FOUNDATIONS REVEALED COMPETITION ENTRY
The Modern Masque
(click images to to enlarge)
Other Credits
Model, Makeup, Hair- Cassie Heintz
Outline the story …
When the theme for this years contest was announced it was difficult to decide what literary direction to take. However with the current state of the world, it was impossible not to consider the Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allen Poe. I saw Death as it would be dressed in our own modern version of the tale, choosing to update the gown to a contemporary Hollywood-style silhouette. With a borrowed fur coat, she felt ready for our own version of Prince Prospero's masquerade. I wanted it to look like the gown was made from dried blood, to match how the Red Death was described in the tale as "The scarlet stains upon the body". The gown would be covered in hundreds of red beads to mimic fresh blood still dripping. Some of the beads hang loose, as if about to fall, and become part of the skirt.
For the model herself, we looked to mimic hair and makeup that would evoke the same feelings as the story. Poe leaves it up to reader to decide if it is a mask or their face, for us we chose to modernize that idea with makeup, focusing on a look that would be both glamorous and deathlike. For the final touch, we added a mask in the same red silk, covered in red gems as a nod to our own modern pandemic.
Outline the construction…
Due to the current pandemic, I designed the gown for my best friend, who is in our covid bubble so that we could work together safely. A few weeks into fittings, she found out she was pregnant, which completely changed my construction process. I chose to make a single layer corset of silk and coutil, with internal boning channels, so that the corset could be easily changed as her shape changed. After consulting with her doctor, to confirm the design would be safe to wear, we went through numerous fittings to take her changing shape into account. This was made easier with the single layers and movable pre-made boning channels, which allowed me to remake areas of the corset easily.
This was my first attempt at making a cupped corset and a corset dress, using the Vivienne corset from Corsets by Caroline as my base pattern. I altered the bust and cups, as well as the seams to better accentuate the extremely curvy shape that I wanted. To minimize external seam lines in the front of the gown, which I felt would look visually odd ending halfway down the gown, each boning channel is invisibly stitched to inner coutil layer by hand, and all seam allowances are also invisibly hand stitched down. It was important to me to leave the seam allowances long, so that the gown can be remade, post partum, to fit my model again. Each of the gems is set by hand so the stitching is invisible.
This is absolutely stunning! I have no other words, just speechless.
Breathtaking!
Wow! Your pregnant model looks gorgeous. I can only imagine the horrors of the fitting process. You have really succeeded in creating the dried blood effect. Beautiful
Stunning. Absolutely stunning.
This is really gorgeous! You created a great fit and acommodated to the difficulties of your model’s changing body really good. I love the effect of blood dripping on the dress.
This is just absolutely beautiful! I love the beading!
The shape that gives you is fantastic!
Beautiful! I love the colour choice and beading details on the front of the dress, you definitely captured the blood-like effect you were going for! Also I can’t imagine how difficult it must be to fit a corseted dress on a pregnant lady, but she looks absolutely stunning! Well done!
You’ve done an amazing job with the fit, and the beaded details are beautiful! <3