Maiden of Towers Dress

Photographer Dre Naylor captured these amazing images at the Whitewater reserve featuring my "Rapunzel" dress.  And model Melat Amha was a wonderful find.  You don't see legs or beautiful hair like that every day.

7DS - The Frog Princess as "Lust"

This dress is made out of Sari fabric from the 70's and purple velvet from an old dress that was given to me by a friend who had left her Goth days behind.  After battling the static cling monster, this dress worked out so well that it has already been featured in two photo shoots and has racked up the most "likes" of all my designs that has been posted on the book of face!

Royal Redness!

The Black Magic Dress

Photography by Victor Ciccarelli For Erynz.com

 

Say Your Prayers, it's The Flying - Kimono!

 

Photography by jStemmerphotography.com

To celebrate my love for all things Japanese, I made your classic nun's habit into a very scandalous kimono dress.  I used every yard of this cream crepe-back satin and vintage orange asian print bridal satin (with a very small scrap of a lace table runner from the 70's!)  to create an artistic corseted bodice and flying skirt.

Land of the Lost: Voluminous Stone Age Waterfall Expedition!

Photos by jStemmerphotography.com

This is one of the dresses that I made for the first time I worked with the model in this picture, Cassidy.  It is made of an entire bolt stonewashed green silk that I acquired from an inheritance sale. 
After Cass put the dress on and commented on how incredibly comfortable it was (seriously, this material feels like cool water and was a joy to work with!), she walked out to the poolside, took a few seconds to adjust the dress and place her hands just right at the hem, and FLUNG her arms in the air and created the gorgeous shots that you see above!
Needless to say, it's not the last dress I will made for her.

April 2011 Portfolio Special: "The Cruise Director"

Three's Company: Roper's Risque Transformation

If sexually frustrated Mrs. Roper ever left Stanley, got major face and body work and ditched her curly strawberry wig for a blonde bob, I imagine she would wear extra tight versions of her old mumus.

Believe it or not, I was planning on making this dress out of a different, aqua-colored, fabric.  This striped pink doesn't look that nice on the roll, so I used it as a mock-up fabric.  But when I looked at the mock up, I was like, "Oh, my god!  She looks almost naked!" and the dresses' fate was sealed...

Doing something like this intricate twist effect is easy and hard at the same time.  In one instance, there are less darts and lines to sew to make it fit.  On the other hand, this is one of those things that you look at the strangely shaped pieces and start to put together and think you're doing it completely wrong because it's all a twisted mess.

Then you put it on the form and all is good.

Merry Xmas Brady Balloon Style!

For this year's Holiday cocktail dress... I am doing a pantssuit!

On a very special Brady Bunch Holiday episode, Cindy asked Santa Claus to bring her a very special gift.  She wanted her sick Mommy to get her voice back so she could sing in church on Christmas.

And in a strange twist of fate, Carol did indeed get her voice back and sang in church on Christmas!

Unfortunately, Santa did not tell Cindy that in exchange for her Mommy getting her voice back, she would also go completely blind.

So Leonora this year gets to be a blonde for Christmas and is wearing a yellow Holiday print off the shoulder blouse inspired by Carol's old lady turtleneck that she wore in church to sing.

Billows Billows Billows!

The Love Boat: Julie McCoy Announcing Fun and Fabulousness on the Lido Deck

I don't know why I didn't make something like this until now. I've had in the back of my mind doing a dress for Julie McCoy inspired by not only her blue and white uniform, but also by the famous Pacific Princes logo.  Throw a little bit of Charo in, and I love it!

As many of you know, evening dresses aren't always my strength, which is surprising because I do like making things that are really fitted, and evening gowns are exactly that, just long.  Of course, I couldn't make it easy on myself and do a one-piece...

The bodice is supposed to look like her uniform jacket, with the opening of the "collar" exposing the "shirt" underneath.  I really like this effect and it's was kind of difficult to accomplish, which makes me extra grateful that it turned out well!

The super-wavy double skirt took a LOT of fabric, but looks amazing in motion, I wish I could show you how Trina twirled sashayed around the room during the fittings. 

By the way, did you play the video of the Love Boat Theme Song I posted?  Needless to say, there was more than one selection to choose from when I searched for the opening credits, but the one I posted was the very first one I played.  Halston, Bob Mackie, Gloria Vanderbilt?  All in one?!  I didn't need to search for ANY other choice in video to post.

Wild Kingdom: The Earth Goddess Makes a Grand Entrance

I call this a Grand Entrance jacket, meaning it only gets worn when making a bold statement upon entering a party, or walking on the red carpet and getting your picture taken, but you want to take it off before even thinking about sitting down.  It's not that the jacket's not comfortable, it's that the pleating is so deliberate, it will be ruined if crushed, and you can't iron it.

 There is something jungle-y and natural about the choice of fabric.  The jacket's crinkly nature and tiny pinstripes remind me of tall, dry Serengeti grass, and the simple dress underneath is beige with a shiny tiger stripe print, so, yes, the design came first, then the TV inspiration focused it.

When you first see this outfit, one might think, "Oh, noes.  He has gone over to the drapy dark side..." but this outfit is drafted drapy, meaning I didn't just throw a piece of fabric on a dressform and fold and hope for the best.  I actually made a pattern and mathematically controlled the angles that each pleat would fall and therefore created a symmetrical and evenly balanced garment that never would have been possible if I had just pleated fabric haphazardly.  I am very happy with the result and even looking at this picture of final flat pattern makes me happy!  Would you think that something like that ends up looking like something like this?