dress

Madame Tutli-Putli’s Dress from the 2007 Oscar-Nominated Animated Shorts

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Brian and I went the other day to see the 2007 Oscar nominated animated short films at the Michigan Theater. This outfit here is Madame Tutli-Putli, from the short named after her, alternately titled by Brian “the Silent Hill short” for its surreal, creepy atmosphere. The way the short was produced was stunning (and eerie, with those human eyes tracked on the puppets) but the content seemed to be trying too hard to be deep. Yes, she’s timid, yes she’s got all that “baggage,” yes, it’s depicting an acceptance of death, but the aliens removing livers was a little beyond me. (And no, I don’t think it was a literal account of an organ-harvesting ring, as I’ve read elsewhere…)

My favorite one was My Love, followed by Even Pigeons Go To Heaven.

Rheya’s white beach dress from Solaris (book)

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I read Solaris carefully, but all we know is that when Rheya returns, she wears a white beach dress. No visible fastenings — the buttons are ornamental — and short sleeves that hide the evidence of her suicide. I drew this days ago and went back and forth about posting it; I’m influenced in my image of Rheya by the 1972 movie, and this seems too cheerful for Rheya somehow, but it creeped Brian out, so that’s in its favor. The only other thing she wore that was described was the orange-and-brown striped bathrobe… In the movie, she has a lovely brownish dress, but I can’t do that from memory and I can’t find pictures of it. (decent ones, at least. it’s partially visible here and here.)

And you, my dear, what would you see of me? What would be missing, what would I not recognize?

Blue and gold princess gown (based on a gown from Liana’s Paperdoll Boutique)

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I can almost hear my mom now. “She said her midterm was on Thursday, why isn’t anything up yet?”Poor Mom. ;) This is just an update of one of my old Boutique fantasy gowns. This was one of my favorites; there was something about the blue that I liked. I still remember which blues I used originally (ultramarine and Copenhagen blue)… but arguably I was better at doing gold back then.

Check it out, University of Texas has a paper doll collection. They have a few dolls and outfits online, too, representations of women who donated to the accompanying textile collection; I totally dig December’s Christmas tree dress.

White and Blue Angel Costume (based on a costume from Liana’s Paperdoll Boutique)

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It’s a half hour before midnight and I’ve managed not to break my streak of two days in a row, although not for lack of trying. I started out so nicely this morning with an attempt to recreate my favorite dress from the Oscars, Penélope Cruz’s amazing pink concoction, which will be up here, eventually. But not today; my attempt at the bodice wasn’t quite the right color. Less of a sophisticated pale peachy-pink — more Totally Actress Barbie! pink. Brian said the pattern looked like muscles, or mummy wrappings, and I’ve known him long enough to take it as a compliment… So then I tried Reese Witherspoon’s dress. Twice.

Night came around, and I thought I’d give up and go with what I knew. So here’s a reproduction of one of my old Boutique outfits: a white angel costume with blue edges and absurdly annoying wings. Don’t ask how one is supposed to keep the halo anywhere near Sylvia’s head; the old one didn’t even have a halo, which makes this, at least in theory, an improvement.

I’ve spent a lot of time with my old Boutique outfits lately: a lot of them make me cringe, all these years later, but some of them weren’t half bad. I never did put them back up after I lost my University space, something my mom has often reminded me of, but if I’m feeling particularly uncreative I may redo some of the ones I like. If I’m feeling really uncreative, I may just put up a small set of Boutique outfits and call it a post of historical interest!