was usually some kind of loud and/or psychadelic print on it. A well-made shirt dress can not only be beautiful, but also very functional as well, as it is very convenient by fastening in the front, and also looks masculine/feminine, dressy/casual all at the same time. Every woman should have one.

Granted, this print is quite busy, but I like it. I found this fabric (and the shoes!) at a hospital garage sale. It's super retro plus plus, don't you think? From what I realized about working with busy prints from my last outfit, adding a lot of details is pretty much a waste of energy because you won't be able to see them. So, because of this, I refrained from adding any pockets and employed only the simplest of darting techniques to nip the shirt in at the waist.

There ARE, however, details that you may be able to see when you click on the pictures for larger views. I could not just present a completely plainly-made garment, otherwise, it would not be "designer." You can see on the front and back, there is an assymetical diagonal seam across the shoulder with a change of pattern direction from vertical to horizontal on the upper panel. It makes a little bit of a "sunburst" effect at the shoulder at the front.

Also, the skirt section is finely pleated in four different sections and completely flat in others. This took a lot of mathematics skillz, thank you very much.

Lesson at the end of the day? With black material, you can get away with murder/mistakes all day long. The same goes with busy patterns as long as you keep it simple. And far those of you who think that prints make you look fat, no. Only big prints make you look fat. There, I said it!

Villians and Vixens Collection Entry III: Couture d'Endora

Endora was a manipulative shrew of a character who wanted to dominate her family's lives, so after some considerations on how to revise her trademark flight suit, I came up with a kind of scary combination of leather and lace. After all, she was a dominating mother-in-law from hell, but her character wasn't necessarily without a soft side.











So, that being said, I will acknowledge a few things:

• Trina is doing a great job making this outfit look good.
• Conceptually, I like the artistic combination of the faux leather and 60's granny style stretch lace with dark blue chenille circles.
• Fashionwise, I think this dress doesn't quite hit the target.

I can think of many a drag queen that would adore to wear this dress as a costume for a Bette Milder rendition of, "I Put a Spell On You." It's not apparent in the pictures, but the skirts are VERY full. The black underskirt is more than a fill circle, so it would do well with grand gestures and swings and swooshes.


I feel awkward for saying anything negative about this dress that is kinda awesome. But, I think that if I sent something like this down the runway on a model, it would get me nearly booted off the show. The bottom is too heavy and you can kind of see how weight of it is pulling on the bustier. Working with a lighter fabric would have been much better with a style like this. Also, the rhinestones that I added to keep the whole thing from looking like one large mass of dark color unfortunately also emphasizes the "costumey" feel that was already present. It's good that I finished it, though, for there was a lot of learning experiences.

But you know what, I'll call it what it is and feel better. It's a fierce drag queen dress! Not that there are a lot of size 2 drag queens out there, but maybe if a few of them stop eating now, at least one can fit into this by October.

(Phail bonus! If you click on the small picture below, you can see the first attempt at the ultra-long sleeved bolero that I originally did in crisp white fabric with tan trim. I was going to make the dress in white, too until I saw this and was afraid that it would make Endora look too much like a dragon-lady. A grand one, if you get what I mean.)