Dear Ikea (Dress 96)

Dearest Ikea,

I've never actually been to an Ikea store- as much as I lust after the catalogues, I'm never sure my bank balance could take it. I've bought a few things second hand to realise they were Ikea, among them the FÄRM vase...

I've always loved the lines on this, and i'd love to replicate them in a dress- generous pleats in heavy linen.
I'm thinking of re-doing the signature, it's too big and clunky, so look out for something new- same design, but smaller and sleeker
(Also: apologies for posting a day late: 3,000 word essay meant the dress was designed, but not inked or coloured.)

All my love

IP.

Dear Yoska (Dress 95)

Dear Yoska,
You saw my wallet on the train- sitting on the seat, long after I'd up and left.
You googled my surname, and called my parents. And less than 8 hours after i'd lost it- I had it back in my hands. Relief unparrallelled!
I sat outside your apartment imagining what you'd look like- we'd exchanged a fair few textmessages and I wondered who this kindly soul would look like. Turns out you look like a very young slightly frightened male version of my friend Zahra- and you're a student pilot, which makes the socially responsible good samaritan thing make a little more sense. Honestly I expected to have my identity stolen or something- not have it returned with embarrassment at my thanks.
So in honour of those badges trainee pilots wear (although I think any pilot wears this one)
And in thanks to all kind strangers,
(Printed cotton for the dress, structured metallic-blue-grey for the 'badge' with a space for a brooch in the centre.)
All my love,

IP in the paper!

Dearest Lot's Wife,

You (the student paper at my university) were in serious need of some content for the creative writing, and since the lovely Flo is running that ship, she asked me if i'd be interested.

Hells yeah.

Hurrah for Lot's Wife!

All my love,

Dear After (Dress 94)

Dearest After,

What a lovely shop- a pity I couldn't afford to stay much longer, I had to go home and do homework (blarg).

But I did come out with these:

I then proceeded to experiment:

Feathers from my found-rainbow-lorikeet-feathers-stash:

Making springs:

Peacock Feathers:

Parts salvaged from a phone:

Nail-Polished-Painted Springs:

And, magically (I have NO idea how this happened. I mean, I meant to make something swirly, but this is very Wizard-of-Oz tornadoesque.)

So, from the springs came a 'lightbulb' dress:

Sorry for the late post,

(I'm not going to post the signature, because this post is so picture heavy,)

IP.

Dear Nicola (Dress 93)

Dearest Nicola,
I'm really very fond of you, so it's strange that I really only see you once a year (at Sally's birthday). You study silversmithing, so I was thinking about how you could incorporate silver into a dress.
This dress is really rather awfully drawn, so my computer being an uploadbitch is a rather awesome coincidence. I'll post it as soon as it's fixed.
The idea was, two silver 'clips' made from old singer sewing machine plates (see here for an incredible archive of singer 'plates') to hold a cowl neck together, and hold about three inches of hem into a mirror of the neckline.
All my love,
IP

Dear Sally (Dress 92)

Dear Sally,
Yesterday was awesome, we went out for your birthday to possibly the lamest burlesque bar ever (more las vegas showgirls than burlesque dancing- two of the three girls were painfully thin, and apart from the high kicks, there weren't any impressive dance moves.) but the clothes on the pseudoindie crowd there were an awesome source of designideas!
Happy birthday darling, you're damn gorgeous,

All my love,

Dear Sean (Dress 91)

Dear Sean, I remember once we were talking in the bookshop (where we both work) and you were saying, in that almost unbelievable accent 'ah cant understand how the maek yer study Beckett in school. Yer children fer god's sake- what the hell do you know?'
And i think you're almost entirely right!
(Which did not make this evening, centre row seats less than 10m from the stage any less magnificent.)

Thank Beckett (and my boyfriend) for a wonderful night,

(Rope around the waist, rope 'piping' on the top, which is twisted into a 'noose knot' and then 'splits' into the shoulder. Cotton and a black applique bowler on the bottom.) 

All my love,

Dear Beautiful Red-Head Girls, (Dress 90)

Dear Beautiful Red-Headed Girls,

You're some of the most gorgeous specimens of female loveliness walking the earth. There's something about cascading russet hair, next to that beautiful milky skin that is the designer's dream: think Lily Cole or the (admittedly bottle-red) Christina Hendriks. (Also: My best friend and fellow sewingmachinemistress Alice.)

For those lovely lasses also blessed with the equally rare and gorgeous genetic trait for green eyes, there's this:

Lightweight green polyesters, twisted and under-pieced together, zip on the left side.
All my love,

Dear Red Fox (Dress 89)

Dear Red Fox,

A friend of the family (an artist, painter, sculptor, and CFA volunteer) used to have the nickname 'Kenny the Fox', his favourite subject for oil paintings. I stayed at their house one night at their young daughters' insistance, a lovely home in the mountains with a wood fire, and I just spent the night staring at this painting of a fox chasing his tail. I'd love to do this image I have (but cannot upload b/c of size problems) of a fox chasing a mouse, with the body of the fox slinking from the top of the right shoulder to the waist. Painted in oil paint, and photographically printed on.

