mirage-designs

[mirage-designs]

First look:

This look is going to be very elegant. I am going to make a two piece dress which will look like a one piece when on It is going to have a beautiful tip with off the shoulder sleeves and extended detached sleeves. The bottom is going to be a take on the “high-low” dress, but the back will be a floor length train. This whole dress is going to be made of sheer chiffon and the primary technique will be ruffles. IT WILL BE FULL OF RUFFLES! I'm hoping to achieve a feeling of fluffiness and weightlessness.

second look: 

This look will be one of the more simple looks structurally, but visually I think it will be stunning. It is going to be a traditional three piece suit (a blazer, pants, and a button up shirt). The entire suit will be made of a sheer chiffon fabric, so it will be almost completely see through is some places, but in others where there are layers (like on top) there will be more opacity. With this one I wanted to play with class and elegance in contrast with sex appeal and sassiness (like most of the collection).

[mirage-designs]

These are the latex/vinyl looks!!

Look #1:

Ok this look is one of my favorites so far. It’s going to be my take on an over-sized jumpsuit. It will be made out of bright yellow stretch latex so it’s going to be shiny and bright! It’s going to be baggy/oversized so it will move a lot and have lots of texture. The bottoms are basically just oversized pants but the top is this huge cape thing that won’t really be a shirt but will work like one. It will also have this nice collar thing around the neck.

Look#2:

This one is also pretty cool. It’s going to be made out of red latex/vinyl (whichever decides to cooperate better). It will be a pretty structured corset top with boning. I want the skirt part to flake out and kind of be like a ballerina type skirt, but it’s red latex so it’s going to look pretty great. It will probably have black tulle under the skirt to make it have more volume. It will also have black accents along the seems.

[mirage-designs]

LEATHER!! (Faux of course)

Look #1:

This dress is going to be a beautiful light purple/lavender gown. It is going to be a mixture of ridged and soft/flowy. It’s classy and upscale, but also young and fun and low key sexy. I’m leaving it suuuper short in the front and long and dramatic in the back with a little bit of a train. It is kind of simple but also has a quality of class and sass which I’m all about.

Look #2:

This look is extreme. It’s going to be super sexy and playful. It consists of a funky bra/shirt thing (I’m not sure what to call it) with studs and chains as the straps. It’s hard but also still fun because of the colors I’m choosing. The pants are something I’m super exited about. I’m going to make these chain link leather pants. It’s kind of like a harness but in a full on pant. The base of the pant will be made from the leather and then the small gold chains will hold it all thogether.

I added another picture of a look I made previously for reference, that is the fabric I plan on using. It’s like a gold/white faux leather snake skin thing.

[mirage-designs]

The FURS:

Ok just to start- these designs are relatively underwhelming but I swear the actual pieces are going to look absolutely fabulous. I am not amazing at rendering fur, so they kind of look basic but they will be stunning.

#1:

For this look I wanted to do something fun and modern but also unconventional because of the fur. I want to give the vibe of badass arctic babe.

This design is consisting of white faux fur high waisted pants. The flames will be dyed into the fabric, so there will be consistency and blending effect rather than sewing in different fabric for the different colors. I want to give the feeling that the pants are on fire and the flames are climbing up the model. The top is a bra/bikini type piece which will also be made of white faux fur and have flames dyed into it. My favorite part of this design is the coat! Although it looks underwhelming in this rendering, I have big plans for it. I am thinking that it is going to be a giant white faux fur trench with white satin lining inside. It is not going to be a normal trench though, in the back there is going to be a 6foot train coming off of the back. This train will drag far behind the model when they are waking and just look absolutely amazing. The train will also be dyed will a similar flame motif so it will give the effect that the train of the coat is on fire and the flames are following the model. (I was having a lot of trouble rendering the back of the coat, so I will probably post a pic of this later on or tomorrow).

