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Make-A-Thon

the making of

While designing the dress, I used inspiration from Alice In Wonderland, Beetlejuice and Wizard of Oz. Without intentions of presentation, I merely began creating the ensemble. I started with the black skirt, which I found at Goodwill, and I also got the black hat at the Goodwill. A black cammie worked well with the skirt. In order to tie it all together, I went to the fabric and hobby store and bought lace, tulle, lace ribbon, goose feathers, black roses and skull buttons. For the hat, my favorite piece, I sewed on the tulle veil over it and added lace ribbon along the bill. The asymmetric goose feather and rose structure is my proudest part of the piece. I used lace to make the shawl, and I used lace ribbon to make the gloves. I sewed on snap buttons for the gloves, which I think are very Madonna. haha. I have never made a costume before so this was an exciting challenge. It took me a lot longer to accomplish the piece than I expected because I did not account for the tedious work of sewing. For weeks I would carry whatever section I was working on around with me so I could work on it when I had free time. For the skirt, I added tuffs of tulle to create the overexaggerated volume on the hips.

behind the scenes

Ashley looked amazing in the dress and I had her play my character for this piece. My initial idea was to have a quirky girl, who loves her outfit, video herself during her day. Hence, Ashley filming her feet and the car accident; I really liked the first person POV shots. It was almost as if this footage was the last moments of her life. I wanted the footage to have a silly, quirky nature to it though in order to keep the piece emotionally light. Ashley and I just hung out one afternoon and had a good time filming around town. The dress looked so cool juxtaposed with Austin scenery.

Elijah created the visuals for the piece. His blue, infinite tunnel represents the liminal space between life and death. The runway represents this liminal space and it is her entrance into the transition place. The runway idea came easily because it was the best way to really show off the dress. I was able to incorporate fashion techniques while doing it in a different way. The performance ends with the character beginning the journey into the liminal space between life and death. There are different ideas about death; people argue whether death is the exact moment life ends or it is the state of mind, body and soul that happens after life. Using the latter theory, I imagined there being this liminal space in which one walks through to the next phase of death/dying. (Think Dorothy and crew in Wizard of Oz marching down the long hallway to see the Wizard). During the presenation, thelighting, music and video elements were operated by me. I walked Ashley back behind the curtain under a sheet so no one would see the dress too early. haha.
I had a great time with this project, and was totally shocked and humbled by the kind reception by the audience.

Music by Ratatat