Buried in Her Maiden White - emiliacouture commission for Deva Doll

 

This commission was heavily influenced by the burial/wedding gown of Lucy designed by Ishioka Eiko for the movie Bram Stoker's Dracula. The original gown was a Victorial satin corset dress with long rouched hem under a Gustav Klimpt inspired sheer lace overdress. To maintain the same air I made a huge beaded double ruff collar, a beaded lace hat and puff sleeves wrapped tight around forearms with more lace and beading. However, to make this an original design I changes the silhouette into a empire gown made of pleated sheer silk chiffon and adorned the hem with more lace. The pleats are gathered below the bust line with lace and beading and for a modern twist I added a double buckled white leather belt I cut into a lacy shapes. The gown can be worn with or without the belt and changes it's silhouette and waistline accordingly.

My model and muse for this project was the divine Red Tian Shi, a Deva doll I've lusted for a long time. I was very honoured to hold her for the week it took me to create this gown for her and I'm sad to see her return to her home again. She was so inspiring to work with and poses with amazing grace, not to mention her enchanting Chinese facial features. I think this is the only fashion doll I've ever seen that actually looks Chinese.

It was also exiting to work in this project because it was Ishioka Eiko's costume design in the movie Dracula that got me interested in fashion and costume design in the first place. This is my homage to her talent.

 More photos at flickr