ok, so following on from my post about being soon self-employed, here’s one about *the dress* some of the bloggirls have been talking about.

i’ve always made stuff for myself, preferably out of weird left-over scraps, starting with the terry-cloth halter top i lived in as a teen (and one of the few items to control my already OTT mammaries). and the strange skirt sewn together from off-cut strips my mom brought home from somewhere. and i loved tying fabric in all kinds of odd ways to fashion no-sew garments.

when i started going to burning man and doing professional fire performing in l.a., making my own costumes became essential, so i’d make it up as i went along, often with no clue. nothing ever had a pattern. i’d start and just guesstimate.

earlier this year, i got a victoria’s secret ad in my inbox and there was an awesome dress which i’d come across elsewhere before. i wanted one, but not for $150 plus 14% vat plus shipping. so i decided to see if i could make myself one. i figured it out and modified it and as soon as i wore it to work, i was met with a chorus of “i want one!”. i didn’t take it seriously at first, but then i figured why not? and seeing that i’m going to be self-employed soon and i’ve always wanted to have a small clothing range, now’s the ideal time.

let’s not pretend.  i know almost nothing about clothing manufacture, but i’m taking things one step at a time. i’ve been making the dressses myself, so far, but make no mistake, being a seamstress is not what i have in mind. i’ve designed the logo for the label , i have a lead on a seamstress to help out until i decide on a cmt company. i’ve no idea what my outlets are going to be. i’m trying to figure out if i should do an online store. it’s all still very uncertain, but i promised some of the girls i’d put up pictures of the dress soon, so here it is.

after polling a number of people, i’ve decided on this design. it seems to be the one most people resonate with.

it’s the kind of dress which can be worn as many ways as you can imagine. there are various incarnations of this design on the web, by i’m calling it the 1-dress, cause all you need is one dress! 😉 my lovely friend and actress, kim cloete, bought one of my first efforts and we spent a bit of time playing around in the garden with some of the ways the dress can be worn. isn’t she gorgeous?

(i’ve been writing this post for about 2 weeks now, and i’m getting all kinds of questions,  so i’m just going ahead and publishing it. i’ve found a CMT, isabelle  who has her own line, “sies” and the first run should be ready next week. unfortunately it’s going to be at least a month before i have labels ready. but it’s happening!)

my friend verity had a huge asterix themed dress up birthday party, so i based my costume and character, “animalia” (almost all characters in asterix have names which end in ‘a’ or ‘x’) on a one-off of the dress i’d made in animal print, topped by my animal print robe. my friend monique did her own unique thing with one of the red dresses. she started as vulcanix and ended up as sluttex.  i think the pictures say it all 😉

so folks, there it is. i’d love to know what you think.