Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Rock & Royalty with a royal Rock (*)

Each year, my esteemed employer comes up with creative themes for the annual christmas party. While the past years were relatively easy ("White Christmas", 50s, beach), this year's event will be all about Marie-Antoinette-goes-Punk. Good thing I studied cultural history! I thought back to my university days, meditated a bit on how to stay on the right side of that fine line between historically accurate 18th century punk and modern-day goth (dangerous territory, blurry borders), decided that throwing in colour would tip it in the right direction, and then spotted the opportunity: I could also make my own tutu! Just to find out if I can. And also because renting or buying a dress would have been at least €300 (and lacking in the punk/rock aspect). So I added my own challenge to put together an outfit for under €50, because the theme does not sound like something I'll ever wear again.

Googling "tutu" got me some mildly amusing juxtapositions in Google image search results:
but by refining that search a bit, led me to some pretty good inspiration on how to go about it.
And so, spending less than €10 on material, I sat down and made friends with a lot of tulle. (I have started to measure craft projects in movie lengths: This took a bit over two films on Netflix. But then, I did occasionally get distracted by the plot.)

It has only four layers of tulle and is thus rather transparent - but I remembered a bright orange skirt I sewed a few years ago in Berlin (i.e., when I still lived in a country that has summers) and that fits perfectly over it, plus adds a degothifying bit of colour.


I'm still wondering about the hair, and have experimented a bit with fauxhawks:
18th century punk rock chic - nearly there.

(*) This title makes most sense if you speak German. Haha! Pun intended!