Basic Black Has Not Lost It's Luster

The dress, the dress!

I'm in the middle of finishing the second belt (lots and lots of beading). I'll hopefully have more pictures after the show. But a sneak peek for starters.

Coming into the competition my inspiration was a dress that you could possibly wear at any time. Something comfortable, not too 'anything' in particular. I'm not one to wear black a lot (because I'm addicted to colour) so I also wanted to have something to make it more colourful, hence the belts. The belts are similar to cumerbunds in shaped and they tie up at the back. You could probably wear them with other things as well.

The shape of the dress is fairly late 1950s/early 1960s with a semi-boatneck at the front and lower back. The pleating was super hard and while it's not 100% perfect, I'm happy with how it turned out.

The first side of the completed belt is the same black crepe-y fabric as the dress and super plain (though it does have piping). The other side is a black stripey bow confection.

The second belt (unfinished) will have one side cream with black beading and the other side a red velvet with some kind of fancy stitching, which I haven't determined yet.

I'm fairly passionate about the dress being versatile because I think that that is the point of a little black dress. I think I'll be fairly upset/dejected if a dress that is too formal/sparkly/ridiculous wins.

That being said, I've heard that some girls got professional dress makers to make theirs so I'm not expecting too much.