Evolution of a dress

'Danseuse' set, 'Pas de Berlin' series 2014
model Berlin * photographer Todd Powers * MUAH Ande Castaneda
armor by Todd Powers * dress and shoes Jen Raven * concept direction provided by Jen Raven

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Preparation for the 'Danseuse' set of our 'Pas de Berlin' series began several months in advance of the shoot itself.  One of my greater concerns was safety: I wanted Berlin to pose en pointe for at least part of this set, which was to be shot outdoors --not an easy task, on its own.  To avoid possible injury to Berlin, we decided to lighten the weight of the dress, and shorten the hems (of all seven skirts) by seven or eight inches.  It killed me, the thought of cutting up such a lovely dress! 

Model Berlin tries the dress with the pointe shoes for the first time.  We all agree; the dress is too long and heavy for pointe work, especially outdoors, on uneven ground.  The hems must be sheared. 

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Flashback:  Todd and I discovered this dress at a local Goodwill in 2007, and it's been a useful addition to the costume closet ever since --from the Kern River to the cover of Bakotopia Magazine, this dress has been there, done that. 

photos by Todd Powers
models Jen Raven, Devin Riane, Jaden Snow

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I was loath to cut up such a pretty dress, and wanted to pull a few more great shoots out of it, before getting out the scissors.  We asked model Lucy Cruz to do a final shoot with Todd, and I also asked Ande Castaneda to get a shoot in, with model Berlin.

Kern River Shoot
photographer Todd Powers
model Lucy Cruz

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After Lucy and Todd were done with the Kern River shoot, the dress was beyond filthy.  We gave it a hot shower, then soaked it in the tub with boiling water, laundry detergent, and oxy-clean.  After repeated rinses, we wrangled the soaking dress onto a custom Berlin-shaped dress form, to dry.  We had created the custom form a few weeks prior:

For our purposes, we made some changes to the recommendations given in this Threads tutorial.  We used crumpled newsprint instead of poly-fill, for example.  And we fitted a length of PVC pipe in the center, before closing it up at the base. 

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After the dress dried on the form, it was sparkly-white and fit Berlin's waist like a glove.  One more shoot with the pretty dress, as-is, before the alterations:

Thank you, Ande!
Chaise Lounge Shoot
Photographer and MUAH Ande Castaneda
Model Berlin

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A lot of work went into the alterations.  Close to ten inches came off the hems (all seven hems), and even more came out of the front left side.  I airbrushed the dress using fabric paints, and sewed nearly a dozen silk flowers just above the cut.  We decided to paint the pointe shoes white, so that they would show up better on camera.  After some experimenting with different paints on an older pair, I decided on Wolfe FX body paint in white; it performed the best out of all the paints I had to hand.

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Day of shoot:  Todd and Berlin nailed it.  Our months of preparation totally paid off, and I was doing a happy dance behind the scenes.

'Danseuse' set, 'Pas de Berlin' series 2014
model Berlin * photographer Todd Powers * MUAH Ande Castaneda
armor by Todd Powers * dress and shoes Jen Raven * concept direction provided by Jen Raven

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Behind-the-Scenes video of model Berlin, directed and produced by Ande Castaneda

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Just before the opening for 'Pas de Berlin' at the TES Gallery, Todd further altered the dress and armor, to fit Lucy Cruz, who modeled the costume at the reception.  He added black fabric paint to the dress, and new armor fittings. 

Pas de Berlin Reception Shoot
Photographer Todd Powers
Model Lucy Cruz
Armor by Todd Powers

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