FOUNDATIONS REVEALED COMPETITION ENTRY
stars of hope in the dark
(click images to to enlarge)
Other Credits
https://torstenhoenig.de
Outline the story …
Like many others I have been struggling with my life for years. I tried to focus on the light at the end of the tunnel. Being outside in contact with nature helped a lot in this process. When the theme of the competition was announced, I combined the bright stars of hope with my favourite colour blue to form a night sky. The stars symbolize the hope that kept me fighting even in the darkest moments. Only after I chose this motive, I read about the theme parties in the late Victorian era with many examples of gowns with the theme “night sky”.
I have been interested in the history of fashion since my teen years. In these days my favourite silhouettes were the hourglass figures with tiny waists and huge crinolines. I had no interest in the style of the early 1910s and I devaluated the high waisted dresses as very unflattering and unattractive. Now, 40 years later with a more mature figure and after having seen the films “Titanic” and “Downton Abbey” my attitude towards these dresses has changed dramatically.
The dress was supposed to resemble the classic columnar silhouette, but for the beading embroidery I opted for a more modern asymmetrical pattern: a moon and several stars on the bodice and a spiral galaxy on the overskirt. This gave me much needed flexibility in the end, when to stop with the embroidery. If I had had more time, I would have added many more pearls.
Outline the construction…
I started with a lightly boned corset-like understructure out of glazed cotton. For the pattern I modified the bodice pattern of my last form fitting dress. It opens with hooks and eyelets in the front.
It was the first time I made a dress out of silk satin and silk chiffon . A dream come true and a nightmare to work with: slippery, fraying and constantly pulling threads. These fabrics are challenging.
As I can not afford a lady´s maid, like most of us, I wanted a front closure for the bodice. After lot of trial and error I ended up with a flap over the left front, closing with hooks and bars on the left side. Each bar is secured with a metal eyelet counterpart, as there is a lot of tension. Originally, I planned a silk organza drape over the silk satin bodice to hide the closure. But this would have added more bulk on the bodice, so I accepted the visible closure line. Sadly I still need help for closing the two top hooks.
For the skirt I used my pattern of a walking skirt and massively reduced the width of the hem. I made two mockups for the skirt and used the second mockup out of a heavy viscose satin as interlining for the lightweight silk satin. This gave a good drape for the skirt. The skirt is mounted on a waistband which helped a lot while attaching it to the understructure.
Such a lovely elegant dress!
Thank you very much for your comment! It was a good experience to make an entry fir the competition.
This is beautiful and also looks so wearable. You make a very good point about enjoying the process!