Erté Notes after a Long Rest

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Sheesh, now I have some nice silk to work with; somehow that "traditional fabric" bit escaped me, when I finally settled on an Erté-inspired design, which was quite a nice udate of Erté's design (though straight-up Erté would be something I would myself wear).

One comment on the dress was that it would be uncomfortable to sit on the knot. Indeed, it would be; the dress is designed so that, to sit -- again, I was thinking "Hollywood Bowl," "Academy Awards," "Theatrical Performance" -- the knot can easily be brought up to the waist and slipped back down below the hip when standing or walking, or even be tied at the waist -- front or back.

It was the tying and convertability aspect of Erté's design that had stayed with me in this one, the simplicity of construction combined with alternative ways to wear a garment, depending on the wearer's own taste. This was the way I designed it, the way I had in mind for it to be worn -- diagonally crossing and knotted in back.

For best effect in this 1:4 scale, the garment really should have been made of a lighter fabric, a well-washed silk. All through Project Dollway I worked only in fabrics I had at hand (since I have a lot of them at hand, though I can't always locate what I have in mind in time for a competition*).

The project was to design for a 16" Robert Tonner doll, and who but Roxy Hart should step forward to be the model for this design?

Unfortunately, even with this great Deco-inspired model, in the end, besides having made the synthetic fabric faux pas, I had thought the project suggested moving away from Erté to 21st Century Erté-inspired designs that didn't necessarily need to derive from one specific design of his, and the one I submitted was not considered especially relevant or referential to his work, though I had researched, researched, researched, drawn, wrapped, draped, and internalized the designs to the point that this one emerged on its own, growing out of looking at a sketch sideways, at eye level -- my sketchbook lying open to the last page I'd been working on when I laid my head down to sleep -- as I went through the process of emerging from sleep and joining the waking world the nest morning.

Inspired it was, indeed, but derivative enough it wasn't.


* I'm still hunting for my gold lamé. I did make a trip to JoAnne's Fabrics for lamé for this competition and was aghast to find that all they had was a stiff, lightweight metallic organza of some sort, not the liquid gold I had had in mind and know I have around somewhere. Getting ready to dump the mother lode of fabrics out on the bed to see where it has slipped away to, as I have exhausted all other possible places it could be after having pawed through the Mother Lode on numerous occasions in my search).