spirit dress

October 28th, 2009

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all photos in this post were found by gnomes on the internets

Last night I went to Miss Dori Midnight’s magical San Francisco Edwardian flat, to discuss plans for her wedding dress, which she is commissioning me to create. So flattered and honored! She believes the same thing I do, that clothing can be created as a spell, a magic weaving with intention and faerie glamour!

She spread out a beautiful tea for us, lovely lovely meringues and pies from Tartine, figs and pears and cheeses, spanikopita and rose tea in a blue and gold teapot. Dreamy, especially as the wild San Francisco wind buffeted the building and we sat tucked cozy and high up peering from windows!

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We looked at pages and pages of dresses, and talked of what would be best for her. She is the tiniest wee of a girl, so something fitted and sleek and draping in all the right places, but still magical and wild.

Creating this dress is a welcome ritual in a world without enough ritual – we just go buy everything we need, even for our most magical moments. When did it come to this? What happened to communities coming together to sew a dress, build a barn, harvest a field? Even if not literally, in some modern form? Everyone bringing scraps of love and magic and adding them to the soup.

I’ve been thinking a lot of those edges where fancy and forest meet, in my heart, in the way I dress, in my world. Is it possible to hold both? Can I feed my feral self and feel nourished and whole while tending to the 9-5 days that make modern life possible? Can I stop and still survive?

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I left Dori’s with a wee bag she put together for me: a “mermaid towel” piece of seaweed, clary sage and lavender balt salt, glitter soap. I also left with a sense of the way the world weaves us together, and we find the right people at the right time.

So! Project ahoy – I’m excited to begin. I’ll be searching all over Vermont for wedding dress prettiness to remake into something new and magic.

What are your favorite inspiration blogs for pretty dresses?

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