"The Double Agent" - Vintage Futuristic Military

On the classic military shows that featured a mainly male cast, there seemed to be the regular occurrence of a beautiful female with an accent that secretly was on the side of the "good guys." Because, after all, if you are pretty, you have to be one of the goodies, right?

First of all, I love the pants, but the rest, I'm not thrilled with. I went through three different tops before deciding to use a simple blouse that I made for a previous outfit to make the pants stand on their own.

These pants and their chicken leg effect would have been absolutely disgusting to see a few years ago, but the "small on the bottom, big on the top" is in, and for some reason, as long as you pair this type of pant with boots, it is visually appealing today and I love the unusual look.

And as a fun extra, anyone who can tell me what other gun-wielder this outfit (the all brown version) is greatly inspired by gets huge bonus points!

The Addams Family: "Morticia, have I made you very Unhappy?" "Oh, yes, My Darling, Completely."

Part two of my mini-collection of darkness is Morticia Addams.  This suit is one of the main reinforcements of why I don't like to design in black.  This is the most complicated jacket that I have ever drafted.  It has three collars going all different directions, one and a half peplums, tiny pinstripes angled every which way, and hard-to-make sharp-cornered seams.  And you can barely see any of the work!  The unfortunate outcome is that Tish looks like a dominatrix 50's airline stewardess.

In the end, I kind of knew that I wasn't going to like this one.  After all, it's not really my style, but I really wanted to do a black collection so I could get over it and "come out of the darkness and back into the light."  Corny, yes?  But whatever!  You don't know me!

But for those of you who want to know, "What was he thinking?!" I can point a few cool things out.  First of all, I do know that the original Morticia costumes, both the Carolyn and Angelica versions, put the actresses in dresses so tight at the knees they could barely walk.  Making a fishtail gown, though, would be too obvious, so I started by making very tight pants with huge flares at the bottom with a corset at the top.  Then I realized that flared pants are SO not in style anymore, so I scrapped it and started over by making an uncomfortably tight jacket with padded shoulders and a strange, spider-like collar treatment with an attached choker that makes her decollete' look like a heart.

I even made a pair of impossibly tight ankle pants as an option to try and make it look less stewardessy.  I like the pants, but I think I'll leave the jacket/tight pants combo to another designer who likes to use black and make similar combo outfits.

So this was a good excercise, but soon will be put into the phail file!  I should have taken a picture of what a mess my sewing room was after all this.  Black fabric trimmings all over the place makes it look really creepy!

Dynasty: Nouveaux Alexis Carrington

I found this fabric tucked away in my "stretch" collection.  I usually don't do a lot of work with jersey material because I like making things that are a bit more structured as opposed to drapy.  I know it seems strange to not like fabric that by nature molds to the body shape, but I guess all my years of doing period costuming and corsets has made me preferential to fabrics that can stand up by themselves with a body underneath or not!

Anyway, my last many outfits have all been very darted and tailored and form-fitting, so I decided that I wanted to excercise my alternate skills and do a drapy outfit.  Once I discovered this long lost material, I knew I had my Alexis Carrington, and she was going to go on a trip on one of her yachts, and she was going to definitely look bitchy.  Oh, God.  Raine was almost jumping off of her mannequin stand to do this one...




My parents liked watching Dynasty when I was a kid.  I should ask them why, because I never really did. I get kind of jealous/disgusted when I see shows about rich people and their problems, even today.  Regardless, Alexis (as well as Crystal) Carrington still today remain rich-bitch icons and are so fun to recall fighting and slapping each other silly.

Surprisingly, this dress only took about five hours to make from start to finish, much less time than usual.  This is because I wanted to focus all the drapy attention to the just-this-close-to-being-nasty cowl draped back.  The sleeves are attatched to the main bodice, so I did't have to do much work there, and the hemline between the top and the skirt is simply pulled into a metal piece from an 80's belt that I got from a collection of old belts that I bought sight unseen from craigslist.

I ALMOST didn't finish this dress because it was looking a little bit sloppy until I did the finishing stitches!  I took a chance and didn't do a mockup of this garment before cutting into the main fabric because it's not fitted.  So when it was just in the stage of simply the main seams being sewn, it just looked like it was hainging there and messy.  I'm glad I finished and I like the way it turned out!

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.

Little House Of Nellie, Now in INC!

This week's challenge was to design two outfits for the INC brand, which is exclusive to Macy's. INC is a line of clothing that I would describe as "young city professional with an edge."















This work was also supposed to be done all in blue, but I don't always have the luxury of going shopping with a $100 budget for each of these exercises, so I used what I had available, and I have been waiting for an opportunity to use these two fabrics for a while. They were good finds!











I chose "Little House on the Prairie" for this TV inspiration. Seems strange, doesn't it? Not really, though. I feel like the character of Nellie Oleson today would have grown up to want to be a bitchy business woman like her mother, but still want to dress in frilly, ruffly garments like she did as a spoiled child.

