Modern Sakura project in details

 Modern Sakura

~ From start to finish ~

As every other project, this contest started with drawing a sketch to present the design.
And mine was selected to be amongst the 10 finalist.

...but before getting to the final stage when the outfit was ready to be presented on the scene, there was a lot of hard work by hand, I would love to share with you next.

A very important step was to find the right materials and outils and that's how I started.

My mom used to tell me many times that the work of a seamstress is one of the dumest of them all...you cut one fabric into pieces and then doing all the hard work to put them back together...oh well, yes it's pretty much exactly like that, but it's the way we create our magic.

Adding some details after the first try with the model, that's going to wear it on stage before the jury.

And finalise the main dress base with about 9 hrs of stitching this white organza ribbon by hand to get the perfect artisan look.

And it was about time to start my favorite part - the decorations!
There are different stages like the primal sketch, the finished fineline and in the end the first cut-out layer out of 3...

but yeah, no one's perfect aaaaand every now and then there's some sort of small accident that if you're lucky (like I was this time) will not make you start over all the precise work.

After all the drawing here's how a part of all I had to cut out by hand, looked like.

Day I-no-longer-try-to-realy-count-them-anymore is the day when some more decorations are put in the game to prove that after all the hard work, all the days spend on preparations, there's nothing sweeter than being finally able to put them all together!

Gazing at your newest, shining baby - a Sakura belt covered with special italian leather with pearl finish and many crystals.

And it's little friend - the bling, bling Sakura bracelet.

Cutting, sculpting and decorating lots of these baby sakuras...

...and painting the rest with some more pearl paint.

To get to the moment when one of the biggest accessories was finally assambled after hours of preparation.

It was then time to get to one very important and tricky part, to do a free-hand relief painting with silicone.
1. Starting with a quick motion sketch directly on the fabric to guide you along the way.
2. This type of drawing is a very hard and time-consuming process, but as you may see the final result was all wirht it!
3. Adding some more paint and doing something that will only make you jump from the inside out - adding some crystals along the way.
4. And oh well just few Sakuras, you know, to see how it looks like, I mean you was waiting for ages this moment to come.
5. And in the end after about 6 hrs of extremely precise work, your back hurts like hell, but your artist heart just can't be happier with the result, so you add the final pearl paint on top and take a picture to show the world what a wonderful job you did that day:

Ta-daaaaaaaaa you can bet I was as happy as one can be!
A feeling all of you beautiful, artistic souls around here, knows very well!

But to be faitful to my reputation of a pure perfectionist, I just loooooveeee to add small details on places where most of the people don't even look at.

However an outfit for a competition is nothing on it's own without the right accessories, as a custom made wig for example.
for this task I needed two colours of synthetic remi hair, some utils and...

a lot of hair spray, like LOTS of it!

To get to the final result, already adorned with the special Kanzashi-inspired accessories all in the original Sakura themed flowers I cut out in the very start of this project.

Just because the back is just as important as the front.

And I love small details.

Because I believe the perfection is in the small pieces of love and attention we hide in our work.

So the final result is not just a product, but a wearable piece of pure art.

I just couldn't stop here while creating this Japan dream, I decided to give one final touch to the full outfit by painting by hand this traditional Japanese umbrella with some acrylic paint and my favorite Japanese bamboo brushes.

And here it is in the end all pimped up in a Sakura vortex-dream, that looks so different on direct light and contre-jour.

With lovely details and layers of Sakuras all the way.

And now my Sakura Moderne dress is ready to fly on stage infront of the jury with the special custom wings I got from the talented USA designer On Gossamer Wings.

Wings that are a pure Sailor Moon (Neo Queen Serenity) inspiration for the pleasure and joy of all manga / animé fans, that will visit the Japan Touch expo (28th-29th Nov/Eurexpo centre/Lyon) and will take some of their time and attention to see us on the stage during the Sakura Collection Fasion Award competition in Sunday (29th of Nov - 11h45).

Enjoy and see you soon!