The Paper Princess Bride

Each year as October comes closer and closer to its end we find ourselves taking sides. Love it or Hate it. The haters normally do things like, disappear when the convo turns to costumes or plan an apple picking trip to the mountains for the last weekend of October (that's for you, Tim and Raylene). But you'll find me on the Love side, mainly because, the word Halloween is synonymous with Creativity for me (oh yes, and you get to act like a fool in public for one night and no one seems to care.) Every year it comes down to the decision of the costume? Basically I feel like missing the opportunity to get crazy with creativity would be a disservice to my title of "designer."

In college my cousin, Bianca and I dressed up as Baby Dolls in an old dance costume, pigtails and all at a Florida State football game. We thought we were safe from lewd comments in our modest costumes but made a big mistake by carrying around giant lollipops. Another year my other cousin, Angie, and I were insects, not creepy insects but gloriously beautiful insects. We worked all night before a party to create our glittered, glamorous creations. And proudly fluttered around all night as a lady bug and butterfly. And other years, I have been everything from a rap star's girlfriend, to a flapper girl (with an authentic 20s hat), to Jessica Simpson (blonde wig, camo hat and a "Real Girls Eat Meat" T), to a white trash bride (pregnant belly, hill-billy teeth, fake cigarette and all).

This year I focused less of my energy on "getting into character" and more on "getting into costume." The seed of an idea popped in my head early on. I had been messing around with alternate ways of creating things using paper in my graduate design thesis (where I created paper dresses for a fashion and identity exhibit, you can check it out here and here) and in a wedding invitation (where I deconstructed an atlas and used each page as a pocket folio to hold invite components, you can check it out here). Then I saw Kirk Smith's creations in this year's 2010 Art to Wear Fashion Show and I have been dying to make an actual, wearable dress out of paper, much like his creation using Jimmy John's wrappers (check it out here).

First I needed to come up with a theme. I knew I wanted it to be a book and thought about using romance novels, Stephen King's Carrie, or Margaret Mitchell's Gone With The Wind before I settled on William Goldman's The Princess Bride. I set out for supplies a few days before Halloween and two books, mounds of adhesive, a bit of clear wire, an elastic band, multiple strips of velcro, return trips to Michaels and Barnes and Noble, plus some stitching later I was wearing my creation by party time on Saturday night.

Below you will find a rare instance of me in FRONT of the camera. Ugh. I never know what to do with myself when I am looking back at the lens. Thanks, Kelly Lynn Bailey, for being such a great photographer!



photos by Kelly L. Bailey

CREDITS:
The Princess Bride book / Barnes and Noble
Tiara / Party City
Bling / Target
All construction supplies (adhesive, elastic, clear wire, hole punch, sewing machine, thread, velcro) / Michaels