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).

Challenge #4 Comments from Alexandra

I was thrilled with Alexandra's comments, once again.

Now twice I've patted myself on the back, sure I had a winner -- once with Evangeline (Challenge #2) and this time with the Tonner ballgown -- and the winning entries are always superb, so
I don't mind not being "The Winner" when I see such wonderful work and when I get such nice compliments on my work; knowing that someone "gets it" is another way of winning:

Tyler challenge (#4)

DESIGN THREE - This is a very charming and whimsical solution to the challenge. The shape of the gown is correct for a ballgown. While I think this might work for a costume ball I seriously doubt that it would be right for a standard ball. I love the pencil earrings but they are much too big. High marks for originality and inventiveness.

Especially important to me was that words charming, whimsical, with high marks for originality and inventiveness were used, as those are what I strive for, always trying to think outside of the pink box, so to speak.

Another, perhaps even more important, thing is Alexandra's noting that I had the correct shape for a ballgown. I was excited about this for two reasons, three, actually:

• I've never worn one and never made one;




• It was noted that the official designers had missed the mark on ballgown when designing a ballgown with outsized elements;




• and I work hard to meet all requirements of a visual challenge, an artistic challenge. Working within a framework is a great stimulator to creativity.
  

I missed the mark in one area -- I took the doll with me to Hermosa Beach to continue working on, as I had sent pictures of it just pinned in place with the accessories completed before I left on the morning of the 20th:

I had designed the pencils and eraser as the other outsized elements and made them first. When I got back here on the 27th/28th, I realized that I had forgotten an outsized element was to be more a part of the ensemble. I had had other designs in mind, one of which had a long trailing stole, and another a full-sized fan as something of a walking stick that could also be used as a background: a fan oversized like that of Temari from the Sand Village in Naruto.

I got myself focused so I could take what I needed with me and finish it up in California, and had, at one point, had an elongated back on the skirt of the dress as an oversized element -- not a train, but a longer back, with more gathers in at the back waist as well; when I hemmed it, I had forgotten that and decided to hem it just off the floor so that she could dance in it better.

For events to which this gown could be worn, I thought that it would be a nice gown to wear to a charity ball, one benefitting a form of arts and letters, even writing scholarships, if not to a ball sponsored by the New York Times or another publishing company.

Whew! I had more to say than I thought.

Maybe some of this can go in the place holders I put for the outfit, along with the relevant photos. I'm not sure how steady this site is on photos after all the RanD ones disappeared. Got to get this back up before Rudy and David go to judge the Susie competition (another one for which I have a world of ideas -- pun intended)

Time to walk Fidel:

The Gene Challenge

Click on photo above to see large view of page submitted as first challenge entry.

I was surprised and dismayed when I first heard of Project Dollway, after all designers had been chosen: my FDQ had lapsed, we hadn't had the dough to resubscribe (though it's my yearly birthday present), and I hadn't dared enter a bookstore during that time, as I invariably come out with a bag full of doll magazines, anime magazines, and manga.

My dismay turned to delight when I found on opening the newly developed Project Dollway pages that people could play along online -- and the deadline was that Friday (2 days away) -- and even more delighted to find that I had not missed the deadline when I sent in a note that I had failed in my mission; the deadline for at home players was Sunday night. In a desperate last-minute participatory gesture, I assembled the above photo and sketch combination: rather poor quality photo image in contrast to my usual standards which have unlimited time as a component. Without a scanner (Windows Vista is incompatible with my working scanner and I still have not tested it and my Nero CD burner out on my old Acer laptop to see if they will fill the gap left by Microsoft's latest "advances." Again, the advance in Microsoft's latest rush to be first is more like the advance copy in the publishing world, still in need of some proof-reading and redaction, usually known as beta-testing in the computing world. Get used to it, I have a stack of soapboxes under my computer that spill out without the least provocation. Perhaps I should color-code all soapbox-related sections in soap sales orange [see Vance Packard's The Hidden Persuaders for what this references.]) I had no way to get a clear image of the sketches and had to photograph them, at night on top of it all, as with the Gene. This accounts for the yellowish tone of the photo -- not bad for the means employed.

I already had Gene dressed up in her chinchilla jacket, waiting for clothing, so I took her pic and sketched, based on fabric I have available, her red carpet outfit.

Gene said that it really doesn't matter what you wear when you have a chinchilla jacket: it's a perfect last-minute touch of elegance when you hear about a party late and need to make an appearance; in this case, she had been wearing Mel Odom's oh-so-perfect Hollywood tap pants and top under her chinchilla for a while. We decided that a quick hakama in moleskin and a leotard top would be the perfect last-minute formal attire in case she had to remove her jacket inside, and pretended that she actually had those in her closet.