Monumental Undertaking…

The further I get into inventorying my wardrobe, the crazier stuff gets. But I know it’s all going to be worth it eventually. So far, it inspired me to grab the following pictures from their various locations so that I can post them here.

On the milder side of strange for me, but fun nonetheless.

I actually made this stretchy teal velvet get-up for the 1999 Grammys. I was a seatfiller and really didn’t have a formal dress in my wardrobe at the time, so rather than lament and pray I could find an appropriate dress in a thrift store, I made this outfit using $1-a-yard fabric.

I have no idea what the designer was thinking when he or she brought this creation alive. And even further no clue why someone bought it and held onto it for about fifteen years before I found it in a thrift store. In all honesty, I didn’t even know what it was when I pulled it from the rack and didn’t even look at it until I got home. It was just weird-looking and sort of sticking out, so I grabbed it, spent $4 on it and went home. You can imagine my surprise when I finally held up the skirt and shirt. Well, more WTF? than surprise! Now, it’s one of my most requested outfits and is the one get-up that I really have to get up nerve before I leave the house while wearing it because it not only stops traffic, it amazes, astounds and grosses it out!

I posted this as part of my Leeloo adventure, but still…a peacock jumsuit? WTF?

This dress is amazing. The picture kind of sucks. The back of this dress continues the cut out with only two clasps holding it together. I was initially going to remove the shoulder pads, but they’re so huge, the dress wouldn’t fit without them! And besides, wasn’t that part of the charm of 80s clothes?

Here’s the teal velvet thingie again. It took about 8 hours total to design and build. 2 hours for the shirt and pants, the rest went into the shawl. Initially, the shawl wasn’t included in the design, but since I fucked up the neckline of the shirt, I really didn’t have much choice but to cover it up. That’s part of the reason I put some of the remnants with the grain going one way and some with the grain reversed. I figured if I was going to be pieceing it together, I might as well really have some fun with it. But what a pain in the ass!!!! It has been almost a decade since I made this outfit and I still remember how hard it was to put together that shawl. However, this outfit does definitely stop traffic when I wear it, so the hardship was worth it.

This last one was my answer to a shirt and a dress that while I like the fabrics, I’d never wear either of them. Plus, the shirt was a little too big. So, I removed the zipper from the back of the dress and sewed it up. Cut it down the center of the front. Removed the eyelet collar from the dress and swapped it for the same shape, but made from the shirt. Removed the short eyelet sleeves from the dress and installed the sleeves from the shirt. Then, finally added the frogs I’d found at a little shop in Chinatown and voila! A coat I’d wear. And even better…a merge of two garments I wouldn’t wear into one that I totally do.

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