Tag: dolls

LJ Runway Monday Challenge, Week 8

On BravoTV’s “Project Runway”, the designers visited Diane Von Furstenberg’s showroom and were given the lookbook for her fall collection. The collection took as its inspiration the movie A Foreign Affair, starring Marlene Dietrich. Dietrich’s character is a chanteuse who may be a spy during World War II, and she travels from Berlin to Shanghai to New York. The designers were given access to Von Furstenberg’s fabrics and told to use them for a look that would fit the theme of the collection.

LJ Runway Monday producer Heidi Gunn tasked the Runway Monday designers with the same challenge–only without providing us access to Von Furstenberg’s fabrics.

My inspiration: Film noir, Marlene Dietrich, the 1940s, and Diane Von Furstenberg herself.
My materials: Linens in black and print, with a few accessorizing touches.

First, as my homage to film noir, I chose a color palette of mainly black and white. I wanted to create a look that was both intriguing and sexy. I began with a cape, an item of clothing that has been used throughout the history of film to convey danger, suspense, and secrets. Capes have always intrigued me, and I think every woman should own at least one cape during her life, whether she uses it for warmth, drama, or costume.

The cape and its hood are fully lined with a printed fabric, a nod to Von Furstenberg’s emphasis on prints throughout her career.

A closer look at the lining fabric shows an Asian-themed design, my nod to Dietrich’s character’s escape to Shanghai in the film A Foreign Affair.

Marlene Dietrich’s fashion choices tended to switch between the severe and the opulent. I enjoy the fashions of the 1940s, when women managed to overcome deprivation and rationing to make themselves glamorous even as they were coming into their own in roles formerly held by men, both at home and at the front. In a nod to Dietrich’s film chanteuse, I pictured my model slipping in from an assignation around the foggy docks, shedding her cape, and melting the hearts of an audience with a torch song.

My dress design updates Dietrich’s tailored look with fabric accessible to working women of any decade–linen. I also opted not to sew a back seam into the dress. It wraps around and is cinched and held in place by the belt using the same fabric as the cape’s lining in a new take on Diane Von Furstenberg’s iconic wraparound dress.

I love the way 1940s gowns often used an accessory on one or both shoulders for an added touch of glamor. In addition to the deep blue feathers in her hair and on her dress, I used the same complementary blue adornment that fastened the cape to brighten the shoulder of the dress.

And finally, I accessorized the shoes to match both the cape and the dress.

The total looks:



You can see Timothy J. Lambert’s design here, and Mark G. Harris’s design here. You can also check out Heidi Gunn’s LJ to read what the judges say throughout the day on Monday. You are welcome to add your comments there, here, or on Timothy’s and Mark’s posts.

If you’re interested in my previous designs:

Week 7: Drive It or Wear It
Week 6: It’s a Drag! I won!
Week 5: Lipstick Jungle
Week 4: Olympic Gold
Week 3: New Orleans Inspiration
Week 2: Going Green I won!
Week 1: Grocery Store

Word

To those of you who sit next to your fireplace on an autumn evening, toasting your toes while a steaming mug of coffee, tea, or cocoa, or perhaps a glass of red wine, sits next to you, and you let your book fall to your lap as you stare into the flames, then you hear yourself thinking, Sewing clothes for a Barbie doll? How hard could THAT be?

I have one word for you.

Hahahahahahahahahaha.

LJ Runway Monday Challenge, Week 7

On Bravo’s Project Runway, the designers were taken to a rooftop where they were presented with several hybrid Saturns. Once the car doors were opened, the designers had to grab as many of the materials used in the construction of the cars as they could. They were told to come up with an innovative design that incorporated these reusable materials.

Heidi Gunn, who is currently in evacuation mode thanks to Hurricane Gustav, gave the LJ Runway Monday designers the same challenge. Here’s how I dressed Summer.

drive it, wear it, it’s all good

A little message from Summer

Hi–Summer here! Just wanted to let you know that Becks won the Drag Queen challenge with the design she did for Spirella Balzac. You can read the judges’ final comments on Heidi Gunn’s LJ. Becks would like to thank judges Miranda Priestly, Michelle Hors, and guest judge Gary, as well as producer/mentor Heidi Gunn, for their rigorous critiques.

