Lace Painting

It is very clear that I want to design and make dresses that can really only be found in fashion museums which are usually kept in conservation spaces. My greatest fear is not that the dresses are lost but rather the old world methods of fine dressmaking will be. So then I am inspired to create fashion that makes the heart sing and reminds us to dream.

Sitting in front of me is a box of the most beautiful lace fabrics for the Royal Museum Dress Collection. My younger sister saw the painting with lace dresses hanging in my studio and noted that these are pretty much complete, you just need to finish them. The time has come where we will have a fitting with a prospective patron interested in the Elsa Fitzgerald lace dresses.

I understand now why an artist tends not to want to sell their work for there is so much of one's soul sewn into the fibers of a handcrafted design. Although, I sense that when you meet the right person who is in love with your work just as much as you are then a beautiful magic is found in the union between the woman in an Elsa Fitzgerald Dress for love lives in lace.

Before starting this collection I had spent a week hiking the Appalachian Trail drinking from the springs and walking through misty mornings surrounded by a lush forest of ferns. The dress on the right is called Fern Lily named after little magical creatures sparkling with rays of sun by a stream where my heart sewed fashion into a lace song.

Enjoy the Royal Dressmaker episode 3 for some behind the scenes!

Midnight Willow is such a beautiful dress, I am so glad for the creative journey I have embarked on with her from the Bromo Arts Tower where this painting with lace technique was born to the old world historic Mansion in Mount Vernon where she was sewn. She was surrounded by old world decadence with fine William Morris wallpaper and the fountain bird song in the garden.

I am wearing the Duchess of Baltimore dress. The lace in that dress was the finest I had ever owned and I remember when I first acquired the fabric that I placed it on the pillow beside my head so I could look at it and dream of the dress I would make. It took some time to begin that dress for I was nervous to even cut it and to figure out its placement. Through that technique I gained confidence that I could take something beautiful apart and trust that I could put it together again in an even more magical way. I saw the lace on the table as a puzzle to untangle each placement is drawn on with pins and emotion. That is why I call it the painting with lace dresses. I think of this approach sort of how a florist might arrange a bouquet but my placements see the wearers body as the garden. This green dress is the open garden dress. I think of the Secret Garden that Annie Lennox cared for and brought healing to her in a childlike playful way where friendships formed and a childlike imagination was born. I call it the open garden dress for our hearts and beauty are meant to be shared, so as we nourish our inner world we give the light of our brilliant selves to be adored as we adorn this life with the treasures of our minds refined.

I am ready to finish this dress so that my garden of lace can decorate and celebrate the most beautiful woman in the world. I am so excited, I have not done this yet but I have idea about making this dress directly on the form of the patron. I realize now the fun part has been in the lace painting and understanding the placement. I have been adjusting the placement on a dress form then against my own body. But oh I would love to ornate and lace paint a lovely flower garden onto the actual wearer. That would such a delight.

Photo Credits: Pat Bourque

Location: Madison House