Sexy Shoes!

I've been searching for shoes for an upcoming runway show for weeks now.  I needed evening sandals, but of course this is the wrong time of year for that.  I finally found these on sale at Bloomingdales!  Originally $250, these Badgley Mischka shoes were $80!  I'm only sad that they're not for me.  The heel is about 4 1/2 inches and the sole is very thin so all the weight goes on the front part of the ball of the foot, making for a very painful evening.  My model had them on for about five minutes (after drooling over them) and then decided she'd have to put them on just before she walked onto the runway.  Badgley Mischka's shoes are known to run small so I had ordered a half size larger for her.  When I got home, I decided to try them on even though I'm a size and a half smaller than the model.  They were only slightly large on me but I doubt that I could wear them for an entire evening.  I think I'll keep them for future runway shows or photo shoots though.  They're just about the sexiest shoes I've ever seen.  The picture doesn't really do them justice.

Condom Couture

I've been trying to finish up the toile for my evening gown for the Project Inform, Evening of Hope 2011 event.  The condoms are cut and painted and the toile is almost done.  The straps will be hand beaded (using the tambour technique of course).  The rest of the dress will be covered with these circles which were cut out of condoms.  It took me a while to figure out how to cut the condoms into shapes but I finally came up with a way to cut six or eight at a time, drastically speeding the process up.  After I cut them out, I used a watered down acrylic paint and a dry brush to just give a tiny hint of shine to the condoms.  The goal is to get lots of publicity for the dress when I send my model down the runway.

Midnight in Paris

Hubby and I just got back from the new Woody Allen movie, Midnight In Paris.  It's a really good movie with lots of laughs.  It's very clear what Woody Allen thinks of Tea Partiers, stupid Americans and pedants (don't worry that'll all make sense when you've seen the movie).

I absolutely loved the fashion in this movie and predict an Oscar nomination for the costume designer, Sonia Grande.  In particular, every one of Marion Cottillard's costumes were absolutely beautiful.   They were apparently sourced from antique shops all over the world to ensure the authenticity of the time period.  Hubby was grousing over Owen Wilson's apparent inability to tie his tie correctly.  It was always too short through the entire movie but I think is was appropriate for his rumpled novelist wannabe character.

Go see the movie, even if you're not a Woody Allen fan.  This is probably the least neurotic of his films.  He does follow his standard format of man caught between more than one woman, questioning his identity, wondering if something better is out there.  I was a little irritated that he still includes that stupid Hollywood rule that a woman who follows the same path must be punished because, well she's a woman and she should never be with more than one man.  That was really the only flaw I found with this movie.  Well, that and everyone's insistence on referring to "Adrianna", Marion Cotillard's character as a "costume designer" when she introduced herself to everyone as a student of fashion design.  There is a difference between costume and fashion design.  Sometimes the two mix but usually there are distinctly different ways these careers are practiced.

When I first saw this dress, I thought it was embroidered in thread and thought it was so cute.  It wasn't until a different camera angle caught a glint of light that I realized that the red embroidery is all beadwork.  Even more stunning.  It's so delicate and would be a perfect summer dress today!


I was so enamored of this gorgeous flapper dress.  The hair and makeup were perfect and the multi-directional beaded embroidery was just stunning from every angle of this dress.

I haven't been able to find a better front view of this dress (this picture just doesn't do it justice) but it was probably my favorite one of her costumes.  She wore it in the first scene she appeared in.  The butterfly at the neck is a sheer embroidered piece set into the dress in a reverse applique.  The simplicity of the single wide strip of beads (or sequins) down the center front and back and along the hem made what would have been a simple black dress, just stunning.  The more you look at the dress, the more you like it.