Ruffles ARE NOT used to hide flaws. They add visual interest, femeninity, and romanticism when used correctly, thank you very much. Chew on THAT, ruffle-haters!


This top is convertible, as you can see, and can be worn with or without the belt/sash. I like it both ways. Raine is excited to be holding a purse. That is the only way she is tolerating being a bleached blonde for a week.















Also, be sure to click on the pictures to see the larger view. There is a cool pattern on the pants that you can't see too well in the small pictures!

Angie: 1940's+1980's= 2020's? The World May Not Be Ready.

I LOVED the show, "Angie."  I know I usually start with the lead character, but Raine and Nora are fighting over who gets to play Angie.  Nora says she looks better in the red hair, and Raine says she'd do a better job wearing the clothes.  Guess who won.

On a quick sidenote, can I just say how AWESOME the theme song is to this show?  If you haven't watched the video I posted, please do so now.  It's my favorite TV opening theme song next to Love, American style.  I think I have a thing for song containing background singers that Ooh and Aah in an ascending scale, which is another reason why I can listen to "Could it be Magic" for hours on end.  Can anyone think of other songs that do this?  Let me know!

So, with the other two models fighting, Trina was more than ready to step into the fashionable shoes of uptight Joyce, played be the delightfully upright Sharon Spelman.

Joyce was very proper and often wore big, slanted hats and long pencil skirts, very 40's, so I decided to try to mix the 40's with the 80's and came up with something that is interesting, but I think I forgot to add in "the 2010's," because it kind of looks too 40's and 80's!

Still there are lessons to be learned and there are some cool things about this.  I've been waiting to use this fabric.  It reminds me of chocolate mint ice cream.  And I continue to perfect my shoulder pad techniques.  Yes, shoulder pads are back in, thank you Lady Gaga.  But unlike the 80's, the pads now start further out and go up to a point, as opposed to starting close to the neck and covering the entire shoulder.  So there should be no fear of the football player look coming back...

Villains and Vixens Collection Entry I - Capt. Lewis from "Private Benjamin"

I remember watching "Private Benjamin" as a kid. I often would ask my parents, "WHY is that lady (Capt. Doreen Lewis as played by the worship-worthy Eileen Brennan) so mean?!" For a character so cold-hearted, I could not help but to like her, and especially looked forward to seeing the recruits get back at her each episode (blue food coloring in her showerhead, removal of the brake lines in her jeep). Love her or hate her, Capt. Lewis was a bad mamma-jamma.

As the first in my installation of a TV "Villains and Vixens", I sexified the Captain up... um... just a bit? I like to imagine this girl walking down a city street toting a Doberman and a single grocery bag filled with wine and ridiculously overpriced french bread, just DARING anyone to talk to her.

(In case it is not obvious to you, I will note the boots in this picture were photoshopped in, so as not to take credit for them.)











So character explanation aside, this outfit was NOT incredibly easy to make. There are a lot of details and mixtures of softness and toughness going on. This outfit was kind of an excercise in sewn-in pleats with one open end. You can see examples of this in the sleeves of the blouse as well as under the bust of the jacket in the picture below.


This outfit was also an unexpected learning experience for me. I can't design shabby. I had in my head for this peice to be a little bit more raw, with unpretty elements like unfinished edges and parts that didn't exactly fit perfectly. Well, as you can see by the tailored look of it all, it didn't exactly turn out that way! That's good, though. I can more than accept that I like to design clothes that fit and look clean.

Villains and Vixens Collection Entry II - Jeannie's Sister Jeannie

As many of you know, "I Dream of Jeannie" is one of my all-time retro TV favorites. I have always Loved the character of Jeannie's Sister Jeannie. The fact that they have the same name, hairstyle, and (to an extent) costume? Genius.

Today, I have made Jeannie's Sister Jeannie a bad-girl club chick. According to her history, she had had 48 husbands and was going for #49, so it's not far-fetched for me to think that she would love the meat-market club scene.With this outfit, I definitely knew I wanted to start with the signature gathered bra of the original Jeannie, and build from there. I also mimicked the shape of the yoke from her skirt a bit in the top of the pants.



I know it's ON THE VERGE of being "costumey," but I think considering what the hardcore club girls do wear, this one would be quite appropriate.

The material from this outfit came from (I hope you don't kill me, Sara!) this bridesmaid's dress that was donated to me. It was part of a designer's "couture collection" and the fabric was VERY high quality. Believe me, I used just about every bit of the material. Notice the jeweled band at the waist of the dress. I re-used it as edging on the collar of the new outfit's top.



I chose to go with pants for a few reasons. First, I didn't want the outcome to look like a literal translation of the TV version or too similar to a previous outfit I made. Second, practice making pants is always good. Third, combining a see-through lace open-front floor-length skirt into the yoke of green satin jean-fit flared trousers is so insane, it's AWESOME!



Also, as a note, it appears that Raine might like this outfit... Are there hints of an actual SMILE in some of the photos? (Or perhaps it just might be her face being pulled by the two wigs, braided extension hair piece and three necklaces that I used to create this hairstyle...)

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.)