This was the planning and making of a well balanced look that strikes all the boxes of a playful costume themed, upbeat corporate event - where the founder wanted to be slightly toned down from everyone else. From NYC to a southern city stage in Houston TX, here is a groovy cosmic cowgirl look.
Kathryn Rodan giving a speech on the small stage.
A lil video of the embellishing ~
The first step is to know the clients everything (their favorite colors, textures, allergies?, any preferred silhouettes or necklines etc and of course, measurements). We also have to work with the events aesthetic, theme colors and fonts, also the venue and environment, temperatures etc.. You want to absorb the overall vibe and have the looks, pop out from the screens and billboards plus, be able to stand alone - big and bold - on large stages & in big crowds. Customizations are sometimes the key, with 90% of fashion brands being within reach of everyone everywhere at anytime, customizing reassures there will be no twinning.
Following my meetings with the creative teams, I begin the process with a visual boards, gathering inspirational wardrobe decks broken up into many categories. As discussions and more meetings take place, we narrow down a-lot!, and do this over and over again until we fully get the click.
For this project, I was preparing to have metallic faux leather jackets or pants custom made. I dressed and coordinate the two founders of this brand to present on very larges stages together so, it is super important to always be thinking ahead, if we do blue then what, if one goes into this fabric with sheen then what... So, we found this already made jacket that was a great fit. A ready to wear slam dunk. Also, ideally, it is a double win if the client will wear the item again. In this case, that was a definite.
Then, we move on. The decision was made to go with dark denim on the bottom, this clients favorite high waisted jeans are FRAME, Le High Flare in Majesty jeans , which are dark and slimming and would feel unbalanced with our loud jacket, making her appear larger on top. So, we went for the embellished vibe on the bottom. I went to my gemstone ladies in the garment district with the jeans and laid them out. This was a fun project. I slowly planned the placement for the hundreds of gemstones, front and back, with 48 hours of drying in between. Then adding tiny flecks over the thighs to complete the pant.
The look is never locked until every single thing is fitted together. So, we style with shoes, accessories and undergarments, meet with lighting, making sure nothing will give feedback or reflections or make noice on set. Then we meet with hair and makeup etc!
In the meantime, I style her stage partner simultaneously. They must be thoroughly balanced when appearing on set or stage together. It is similar to styling cast members for TV or film, which I have also done - more of that to come!
~JS