this challenge was about "Ellowyne" and with certain limitations that brought us from a daywea to a cocktail dress idea.
Only one piece could be reveersed or changed and one left during the change.
this was our first Ellowyne dress, and we ahven't a basic doll, so we decided to proove the dress with certain changes on a Tonner doll.
We started with reading and studying the caracter of Ellowyne, a young lady , dark in her soul with an ennui.
and we created a little poem for her.
Nevermore, you got something to learn
From your past you’ll never return
In your bag something to hold
Of your joy and sadness you owned
Sparkling crow feathers and fancy trims
Connect your spirit to future dreams.
1) What was your concept for this gown? we were truly inspired by the pictures of the Ellowyne, NEVERMORE, but especially from the last one on her website, the one on the back with all the crow around her. We started think about what that crow is all about, and so we want to create something dark but not in complete black. We think Ellowyne is going away from her darkness with that walking away in the last picture.
Our litlle poem is inspired to the joy and darkness of Ellowyne, and we imagine she holds her dreams and her past in her bag, everyday working and enjoying life, as everyone of us. She use her past and the dark of the colour of NEVERMORE to grow in a better person, with the sparkle of the black feathers of the crow she met in the last picture of the site, but she is a young lady and dreams must remain in her mind to create new poems and fantasy tale.
We started thinking about her mood and her attitude to fashion, and we loved the new return of the little ball gown. She is also a poet and the mood of softness must kept.
She is a young lady, with a dark and english mood, but in modern way.
The difference of the style between of the 2 outfit is clear and the sequined ball skirt reversed helps that look.
2) Why did you choose that particular fabric? We chose the strikes fabric because is an usual working fabric for tailleur, and we want something to relate the outfit to ordinary life and work, we imagine ellowyne going to university or school and be a very classy and upperclass little lady. It’s also a little english inspired and that works for the mood. The match of the sequins gives us the chance to make it works for daywaear and for cocktail dress. We think that the skirt is truly nice and being the reverse part, is the truly chamging image part. The tiny sequins is inspired to the sparkle of the crow feathers.The chiffon shirt, is soft and with the wide sleeves is truly romantic and remind to the antient european poets, simply decadent and a litlle fancy with the big double ribbon on the closing neckline.
The gilet is a nice and funny outfit to put more attention on her body fit and being black it helps to point your attention on the grey ribbon.
The jacket is short , like the new fashion addicted loves, and the short sleeves reveal the wide skirt sleevs, letting customers to see the complete 5 pieces in one view. The bag is a mix of the fabric used before, inside we got the lineing in strikes fabric, and the sequind net is just a detail on the downside of the bag. Teh trim used in all the outfit works to finish the upper edge of the bag. The chains are good to give that dark allure and the leather holder is related to the heavy content of the bag, it helps peaplo to kkep the bag and not hurt herself.
There are 2 different chains in the bag, one black and one silver.
3) Why did you choose that color?
Grey is usually a cloudy and foggy colour and the little blue strikes in the middle of the fabric gives an iridescent appeal, not completly dark. The poem of NEVERMORE talks about cloudy and dark hair, something that comes over her. Grey chiffon is lovely and it’s not truly sad, because of the shining of the fabric. Matching with black details. Black is just a second colour, and we wnated to use it to follow the original doll of NEVERMORE, but it had to be secondary and be only a reference.
4) Do you think your gown is appropriate for Ellowyne? Absolutly yes, because it keeps the original idea of eccentic lady and unconventional, but strongly connected to past and ancient stuufs. That is why we used a olive pearl to fix the double ribbon on the shirt. That colour is not shining and sparkle, but the pearl is more related to something rich but ancient. The ball litlle sleevs of the jacket with opening button and wrapping trim in organza are lovely details as in many other Ellowyne outfit we saw before. We noticed in many original Ellowyne outfits that Robert Tonner used many trimmings and little details wrapped, like wrapped pockets on a coat, trimming around the coat, or plissè fabrics, velvet trim to finishing the dresses, laces. We tried to follow that mood in ou style and vision.
5) What element do you think distinguishes your design and sets it apart from others? Cut? Fit? Embellishment? Color choice?
We think that the details are important, and we used many of them also in finishing. For example we ut on the inner part of the skirt sleevs the same elastic trimming of other part, and this is like an hidden detail, you can see it just holding the doll, but it works on getting elastic the wrist. The bag is really nice and a mix of many details recalling all the outfit. The black border of the skirt has a velvet trim in the evening reverse, and it’s different from the daywear side, and it’s the same as the trim used on the jacket. So we think the outfit works on itself in all expcts.
6) What element of this challenge was the most difficult for you? Working on a new doll, and never used before was hard to create the patterns and the get the right mood. We studied the doll through internet sites and informations and it was not easy to create our own opinion about her style. This is a CLIENT challenge so this was teh most important part and we hope to got the right impression from what we got in mind.
7) What element of this challenge was the most enjoyable? Challenging our usual style and find new way to express our point of view with different anlge on the dark topic.
8) If you could change one thing about your gown what would it be? We would love to have shorter ball sleeves for the jacket. In our first sketches it was shorter, but due to time delivery, we were forced to finish that way and weren’t able to change it or re-do completly after making the jacket. But anyway we think the proportion is not too bad at the end and it covers part of the arm leaving enough space to the under shirt sleevs to reveals themselves.
Everything started from our original sketch and mixing materilas with our usual style. Original patterns and tailoring handcraft.
Some pictures are from our laboratory in the backstage section.
