Project Nunway Part I - The Birth of a Brandi Amara Skyy Couture Project

So i'm really excited to be designing for Dallas' Project Nunway. The date has been set (April 27th) and a theme has been chosen, "A Fairy's Tale." i got paired up with SisterPlenty O'Cleavage (her name is EVERYTHING!) and when we met she told me her favorite fairy tale dress was Drew Barrymore's Ever After Cinderella gown (which i then informed her is one of my favorite movies!!!!!!).

The dress is GORGEOUS, but a tad bit too traditional for my style. My aesthetic relies heavily upon unconventional materials--paper, condoms, found objects, etc. So, i really wanted to marry my vision to what she wanted. Later in the week, i came across this David LaChapelle photo from Harper's Bazaar and fell in LOVE with the concept



A DRESS MADE OUT OF CELLOPHANE!!! HOW BRILLIANT IS THAT?!?!?

i had found the missing textile to my design!! So i sketched out a dress made out of fabrics AND cellophane (oh, yes with wings too!)

TA-DA!!

The beginnings of Nunway Couture has begun! This is a very raw sketch of what the dress will probably end up looking like. One of the perks of this project is that i get to sashay down the runway with my sister so i get to concoct not one, but TWO sickening couture pieces!!!!!

i'm soo excited about where this is going and i can't wait to get started!  i will be blogging throughout the project (much like this post) so keep to checking back to see how the look progresses (and transforms)!!

 

drag-cap

whew! what an amazing, fun, intoxicating (tequila!),and very tiring weekend. the show, the costume, the performance was f l a w l e s s!! as promised here is a recap of the drag-(re)creation of m.i.a/madonna superbowl. enjoy!

i wanted to recreate the m.i.a headpiece with the feel of the black and gold costumes of the vogue dancers. so i made a make-shift fabric skirt, shoulder pads, and a face mask for the opening vogue dance number and then did a quick change into the m.i.a headdress and skirt.

for the shoulder pads i used fun foam for the base, hot glued my skirt fabric to cover, and hot glued a pair of $5 earrings and a $1.95 necklace.  

the face mask was something i decided to do last minute because i didn't want to do another head piece. this was my inspiration:

i used her mask for inspiration

i bought eight 99 cent mardi gras masks and hot glued them in a pattern that i liked. i added another string around the top part of the mask to keep it closer to my face.

cheap party city (yep, i'm a party city queen sometimes--ain't no shame in it) masks

here's the finished mask

immediately after the vogue dance break i rushed backstage to do a quick change. i took off the fabric skirt and the face mask and put on the skirt and the headdress.

the skirt was pieced together from fabric and trim bought at golden d'or (if you are ever in dallas this is a must-go-to for drag place!)

starting to come together

so i was originally going to use the headband (shown in pic) as the base of the headdress, but then i found this amazzzz-ing cesar-esque piece at a costume shop that i used instead. the fringe on the sides was made out of $1.50 earrings, the earrings that came with the necklaces i used for the shoulder pieced that i forged together, and $4.00 coin trim i bought at michaels. i bought a $7.00 necklace from a place called rainbow that served for the around-the-chin chain look.

i ended up ditching the headband, but kept all the other materials

here's the front of the finished headdress. i used one of the trim links from my skirt

side angle

ta-da!!   dragmation done! as a bonus, here are some behind the scene and onstage shots!

michael playing lmfao and me

mask, shoulder pads, and i used new and old necklaces to create the chain effect

during the show

the 3 queens: asia o'hara, jenna skyy, and me

project: m.i.a madonna superbowl drag

so this weekend i'm dragging m.i.a in madonna's superbowl performance and i'm going to make this head-wear:

however, in addition to m.i.a i have to make something that looks roman-esque/greek gods/goddess for the vogue opening (which i'm dancing in) and i still need to figure out my costume. So this morning minaj texts me (okay so it was really Asia O'hara, but she is nicki in the performance) and she has made this

which is MUCH bigger and more elaborate than i was thinking of doing...now i have to step up my game. i came to play. performance is saturday; today is thursday. i have a lot to do in the next 2 days. 

project  m.i.a. madonna superbowl drag in full gear. keep checking for updates on my progress!