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Research on my chosen theme- Masquerade Balls of Louis XIV.

Exploring fashion runways, fashion films, fashion photography, music imagery and other media sources...

The dress

For our final project I chose the 'Balls of Louis XIV-Baroque' theme, but with a slightly modern twist.As Baroque/ Rococo is known for its artistic style that used exaggerated motion, clear details and swirling spirals and upward diagonals, I tried to go with this theme.I also tried to incorporate Madame Pompadour's style who was one of the most important figures to establish Rococo fashion, by using flowers for the dress. Madame Pompadour adored pastel colors and floral patterns. The other reason for using flowers on the dress was to brighten up the black corset and the black tulle skirt. As waists were tightly constricted by corsets which provided contrasts to the wide skirts in this period, it was quite obvious to me that I am going to use a corset as the top part of my dress.

For the bottom part, my main inspirations were two of Dolce & Gabbana's collections: The AW12 and the SS13 collections.

Dolce & Gabbana AW12 Collection: Baroque Romanticism

" The starting point of the Dolce & Gabbana Fall winter 2012 women's collection is the tradition of Sicilian Baroque, which has evolved in volumes and processes, experimenting in new cuts and decorations: golden embroideries that recall Baroque mirrors and frames or embroideries made of small points inspired by dining room tapestries; prints of cherubs and angels that appear to have come out of a painting."-

D&G AW12 Collection

D&G AW12

D&G AW12 Fashion Show

Dolce & Gabbana MFW SS13 collection

My initial idea of the bottom part of the costume was definitely inspired by the designer duo's SS13 collection, one model in particular.

D&G SS13- Wicker corset and crinoline

Wicker underskirt

At the second part of the show, models wore wicker bone corsets and crinolines with a black tulle overlay. Unfortunately I had to change this idea, because I was unable to find wicker or any sort of wire that would be strong enough as an underskirt so I decided to use black tulle only for the skirt.

Below are some pictures of my sketchbook with my initial ideas.

Headpiece

As for my headpiece, I was inspired by a baroque style mask. The head piece consists of a venetian mask, black and gold balls, beads, feathers and white lace which works together with the white lace neckpiece of the costume.

I choose the Balls of Louis XIV. theme because I love this era and its detailed style and I felt I could create a mask-like baroque style makeup that would go well with the overall look.
I started the process by painting the polystyrene balls. For this I used antique gold and black spray paints. I then glued the balls onto an old, thick hairband, using a hot glue gun and also glued the balls together, on top of each other to give the headpiece some height. Once I had the base, I added the Venetian mask, the gold fruits, the beads, the lace and the feathers. I was very pleased with the end result, except it felt a little heavy on the head so I'll have to make sure that it is secured tightly to my model's head on the day of the final show.