They say that winning isn’t everything; it’s about the taking part, right? Right. The “taking part” is a journey of discovery. It’s a trajectory that takes you places you’d never be able to go otherwise.
As far as I’m concerned, you literally can’t lose when you put yourself out there, in a competition or in any other capacity. You can only win. Isn’t that worth a little bravery?
I had so much fun making this dress, and it was remarkably comfortable to wear. The foundational corselette was made in breathable cotton bobbinet. It was hooked tightly at the back but not drawn any tighter than that (as a corset would be), so it felt like I was in my pyjamas compared to any Gala gown I’ve made in the past. Being strapless, my shoulders did not feel restricted, which is so often a pain point for me, and I genuinely felt like an ultra-femmey 1950s Enchantment Under The Sea dance princess. I could have worn this dress for days! So if you’re considering this style, I highly recommend having a go. I wouldn’t mind making another myself!
Tell me if this resonates.
You’re an artist – it’s in the fabric of your being. You have big ideas, beautiful ideas, and you love to get out those delicious materials and get “in the zone” whenever life allows, so you can make a little bit of the beauty of your inner world REAL in this world.
But it doesn’t always work that way. Sometimes your head is just in the wrong place. You get scared/anxious/blah/down, and the beauty stays inside you.
I don’t know about you, but for me it’s painful to keep it all inside.
So how do you create more “uptime”, get that creativity out of your heart and into the world, and minimise the challenging times?
You might make a lovely dress or corset from a reproduction pattern, and that’s great, but what if you could go deeper? What if you could look over the shoulder of the premiere at Dior’s atelier in 1955? What did they do differently from us, and why?
Like a curious five-year-old, try to ask “why?” just one more time than the next person. For example… why is the bust of this Dior evening gown so small?
Follow along as the Internet hive mind figures it out from primary sources… with surprising results.
In September last year, two friends came over for a geeky museum study day at Barrow-upon-Soar in Leicestershire, UK. Lowana and Karolina missed their train back to London… and in a delicious plot twist, 24 hours later I was alighting from a Eurostar train inside the cavernous Gare du Nord in Paris.
And the result was my current fabulous dress project…