Thursday, February 21, 2013

A Little Art'sy' Fun ...

I was so excited to be asked to be a part of the "Wearable Art Fashion Show" this evening at Wine on Third in Niagara Falls. When I was asked, initially, I thought - what? I'm not a fashion designer! But after some not-so-strong arming, I said ok, and got to planning.

The idea of the show is to make, or in my case build, a garment for the runway out of beautiful but unconventional materials. My photos didn't turn out so great - but my friend Tina took some amazing shots of many of the looks. Wanna see?


My dress, or rather, skirt - made from playing cards layered on a difficultly molded base of poster board and duck tape! My model, the beautiful daughter of my best friend, was the PERFECT beauty for this piece of art that took me weeks to build. You think I have a future in dress design? Ha!


Here, you can see the silhouette of the dress ... it took about 900 playing cards, which I bought 2/decks for a $1.00 at Dollar Tree. Some packing tape, hot glue, and frustration later ... we were in business!


Mar-Jon beauty school students did her make up and hair, and I opted for a skirt with a super high waist rather than a full dress. We used a boys dress shirt, popped the collar, and rolled the sleeves up and voila. Fashion!


Here I am with my model and the dress, trying my absolute best to mimic the same pose.


The dress will be on display in the dining room of Wine On Third, the site of the fashion show, for the next month. Along with many of the other dresses and skirts from tonight's big show. I of course have to give full credit for this brilliant idea to Mary Grace O, who asked me to be a part of the show, and dreamed up this outstanding event then with passion and creativity made it come to life!


Here's my friend Andrea, whose other half took all of these photos, with her model sporting the BLT dress. Andrea is a brilliantly gifted pastry chef, and wanted something that involved food. In one day she made this fun and creative piece that smelled so delicious!

12 comments:

  1. Your dress is amazing! I love it!

    I used to own a flower shop and one year we took part in an "alternative" fashion show to benefit AIDS research. I made a man's jacket out of moss that had mushrooms growing out of it in several places.

    It's so much fun to take part in events like that!

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  2. I think maybe you really do have a future in fashion. Project Runway, here you come! Cherry Kay

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  3. Fabulous. I loved your design. The dress was so much more than just a house of cards, it MOVED!!! Great model too, she had the right spirit..

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  4. Spectacular job Artie! Realizing it was no small feat to achieve what you did as working with something other than fabric had to present its challenges. Love the design and the way it flowed.
    Warm hugs ..... Brenda

    (Actually two weeks ago we celebrated Fashion Week in our City and my son and his business partner featured their new Fall line which got great reviews. Woot! ☺)

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  5. What a fun idea. The card dress is great!

    OMG with the BLT. But the mayo purse is priceless!

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  6. very cool Artie!

    p.s. did you get my reply email??

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  7. Extremely clever! How did you keep it together? I did a skirt out of twigs (for a mannequin) and I was scared to death it would fall apart! I am going to post this on my

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  8. Bravo Artie! I love your card dress and the high waist.
    Say a prayer for me through my next 3 months of rehab.

    Thinking of you often!

    xoxo
    Karena
    Art by Karena

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  9. So this is what you have been doing! Great job and what a fun idea for an event.
    Best...Victoria

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  10. What a fun challenge - I wish we had some type of event around here that was similar! You did a great job!!

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  11. Really, Artie, your creativity knows no bounds! You would slay them on Project Runway!

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  12. Oh my. You and your friend did a better job than a lot of the designer's on Project Runway this season when they had their "unconventional" challenge!

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