Liv Inspires

I should really call this post somehow differently, as I have not styled myself in a way that would probably evoke a “Queen of Narnia” in people for this photoshoot. I should rather call it any kind of “Fantasy Queen Dress”. But I cannot help myself, in my head it is exactly that – the dress of a Queen of Narnia. For that is, what it has been designed for.

In a place (really) called Narnia, there is a new Queen. A headmaster. And I have had the honour, to design and create a dress for special occasions for her.

I drew a few sketches, together we went through some ideas, to find what she liked, what would fit her personality best. We went through fabric samples. Lots of fabric samples. Her personal wish was for a blue dress.. but not a royal blue, that would be a too obvious choice. She likes more toned down hues. And she wished it to be paired with silver. Because she likes silver tones more than gold.

So, if you have at least a tiny bit of knowledge about the world of Narnia and what went on there, even if you didn’t read all the books (I have), if you have seen at least the very first movie, or at least you have noticed a trailer and some posters, then you should have noticed there was this Ice Queen. The White Queen. And she was not a Good Queen. She was a very Evil Queen.

Ok, now if you know about this Evil Queen, and you take the colours blue and silver, you could easily put those two things together. I had to be careful not to evoke that with this dress.

Our Queen is a Good Queen. She is a very lovely, gentle, understanding and kind Queen. Her own personality is very much the opposite of the Snow Queen. So I had to come up with a dress that would look royal, be blue and silver, but not give off a feeling of coldness, rather of kindness and welcoming, (and match her preferences, body shape, and not go too much over a certain reasonable budget, if anyone doesn’t know the drill).

Despite a certain drawn image we agreed on in the beginning, I would go back and forth on the original design and new possibilities on how to make it. Going back and forth between new ideas, the “Queen’s” own personality, what we wanted to represent… what felt right… and everything..

Anyways. This is what we ended up with.

The whole ensemble consists of a dress, that should should work beautifully on it’s own, especially for occasions at the end of the (school) year, in summer. On top of that goes a velvet cape.
EDIT: You can look and read about it in a second post.

It’s actually funny to have made something, for someone else, then borrow it actually back, to take photos of (in) it. :-)

You can probably see, it doesn’t fit me. It is made for someone higher and slightly broader than myself. But it fits enough to document the work I have put into it.

Also, fun fact, I have actually cut my hair short, only a week before taking these photos. I thought I wouldn’t have a chance to make them anymore. Suddenly, there was a chance after all. But my short hair just didn’t look regal enough for this. So there was a challenge I had non idea I would have to tackle (and definitely not so soon). How to fake long hair to look royal enough? In the end I came up with this. Using snippets of the dress’ top organza, which I just randomly srunched up and added to the back of my head to cover the missing hair, haha. Attach with a pretty silver headband. Cover head with some unused embellishement-ribbon. Worked rather surprisingly well in the end.

Since I didn’t have a crown… I don’t know, I just figured I would go with this random royal fantasy make-up as well. I rather enjoyed this photoshoot, to my own surprise. (I’m not usually one very comfortable with being in front of the camera.)

One last thing, for anyone out there, interested in details. The dress itself has a soft cotton lining. Top of the dress is a silk/polyester jaquard and sheer organza covering the skirt. The open sleeves are out of a very light grey chiffon.