Erin's Prom

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 A beautiful dress for a beautiful girl! My niece Erin graduated this week from high school and I got to make her prom dress! Now I don't take much pride in copying another designer ...but thats basically what I did here. Free People being the original designers..... and do I dare say those blogger words....
"tweaked it to make it my own" aaghhhh!

A backless chiffon dress with two slits in the front and a lot of beading!

The beads are black twisted bugles.

One bead at a time! This pile was one of many!

Beads from ~ link ~  Strung out on beads

Her mom helped in the 11th hour with the last few thousand. I know you think I'm kidding but I'm not!

           

Sooo pretty!

 If you look really close I beaded ' Erin 2014' on the bottom back! You know.... late at night, eyes are starting to cross and the novelty of beading has worn off! 

When I showed her she asked if I could bead  #YOLO...... you have to know that girl! Bless her heart!

Here she is with her friends!

 I also made her friend Ramona's dress.... kind've last minute, 2 days before prom but if I dare say it turned out well!.....and on the right is the always stunning Alex who hosted pre-prom! 

A gorgeous day in Whistler!

Erin with her friend Berit... I don't know what it is about Whistler but they do produce stunning girls!

Congratulations Erin!

 So beautiful....inside and out!

love you!  Aunty J.

Victoria

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This is a perfect example of how an inspiration becomes a creation!

Victoria and I were flipping through the "Hello" magazine that had named her one of Canada's top

50 most beautiful people when at the same time we saw Avril Lavinge's pictures and both loved this top......

       So found some fabric, and went about creating a similar look.

We liked how the top turned out and made some pants to go with it!

 I suggested a matching skirt could be cute for interviews etc. But then I ended up making  

shorts because then she could actually perform in them! 

Which she did.......

Photos by Exquisite Photography // www.exquisitephoto.ca

So pretty! 

link ~ Victoria Duffield

Cirque de la Lumiere

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This year The Goddess Movement (link)  had it's annual "vertical theatre" production entitled Cirque de La Lumiere. An astounding array of acro, hoops, silks, pole, trapeze, and contortion performances ..... magically wound together in a mystical story of good attempting to triumph over evil, transpiring under the big top at the night circus!

 
   My part was creating the costumes in a way that portrayed the characters but did not jeopardize the safety of the performer. This proved to be a bit of challenge at times..... boots slipped on poles, fabric wound as they spun on the trapeze, seams split twirling down the silks, capes and cloaks caught on legs and apparatus, various body parts unexpectedly revealed!! All of these costumes in the ideal world would be made of spandex and there would be no problems, but spandex is limiting and you know why can't a ballerina do a pole dance?! So after many fittings and try outs with each performer it all came together! So here is a look at a few of the costumes during the making and the performance.

          First step was to source all fabrics to have a cohesive production. 

 Warrior  Queen of Light                               

Pleather, hundreds of grommets, feathers and lacing made Aryn's costume "light"

in a "warrior" kind of way!

                                                                                                                       

 We rented this amazing flying lion (I know.....what???) from Can Am Importique (link)

A great place for any imaginable prop.

 Queen of the Dark Side 

Her evil cape was lined (in purple) so as not to catch on the sequins on her bodysuit, which then totalled 14 yards of fabric to eloquently spin on the hoop. No easy feat!

Goose feathers added the wickedness to this unitard. I wanted them to stand up behind her head but  didn't realize she was wearing her spectacular hair down and wild..... which as you can see was

beyond perfect for her character!

I think the boots took longer than anything on this costume; hand painted pleather, grommeted, laced, hard to fit and dangerous to perform in. Remember what I said about spandex?!! So much easier but it just doesn't capture the feeling.

       There was a lot of strategic placing of sequins 

 feathers and mesh to make this costume work.

We even hot  glued the feathers on the mesh while she had the costume on! Brave women! I also painted the mask to make it a little more sinister.

 

                                                              The Light Fairy
                                                          

Swarovski crystals, hand painting, beads, sequins, lace, tuelle, satin, flowers.... there was nothing this

fairy costume didn't have..... not to mention massive wings!

Lilly the lost child of the night circus. 

Stiffened tubes made her skirt fun and whimsical. I made it so that the 

hoops would accordion together when her part called for sitting down.

Here are some more picture from the performance but no work in progress pics. When I am  madly creating I don't often think about future blogging! Hmmm.....may have to work on that.

              A very special thanks to Cristal McLaughlin-Sawatsky of  Level 6 Images (link)  for so beautifully capturing the moments!

Please click the video link below for a small taste  of everyone in action.

It's amazing!

Jason Noel's promo video

                   

Hope you enjoyed a peek into the night circus!

~ Janet