She also thanks her fellow designers, timothyjlambert and markgharris, because she knows this ended up being a bitch of a challenge to do.

I’m glad this is over, so now she can get back to designing for me. Oh, and be warned that Mark G. Harris’s model, Fauxgaro, is now impersonating me. Apparently she hasn’t figured out that the only successful conclusion to any summer is fall–and she’s heading for one.

See you on the runway!

LJ Runway Monday Challenge, Week 6

On Bravo’s Project Runway, all of the designers met famous drag queens. They had to listen to their clients’ ideas and needs, then design new looks for them.

Heidi Gunn asked each Runway Monday designer to find our own drag queen, get to know her, and design a special look for her. I was talking to my usual model, Summer, and she shared a story about a friend of hers. You may recognize her:

That’s Barbie’s best friend Midge. Midge is a real doll, but she has a tendency to forget things–taking her birth control pills, for example. Since she’s a stay-at-home mom, the financial responsibility for her ever-expanding family falls mostly on Midge’s husband, Alan.

A mild-mannered, middle manager by day, Alan only infrequently indulges his desire to cross-dress–always with Midge’s full support. She even shares clothes with him on occasion.

Now, with Summer’s guidance and Midge’s encouragement, Alan has finally decided to take it one step further. To make extra money, Alan plans to perform in drag. That’s what brought him to me.

Alan told me one performer he always wanted to be was Carmen Miranda.

I told Alan that while she was fine as inspiration, he should go for his OWN look, not merely be an imitation. And that’s when…

c’mon, click here, you know you want to

We have a winner!

Congratulations to designer markgharris for his winning design. If you missed the judges’ vicious viscous snarky commentary on this week’s designs, you MUST read here.

Here’s Figaro modeling the winning design:

And here’s timothyjlambert‘s design looking pretty awesome on Nikki.

Then there’s Summer, who’s apparently a dowdy hooker with underarm issues wearing shoes from the bath supplies wall at Everything’s A Dollar. Whee!

LJ Runway Monday Challenge, Week 5

The challenge for week five of Bravo TV’s Project Runway was to find a design that would take Brooke Shields’ character, Wendy Healy, of NBC’s Lipstick Jungle, from being a high-powered movie executive by day, to socializing with her husband at night.

LJ Runway Monday’s Heidi Gunn gave designers Timothy J. Lambert, Mark G. Harris, and me–Becks!–the same challenge. And now the judges will decide…

How’d I do?

Saturday Musings

Let me say that if I did not have this thing right here:

I would join the witness protection program and vanish to a place where no LJ Runway Monday producer or judge could ever find me.

A few years after my father died in 1985, I began doing a lot of painting. That is not where my talent lies by any means, but I didn’t do it because I think I’m a good artist. Painting put me in a deeply meditative state in which I felt a soul connection to my father, who was an artist. I enjoyed making color choices and figuring out artists’ tools and methods by trial and error. At one point, someone suggested that I take art classes. I’m sure I would have learned a lot, but painting isn’t my passion or how I’m driven to create. It’s just my way of keeping some paternal energy flowing.

I know that Runway Monday wasn’t conceived to help me find a way to work through grief, but it does have that effect. My mother sewed, and I’m not only making use of her sewing supplies (many of which amuse me because they are from my old home ec class–she saved the oddest things), but I find that it gives me the same kind of connection to her that painting gave me to my father. I can remember so many things she sewed, and I also get to mirror her frustration when I do something stupid and end up ripping out seams and muttering under my breath. (This makes the dogs leave the room, poor things.)

The greatest gift my parents gave me was my love of words and reading. But it’s comforting to occasionally dabble in their talents, too. My mother would be entertained by these outfits Mark, Tim, and I are making for dolls. However, she’d definitely shake her head that I’m sitting here sewing while that tuft of dog hair drifts across my kitchen floor. Housekeeping is not nearly as fun as sewing can be.

On a somewhat connected note, FARB, if you read this, know that I’m thinking of you.

LJ Runway Monday Challenge, Week 4

On Bravo’s Project Runway, the contestants were challenged to create a women’s wear look for an athlete to wear during the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics. The design should project the image of the U.S. to the world and make the athlete feel proud to represent her country.

LJ’s Heidi Gunn gave the Runway Monday designers the same challenge.

click here to see if I met the challenge