We had the first organizational meeting for the fashion show last night and it was…interesting.
It’s basically going to be like a 2-hour-long performance arts binge with fashion stuff thrown into the mix. Modern dance. Fire spinners. Unicyclists. Acrobats. Wearable sculpture. Rollerskaters. Apparently, there’s going to be a kinetic fabric background which the models will pass through to get to the runway. In front of the backdrop, the performance artists will be doing their various things, in turn. In front of the stage where the performance artists will be performing, there is going to be a dropped runway around which the models are meant to prance.
So. I need to make a cut with the stuff I meant to show, and really make a point in selecting extremely outrageous pieces which will make themselves “heard” over the visual din which will be taking place behind them. Daisy dress, out. Strawberry dress, out. I’ll post pictures of whatever makes the final cut. I think they really liked my 1930s and 1940s dresses, so those two are in, and there was a lot of positive commentary on the photos of my 1880s dress, so it may well fly the runways again. I’m making a really bold top to go with the pineapple skirt, so it will go, and the cherry top will go with my red capris. The Chenille Chanel Parody jacket goes really well with my grommeted pink rubber skirt, so that will go. Aah, decisions, decisions. I told everyone that my design motto is “Good taste is somebody else’s problem,” and I am hoping that whatever announcer they have will use that soundbite when introducing my stuff.
My original conception of what I’d do for a showing of my work is way, waaay out the window. I’d been picturing sending the models out to the dulcet strains of “Rock-N-Roll Hootchie-Coo,” wearing combat boots, or at least Docs or Chucks (no strappy sandals, no dainty heels) and messy, natural hair (no blow-outs, please!) At this point, however, I am just happy to have stuff going out, and hope that it can hold its own against circus costumes (I’m not joking here, seriously, one designer has a line of circus costumes she’s putting together for a theme cruise) a barbed-wire dress (again, not joking, not making shit up) and inflatible vinyl clothing (he’s talking air-hoses as part of the demonstration). My “artistic vision” needs to get stuffed, and I need to just go with the engulfing and aggressively eccentric flow here.
For the first time in recorded history, my loud, weird, tacky, obnoxious clothes are going to be the most mundane thing in the room. I hardly know how to think about that!