All my love,
IP

Dear Wright Bros. (Dress 88)

Dear Wright Bros.

I had a lapel pin of an early model plane, I'm not sure where it went, but should I find it i'll post a picture.

There is nothing lovelier than a pure blue sky covered in plane scribblings,

All my love,

 

Dear Tramdrivarr. (Dress 87)

Dear TramDrivarr,

I get that it's pretty crappy being the captain of a ship anchored to rails, but that doesn't mean you need to ring the bell like a swearing sailor (metaphors ahoy!) Your passencaptives don't enjoy it any more than the silly driver who caused you wrath.
However, whichever one of you caused me to miss today's tram only to catch one with an inspirational sailor-jacket on it was somehow awesome.
(Crepe sleeves, cotton body, tights come as part of the outfit, printed with an anchor and sea life -which must include at least one octopus, and prefferably also seals-)
All my love,

Dear Honeybee (Dress 86)

Dear Honeybee, You're looking a bit peaky, I'm worried about you- but the sweet russian man who sold me a half kilo of the sexyest honeycomb you've ever seen seemed pretty chilled, so i won't sweat it.
Take care, ok?

All my love,

Dear TINHamlet (Dress 85)

Dear This Is Not Hamlet, What an experiance. A show I really enjoyed being a part of, making something beautiful with gorgeous people of amazing skill and sweetness.
In memory of Yorick, the wax skull Tess (Horatio) brought in, who in the process lost his teeth and got a great many dints:

All my love,

Dear Bioshock II (Dress 84)

Dearest Bioshock II,

Goddamn. Nice design.

The vending machines with the clowns are probably responsible for this little offering. Also: exhaustion.

All my love,

Dear 13/5/10 (Dresses 74-83)

Dear 13/5/2010,
You were too much for me. I didn't manage to do my dress, so I designed 10 today as penance,
We good now?

Stencils of birds with grey 'shadow' stencils underneath.










Structured heavy silk with appliqued ribbon 'clock'











Dyed black cotton with 'blocked' sections










Either lines on the dress, or the paths on which fringing follows











Black diamonds are satin, white is matte.










Elastic with corsetry style reinforcement. The 'garter' sections have a buckle, as does the neck buckle



My favourite of today's inventions- a la the Hermes shorts, 'I love' is spelt in belt loops, and on the back of the dress there are buttons that also serve as dotpoints. The dress comes with a letter stencil and fabric paint.







Top section in strong upholstry fabric, same colour as the base section, done in many layers of crepe. (the lines represent folds in the crepe)








Soft Polyester held on with elastic, heavier weight trousers, with crepe sides.

Cotton with buttons and an elastic waist-band-area

All my love

Dear Valentine's Day (Dress 73)

Dear Valentines Day,

In my attempt to make you an exercize in affection and not a work out for my bank account last year I made about one hundred paper roses and covered the house I was housesitting with my boyfriend (at the time). I went Massively overboard, ah; the follies of youth!
I still love making paper roses, and last night, wonderng how they would look in reinforced fabric, I came up with this:
(creme brown lattice, with green mesh inbetween, dark brown ribbon for the 'rosebush' and burgundy rose at the top left. I'll ink the drawing and colour it later Dress 71 has been inked! go check it out.)
All my love,

Dearest New Pillow (Dress 72)

Dearest New Pillow,
I miss you.

I also miss blogging on time.
I promise i'm doing them on time! Just not posting them...
xoxo

Dear Gabriele Adler (Dress 71)

Dear Gabriele Adler
What a gorgeous name- you sound like a stunning brunette frenchwoman in her early thirties, who curates exhibitions of modern art and plays the cello in her spare time, who has fine papery skin and a long aquiline nose- a mash between Charlotte Gainsbourg and Madeleine Peyroux.
But what you are is four and a half kilos of metal and (very old) plastic.

Meet my (little used but much loved) Typewriter.

(Cotton with hand-printed screen stencils in two shades of grey on white, and in white and grey on black.)
All my love,

Dear Maya (Dress 70)

Dearest Maya,
Even 'though you're close to twelve now, and almost taller than me,I will always remember you as the four year old girl who, when accompanying you to one of your friend's birthday parties, and the pass-the-parcel recipient of something pocahontas-related, you cried out 'wow! Pocahontas! Are you going to be sharing that?' with the innocence and 'out-of-the-mouths-of-babes' honesty of a child. You're growing up rather faster than i'd like, remarkably mature- but with the same sweet face I remember coaxing giggles out of when you were a baby. You're a scarily intelligent young girl (I can't say young woman. not just yet.) and above all, I'm just curious to see what you come up with.

(Also: DRESS 70! *happy dance*)
All my love,