Mockingjay: Capitol Couture

Went to see Mockingjay with friends and had to dress up for the occasion. I'm with the districts, of course, but costume-wise I find it a lot more tempting to dress up as an overpriveleged child-murderer exquisitely dressed Capitol fashionista.

In the movies, Capitol clothing is very sculptural and extravagant, tailored deliciosusly close to the body. I wanted to keep a sense of haute couture instead of making a costume, so I aimed for something tightfitting with unusual details.

I bought a black organza skirt and a tight, tight velvet dress second hand and combined them. The dress was very tight, so I had to add a gore to be able to fit it over my hips. Look closely under the organza - the gore fabric is a rubbery pleather type thing that stands out against the red velvet. (I thought it a nice detail, even if it barely shows. 

While I was working, I realised having a mannequin is the best thing ever. It's not always easy to fit anything when you're wearing it.

Here I've pinned the dress onto one of the mannequins at school, just playing around with different details.

I was in love with the hip-detail from the left picture, but when I removed the dress from the mannequin, the needles fell out and after three failed attempts at recreating it, I decided to go for some big fucking rosettes instead. (More is more.)

Pinterest was life-saving while searching for inspiration. I found these tights, and made a sort-of copy with flatbacked rhinestones and beads. The best way to get the rhinestones on was to glue them on while wearing the tights. Glue+hairy legs is not the best combination on any day, and the textile adhesive I used didn't wash off with water, so I walked around with glue on my legs for a few days. Very much haute couture.

I'll post better pics when I get them.

In addition to the dress and tights, I forced my feet into shoes without heels from Bianco, wrangled my hair into submission, used more makeup than I usually go through in six months and even bothered with fake eyelashes (without gluing my eyes shut, go me). I painted my hands black seeing as some Capitol people dye their skin,. (Using waterbased makeup for my hands was not the best idea ever, when we stepped outside, it started raining.)

But so much worth it. The dress doubled as Christmas dress and the movie - just fantastic.

La Carlotta: ROCOCO GOWN O'DOOM

All t3h pink.

One of my next projects would have made fourteen year old goth me reach for matches to kill the thing with fire. If anyone's wondering what costume the pink garters are for, here's the answer.

The gown is used by Carlotta Guidicelli in the 2004 movie Phantom of the Opera, while they're performing the fictional opera Il Muto.

I'm going to build this monster slowly, because with all the sewing I do for school, I'm pretty sure I won't have much time for my own projects. (If anyone sees my crying in a corner I'm 110% sure this is gonna be the reason.)