So if someone offered me a free trip to anyplace in the world my first choice would be Egypt.
Surprise! I know right, you would think it'd be Paris or Italy or New York, but no for me Egypt that's the first place I'd want to go. So it makes sense that way back in 2015 when my college's fashion show theme was Global View that Egypt was the source of my Inspiration.
I pulled a lot of pictures of Egypt for my mood board but none I liked half so much at the one you see here, the colors, the men tending boats, it just captured my imagination.
As you can see I showed four looks for this fashion show, today I only put on the last one that walked for you and we shall save the other three for another day. I usually just talk about the clothes but I was so excited for this shoot that we're going to go through the whole look.
When I was preparing for this photo shoot my first instinct was to smear gold all over my face. And so I did, I'm not a makeup artist, I don't claim to be nor do I try to be. But I love gold, it's my favorite color, and in my head I was thinking of the concubine from the Mummy, the one covered in gold.
And I was like, that's me. I know its probably hard to tell but I have like 5 different shades of gold eyeshadow on my face. On my eyelids, around my eyes, on my cheeks, yeah gold all over my face. And then I did a little bit of coral around my eyes, some copper underneath and then of course winged liner. I also gave myself those massive brows which were kinda fun since the last two makeups I didn't do anything special with the brows.
I had posted a little teaser before picture time on my Instagram (@MadsenCreations) and my friend Sarah actually messaged me as she thought I had changed my hair for realsies, which made me laugh because I modeled this haircut after one I did have.
Boom that's my real hair, natural color too in case you were wondering what I was born with. I think this is from 2014. So back to the wig, its a cheap Halloween wig ( Party City) the first thing I did was straighten it with an iron. I used a low setting and a press cloth to keep it from melting, and protect it from damage. Next I tied bits of hair tinsel (Amazon) into it, reason being the wig was originally made for my Cleo De Nile costume based on the Monster High doll and the doll has tinsel in her hair. Lastly I cut the wig about shoulder length, and cut the bangs in the classic Cleopatra style.
And now to the suit, made from 100% Linen (Joann's) this suit is easy breezy and oh so comfy. If you look at that first photo I think the inspiration is pretty obvious, I took all the colors used in this collection from that photo specifically, like this blue. The top: Tunic with a front placket that I drafted in pattern making class. It's actually a size too small for me because of my bust size but I can wear it as long as I wear a sports bra to kinda squish the girls down. I didn't want the top to be fitted so I gave it the angled dart. Not only was this the first placket front I ever drafted but it was also the first placket front I that I had sewn and was insanely difficult which has since made me placket shy and I try not to design with them for that very reason. The sleeves are also a little long for me and I don't remember if I did that on purpose or not but I do like them as they are so maybe. The only thing I would change is that this top does not have vents on the side and I really think it could use them because it does fit slightly more snug on the hips than I would like.
The pants I also drafted, these were challenging because I wanted them to fit like a wide leg trouser, but be a drawstring pan. Why I wanted that I cant say, its just what I wanted. I love these pants, I wear them regularly and the kids I teach make fun of me every time, saying it looks like I'm wearing pajama pants.
I'll tell you what they're comfortable enough to be pajama pants, I wore this outfit to work after taking these pics and received nothing but compliments. Laugh if you will but I feel like a fabulous, rich, old lady in this look, and since I'm already an old lady at heart this just feeds into that.
As perfect as these were once completed I knew I wanted a trim and stumbled upon this white and gold one (Yardage Town) that I stitched to the hem of both tunic and pant. The matching trim makes it very obvious that the two garments are a set which is one of those things I find makes an outfit special, because even though you can mix and match these separates, when they're paired together they are exactly how the designer intended them to be.
Well that's it for today thank you so much for reading my blog I know it was a little longer thank usual.
Also don't forget to follow me on Instagram: MadsenCreations and Facebook: Madsen Creation by Rachel Madsen. As alway complete photo set can be viewed below!