Paper Dress – Michelle Lieser-Booren Art

Where to start…?

This year my wonderful paper fashion team and I decided to create not one, but TWO looks for the fashion show! I thought we were going to go totally crazy, but it ended up not being much different than any other year (in other words, only slightly crazy). We decided to create a high-fashion, avant-garde look and then use that as inspiration for a ready-to-wear look. I took the lead on the first look and my wonderful brother and sister-in-law lead the ready-to-wear design.

The first look, titled “The Guardian,” was my vision of a guardian angel. I wanted to create something that combined grace and beauty with fierceness and strength. Inspiration for this look began with my memory of seeing the Winged Victory of Samothrace at the Louvre ten years ago. I remember coming up a staircase, turning, being completely taken aback by the sight of this sculpture. Of all of the art that I saw that day, she was the one that has stayed with me all these years. Because of this, I began with research on the goddess of Victoria, which revealed that she was the symbol of victory over death in all endeavors. Images of winged women were seen all over the Roman Empire, and after the Christianization, those figures evolved into Christian angels. This discovery lead to further research on depictions of angels throughout art history. I pulled inspiration from Byzantine mosaics showing large gold circles representing halos, Italian Renaissance paintings which had softer more ethereal portrayals of angels, as well as other images of angels, goddesses, and warriors. This all came together to form my vision of “The Guardian.”

Our second look, “Guarded,” was inspired by the process of professional designers, many of which create extravagant looks that walk the runways, then interpret those ideas in to ready-to-wear garments. The lead designers for “Guarded” utilized textures, colors, and techniques from “The Guardian” to create our team’s second look. This look came together as a perfect out on the town look that had clear inspiration from the other design. The two looks together were everything we envisioned and more.

After all of our hard work and problem solving, “The Guardian” earned the Second Place Overall award!! It was all very exciting, and a great way to wrap up another Paper Fashion Show.

“Guarded,” Paper Fashion Show 2017, Team – The Hanger Etc., Lead Designers – Anthony and Julia Lieser, Model – Jessamyn Bennett-Lobato

Designer Michelle Lieser-Booren with Model Jessica Lieser

The Guardian and Guarded on the runway

“The Guardian,” Paper Fashion Show 2017, Team – The Hanger Etc., Lead Designers – Michelle Lieser-Booren, Model – Jessica Lieser

As usual, this post is waayyyy over due, but here are some photos of my design from the 2016 Art Directors Club of Denver’s Paper Fashion Show. This design is titled “Under Pressure,” and is inspired by the idea of coal turning into diamonds. It takes immense pressure to turn something as mundane as coal into a diamond. Similarly, as a team of artists and designers, we work under a great deal of pressure to transform paper into fashion.