art deco paper dress and something amazing

Told you I would be right back!

I'm so late for the April Dress Up challenge that it's already time for May! But I still wanted to make a dress, especially since the theme was Art Deco.

When I think of Art Deco I think of old Hollywood glamour and those classic black and white films from the 30's and early 40's. The iconic Art Deco gown silhouette was very tubular and barely skimmed over the body. Graphic design and surface embellishment were popular, particularly the use of beads and jewels.

Full length gowns, many with trains, were all the rage with the back usually bare. A big departure from the short Flapper dresses of the 20's which emphasized the legs.

This vintage dress isn't quite full lenght (love that handkerchief hemline) but the silhouette is very Art Deco. It was used in the PBS mini series "Upstairs Downstairs".

So, how to interpret this theme in a little paper dress?

I used a glittery black and white graphic paper which looked Art Deco-y to me and cut out a long skinny evening dress. I cut out trim from silver embossed paper to add embellishment around the hips and clipped on a vintage rhinestone earring.

Then I outlined the edges and added some detail with a metallic silver pen.

And that is my Art Deco paper dress!

I also wanted to share something amazing I discovered recently.....

The Legion of Honor museum in San Francisco is currently featuring works by artist Isabelle de Borchgrave in an exhibit called Pulp Fashion.

She creates unbelievably beautiful dresses with exquisite detail. Some are like costumes and others are haute couture.

What is absolutely mind boggling is that they are made entirely of paper! How's that for the ultimate paper dress? You can go to her website and see her many collections and trust me, you will be amazed.

Hope you liked the little collection of dresses I put together today. And don't forget you can still see lots of lovely paper dresses if you visit Angela at Sew Loquacious.

pop art dress

Whew!! I really pushed it this month didn't I? And you know I thought about what I wanted to do for this month's Dress Up Challenge Pop Art theme all month long. The weeks just go by sooo fast.

Pop Art is not just fun and colorful but it really started to define a very American style of art. Rebellious, irreverent but also innovative and thought provoking. I decided to put together these 3 iconic pieces and see what I can come up with.

Jasper Johns "Numbers In Color" 1958-59

Andy Warhol's "Campbell's Soup Cans" 1962

(32 canvases)

Yves St. Laurent's "Mondrian Dress" 1965

I love the free flowing layered messy feel of the Jasper Johns piece because I tend to like grungy and messy along with color. And I just happened to have a magazine that had a bunch of Campbell's soup ads in it. So I added a little messy paint and colored pencil to scrapbook paper that sort of had a Jasper Johns feel to it.

Then I finally decided to go with the classic silhouette from the St. Laurent dress.

Voila! My "Johns Warhol Mondrian St. Laurent" inspired paper dress!

I really had lots of fun making this one. It's much different from my usual girlie dresses and I like the challenge of trying something new. The hardest part was stopping myself from adding a paper flower or ruffles. Thanks again Angela for another great theme.

You can see more fabulous Pop Art Dresses at Sew Loquacious.

february dress up challenge

Almost too late but still made it! Here is my dress for Angela's Dress Up Challenge and the inspiration for Febrauary is the art of Gustav Klimt. I love the vibrant colors, repetitive geometric shapes and generous use of gold in in his work.

I could not decide how I wanted to interpret Klimt with a little paper dress. Whether to do a literal interpretation of the many dresses worn by the women in his paintings or just interpret his palette. Then I became even more indecisive when I learned that he also went through a period where he actually designed real dresses which were very loose and free flowing.

And then I realized that the month was almost over! So I finally went with challenging myself to create a whimsical (no surprise) Klimt using my template from last month.

I used whimsical paper that already had geometric elements and dry brushed antique gold and gold shimmer paint over it. Then I added other geometric motifs with gold, black and blue paint pens. Gold paper ruffles, embossed gold paper and my favorite Prima paper flower in black finished it.

It's a very loose interpretation of Klimt but it was lots of fun to make.

Make sure to visit Angela at Sew Loquacious for more pretty paper dresses.

Hope you're having a great weekend!

dress up 2011, they're baaaack

Last month we bid adieu to the paper dress challenge at Alice and Camilla. I was sad to see it end and so were many of the other dress makers playing along. Well Angela at Sew Loquacious decided to pick it up and is hosting this year. Hooray!

Angela added her own twist by giving each month a different art theme. This month is Impressionist art. I chose Monet's garden at Giverny for inspiration. I love the watery blues and greens and the bold pinks and fuchsias in his other works.

Since I have been painting all week I decided to paint my dress as well. I also made a few changes to my dress template.

I washed blues and greens onto a patterned paper then dabbed on some yellow gold and bright pink. I also used a metallic copper to age the edges.

I added bronze tulle and gold ribbon to give it movement and of course I had to use my favorite blue paper flower. It is a garden theme after all. And every garden needs butterflies so mine has a pretty glittery one.

I think this is going to be another fun year. Make sure to visit Angela to see all the other new dresses. The challenge is open all month long so how about playing along?

Don't forget my January Artful Bag Challenge is open all month too!