Day 74: Black and White Dress

Today's soft-focus images seem to have blurred out most of the details of the eyes and skin that I wore for this shoot; however, the focus has cleaned up the jaggy edges created by cutting away the background, so it's somewhat of a compromise.


I can't remember if I mentioned this previously, so I'm going to go ahead and mention it anyway - I'm using shades of off-white in all my work now, both to reduce the starkness of a pure white, and in preparation for requiring a surface to do highlights and shadows on when I get around to learning to create wrinkles in fabric. I'm also using off-white as my background in images, which makes it easier to see the clothing.

This dress was inspired by a design I saw in a sewing magazine. I included plenty of panels to smooth out the pleated look of the skirt somewhat, and used plenty of flare to give a nice sense of flow, though it looks even less like the original that way.

Today's skin and eyes are by Robin Sojourner; I don't recall the names, exactly, but if you search for Robin by name, she has her stores listed in her picks. Today's hair is the ETD/Aveda Flip, a Black Pack, I seem to remember.

This last shot shows me walking with the dress on; I wasn't quite sure whether to attempt to match up stripes on my skirt with my pants, whether to leave the pants all white, or to use some combination. In the end I left it as you see it: off-white pants, with black stockings from above the knee. It still looks odd, to my mind, but better than it looked in the other combinations.

I'd love to know what my avatar was thinking when I took this shot. She has a real brood on :)

Day, um, 62: Gold Shot-Silk Sequined Dress

What happened to the last couple of days, you ask? Where did all that dedication go? I was struck down for a couple of days with not a cold, I fear, but an influenza virus. I'm now well enough to cough and hack at my computer screen instead of merely flopping on the couch or lying in bed doing nothing at all.

I made a this replica using a sewing magazine I subscribe to as a guide. The original was an illustration, but the details state that a sequined fabric in gold was used. The original garment was Yves Saint Laurent.

The whole thing is really quite simple; a little jiggery pokery with textures, a wee skirt and a handful of toruses. The opaque black tights that go with the dress are system socks tinted black.

I have been left wondering whether I should have made a system skirt to go with this outfit, and indeed, may yet return to this outfit to refit it. The original is a tunic dress, designed to fit quite tightly through the thighs; I do think the flexis look nice, though - except for their unfortunate habit of exposing one's bottom when one walks around. *shrug* That's what same color underwear is for.

-> Here is an terrible shot of the original dress, showing virtually none of the detail that I carried across. Nevermind. You can see that this dress has been designed to fit a reed-thin model, and not really myself or my avatar, so the modifications and accommodations I have made make sense. It would be an interesting experiment to make a few more shapes to see how my designs go fitting a wide range of shapes ...

Lastly, a pic of me at home, on my lawn. I like to stop for any sunset and record the moment :)