#2:

This is much different than the first design. This look is on the traditional side of things. It will have a very standard mermaid gown vibe, following the standard silhouette. I am invisioning a pastel pink faux fur that makes up the majority of this gown. I have personally never seen a more traditional gown made of fur so this is really exiting for me. I may decide while I’m making the actual dress to add stones to the neck line, but that is a choice that I will need to make when I see the dress irl. The bottom part of the dress will be layers and layers of faux fur, pastel pink tulle and pink chiffon in order to get as much volume as possible. It’s basically going to look like a sexy pink polar bear lady haha.

[mirage-designs]

This is the 2nd denim look:

For this look I wanted to do something like a traditional hoop skirt gown, but make it different and new. So I came up with the idea of having the dress sort of deteriorate into flowers and have the under structure of the dress exposed. The dress itself as well as the bustiers will be a relatively plain design because I plan on making most of the action happen in the accents like the trim, under structure and the flower decorations.

The flowers are going to be made from denim scraps, and there will be A LOT of them so it is going to be fairly heavy... the top of the bustiers part as well as the bottom of the hoop skirt will have the denim faux fur (as seen in the previous design) as the trim. The under structure will need to be very sturdy because the denim is going to be quite heavy so I plan on building it from scratch so it will be able to hold the dress- and it will be wrapped in denim of course!

I added the denim gloves in the design but that is something I will have to make a decision about when I see the dress in real life.

(I just wanted to add that I know this looks very much like a Cinderella dress- but I am hoping that it will have a much more modern vibe to it once I actually make it)

Also something else that I wanted to add was that I know this project is mostly about my designs and just getting a clear picture of what I want to make once I get back to campus, but I am also learning to love water colors in a new way. I never really liked using water colors before, but they are growing on me! Also I’m VERY exited to start using a color beside blue lol.

✨Next week I will probably have 2 designs ready✨

[mirage-designs]

This is design #1 for the denim set.

It features a denim chaps/underwear combo as the bottoms. For the top it has a cropped top inspired by overalls with two jean pockets, one over each breast. All of the outside seams will be encrusted with rhinestones (so along the bottom of the pantleg, the outside seam down each leg of the chaps, and the seam along the inside of the thigh, as well as the top, bottom and side seams of the shirt)

On top of the shirt and chaps will be a large trench coat. This coat will be an imitation fur coat made from strips of frayed denim in multiple different washes to get the full range of denim colors. The frayed denim will create the illusion of fur. It will be lined with a darker wash of denim.

[mirage-designs]

Plans!

For this winters independent study, I plan on designing (and starting to construct) all 10 of the outfits that will be featured in my fashion show this coming spring.

The fashion show will not exactly have an over arching theme, but instead show an eclectic body of work that I think captures my style and my approach to clothing/drag.

The show will consist of 5 models, each modeling 2 different looks (so a total of 10 looks).

The only parameters I am giving myself is that the looks will be grouped into pairs and each pair will be constructed of the same material. The 5 materials I have chosen are: denim, faux fur, leather, latex/vinyl, and Chiffon (sheer fabric).

My goal is to create a wide variety of looks in many different styles, in order to push the boundaries of the materials I have chosen, and make pieces that would not normally be made out of these materials.

Each week I will post a finished design, and because FWT is only 7 weeks I will probably post 2 looks most weeks.

[mirage-designs]

Reading list for Independent study:

The History of Modern Fashion, by Daniel James Cole.

House of Fashion: Haute Couture and the Modern Interior-Jess Berry

Select Essays from: Social Text, No. 52/53, Queer Transexions of Race, Nation, and Gender (Autumn -Winter, 1997) (Particularly, “The White to Be Angry”: Vaginal Davis’s Terrorist Drag-Munoz) among others

“A Wizard of Silks and Tulle”: Charles Worth and the Queer Origins of Couture Abigail Joseph

Lee Lozano: Dropout Piece- Sarah Lehrer-Graiwer

I also want to be watching a lot of short films/full length films by queer artists in order to dive into the queer film world.