If your first thought is "Oh no, this gurl did not make a dress inspired by Harley Quinn" you would be right, and wrong. I didn't set out to do that, and yet somehow I did. But first the Pretext.
So if you remember from the Top O' the Morning post I mentioned I'd had a fling with the bassist of OnOff. I met him while on summer vacation we hit it off, summer ended I went back to college. We reconnected eventually over the Banshee costume (by reconnected I mean the occasional conversation/ life update) the Moda fashion show Global View (last weeks post Walk like and Egyptian) came and went and the school year was clearing up Summer Vacation around the corner. It was the end of my pattern-making class and I was talking to my professor. I don't exactly remember what we were talking about exactly but I do remember saying wouldn't it be cool if I did an entire line out of comic book print (ie: fabric with images from my favorite comic books blown up on them) He was actually a huge fan of this idea but said I would need to do my own original comics because of copywrites. And an idea was born!
I spent the summer prepping for the new year, started a crowd-funder to help raise the dough, and asked my good friend Manny Cristobal (Instagram @Stuff_Manny_Does for commission) and asked him to draw me a fight scene of a rockabilly bass player beating the crap out of people with his bass.
Remember how I said David the bass player and I had reconnected? So I was still living San Diego County and OnOff was playing at NAMM so I drove up to catch the show. Ended up going to the Gretch after party where I saw Craichouse and the Hard Fall Hearts (both Amazing bands!) Both with Bassists who play the standing Bass ( I don't know what its actually called) I sent videos to Manny and was like, "Dude! Here's our skull crushing Bassists!" (Funny is he looks a lot like Andrew Verdugo from Hard Fall Hearts I wonder if Manny did that on purpose?) Having a little groupie in me I also followed OnOff out to the Rockabilly Reunion in Lake Havasu (So much fun I want to go back) of course I sent more videos to Manny (the pages were already done and printed by then, I just wanted to share my adventure) the more time I spent adventuring the more inspired I was!
I had no problem putting a collection together, my color pallet came from actual comic books and the prints I had made (Thank you Spoonflower!) replaced my white. I ended up putting together 10 male and 2 female complete looks (one of which I'm wore and am wearing for the sake of this blog lol) for a total of 27 garments! 21 of which were color blocked and 4 were quilted.
Curious as to why I'm rocking two-toned hair? Color blocking friends, I just had this idea that how cool would it be if my hair was black and white, and the outfit I wore at the end of the show was also black and white! So that's what I did, I actually cut and sewed this garment up the night before the fashion show. And since I was the one to wear it, nobody knew. Oh did I mention both top and bottom is fully lined? That's right folks I'm crazy!
The black and red is made from a Cotton Shirting (Poly/cotton blend Joanns) It is the same fabric I used in my collection, and the white print is made from Kona cotton (100% cotton printed by Spoonflower.)
The circle skirt pattern I had draped during draping class I went with the black and white so it would match my hair and added the red waistband to break up the two colors (I wasn't trying to do a Harley Quinn thing I just really wanted my outfit to match my hair. ) The top was trickier I removed the darts from my basic block patter set (made by me!) and added fullness. I then gathered up the fullness into a red band at the bottom of the top to create this bloused look. Hair and makeup I tried to keep as true to the original look I had on the runway, down to the pigtails and everything.
It wasn't until I put it on at the fashion show that I realized I came off as a Rockabilly Harley Quinn. Which was perfect because i drew all my inspiration for this collection from comic books, and a bass player.
I hope you enjoyed this post, photo's at the bottom and please remember to follow me on Instagram : MadsenCreaions Facebook: Madsen Creations by Rachel Madsen. I'll be seeing you soon!
