Chapter II…Diva

Creating the Hobble dress

The Design process, lets make a leather hobble skirt, we said!

No! lets makes a hobble dress in black snakeskin and let’s add a fishtail going down the back, let’s make it 2 metres long and let’s add a high priestess neck so only her arms will have freedom. Let’s sculpt it in thick leather hide and mould it into a perfect body shape, it will resemble a beautiful corpse. Then we can add luxurious blood red metallic lining, all encased in 30 jet black venomous snakeskins.

The design ethos ‘Always feel you are slightly out of your comfort zone, your feet are not reaching the floor, you are feeling a little out of your depth & uncomfortable, now you are ready to create!’

So we did just that, we created the most amazing hobble dress, 100 studio hours

The History

The look is very much a strong clean silhouette, it is a body entombed in 30 perfectly fitting snakeskins. They appear to be dripped onto & flow seamlessly down the body without distraction. Combining astute pattern cutting with sculpting and moulding of the leather, this perfectly engineered sculpture creates a second skin. Resembling an Egyptian sarcophagus, requiring the wearer to enter into the tomb and become instantly transformed into its hourglass shape.

‘We don’t see restriction in this creation, its elegance, we don’t see a dominatrix we see an icon. But walking will be restricted, walking will be slow, very slow. But you know the eyes of everyone will be on you and when you look that good, you can take as long as you like. Enjoy the walk, everyone else is’

Mood & Emotion

The atmosphere for the ‘Diva’ tale is very much one of anticipation of what is going to happen, everything is carried out in silhouette and shadows, we want the feeling to be awe inspiring and not frightening. Its more affective to anticipate and imagine what is happening than to actually witness it.

The look, typically Gothic influenced and an homage to a time of old 1940’s and 50’s Hollywood glamour. It’s the black and white movies we grew up watching on Sunday afternoon. Its inspired by Marilyn Monroe singing Happy Birthday Mr. President with her lusty, breathy rendition of the tune and the beaded gown that she wore and the tales of how the dress was so tight she had to be sewn into it by couturier Jean Louis. It’s Cruella de Ville, it’s Morticia, it’s Mae West, it’s Marlene Dietrich, it’s Greta Garbo, it’s the powerful images of Helmut Newton. Its an homage to elegant, strong, intriguing and powerful women.

She represents all our icons.

Question: Who do we see wearing this?
Answer: Siouxsie Sioux

Diva, the twin sister to The Bride, The Sisters of Mercy. Elegant and flawless, expect to be upstaged & intimidated.