FOUNDATIONS REVEALED COMPETITION ENTRY
Salamanca – Minasli
(click images to to enlarge)
Outline the story …
The design of this outfit waited in my mind for years, just as the lovely brocade that gave the costume its name waited in my stash.
My inspiration came from the game Heroes of Might and Magic IV I used to play as a child. It starts with an apocalypse, during which magical portals open all around the collapsing world to lead its people into a new one – that, along with the fact that gaming itself is a way of escaping into another world for a lot of us, made me think this design corresponds nicely to the Theme and gave me a final push to make it real.
The character I meant to dress is Minasli, an Academy mage who is beautiful, powerful and self-confident. (I pushed myself to the edge of my own self-confidence with this project!) Her setting is the world of genies, mind-controlling spells, treasured old knowledge, amazing magical inventions, and omnipresent opulent beauty. Many of the elements reminded me of fairytales Thousand And One Night. The choice of cream and gold color combination with a touch of red, as well as the use of many gold metallic elements and heavy embellishments were to give impression of wealth and nobility, the long silhouette of both coat and skirt should evoke elegance, while the big collar and the stylized sun motifs point out the magical subject.
Outline the construction…
I took a lot of artistic liberty with this model, since it’s fantasy in its nature.
I drafted the patterns using a picture from the game as a lead and made a mock up to see how everything works. I was very afraid of the collar; I experimented with its stiffening and at the end it was quite fun!
The bodice of the coat is completely underlined with horsehair canvas and serves as a base to hold everything else in place. Although the outlined waist seam is placed right below the bust, the skirt of the coat is fitted at the waist to create an elegant natural silhouette. I chose not to line the skirt to save weight and make use of the golden wrong side of the fabric, so I used french seams here. All other allowances were hand-stitched to the canvas and covered later. The collar uses very stiff canvas as base and is further supported by bones and wire. The most time-consuming part of the creation was the embellishments. I used dozens of meters of ribbons, soutache and other trims, all hand-stitched on. The embroidered hems are backed with starched bias strip.
The biggest challenge turned out to be working with the super fine silk charmeuse I didn’t have much experience with. I did my best to achieve an elegant silhouette flowing smoothly from the hips towards the full-circle hem. The yoke is underlined with canvas and closes by lacing on the side-front.
That is a striking colour combination. I love all the gold details and how rich it all looks. You truly look like a confident mage
Thank you so much!
I love that game, I really enjoy how your design came together and the colours are gorgeous.
Thank you! I was curious if someone would compare it with the original…