the making of... ophelia

“I had 'Ophelia' in mind while I was creating this dress, I wanted it to have whimsical notions and I wanted it to look 'light' as if it was floating in water and bursting with flowers!”

— Clara

One of my earlier pieces and highly inspired by 'Ophelia', a painting by Sir John Everett Millais. I refer back to this painting all the time. The colours, the mood, the story, the dress, her hair, her dress, the flowers...everything! 

The base is a vintage nylon slip dress from the 80s (most of my bases are slip dresses) and I just loved the idea of repurposing something that would be thrown away into something entirely unique!

These two large floral trims were 'just' enough to cover the bodice but it needed so many more flowers, which of course, I had! I introduced green and blue flowers into the palette and a brick red mesh to cover the bottom part of the dress. I loved seeing some of the pink through the mesh as it gave a lovely two-tone effect.