Paper, Paper, Everywhere

Since my last entry, my part-time position at Papyrus has turned into a full-time position, and I have been very busy making many more paper dresses for the company.

Last time I mentioned a third dress which was heading to Florida. This dress's destination was switched a couple times, but wound up going to the Papyrus store in SoHo, NYC. Following that, I took a break from the wedding themed dresses and made a few spring themed ones for The Gardens in Palm Beach, Florida, Edina, Minnesota, and San Diego, California.

SoHo

 For the SoHo dress, the bodice was again made of ribbon, though this time I brought it over one of the shoulders. There I tied the strands into bows. The difficult part was getting the silk ribbons to stay curled.

 Toward the end of this dress's construction, I was informed that we also needed a hat. Even though the other previous wedding dresses had hats made by another individual, there wasn't one for this dress. So I had to quickly come up with a hat to compliment the dress. The part I think I like the most about the hat is the paper feather, which was extremely tedious and time consuming. But I think it came out quite snazzy.
 

The Gardens

The dress for The Gardens, in Palm Beach, may be the most exciting paper dress experience I've had yet. It was the fourth in total, but the first Spring themed dress. At this point, I had gotten used to the ways the paper would (or wouldn't) work. I had figured out most of the structural challenges I had with the first three. Plus I was super excited to get to some color.


But, to top it all off, I got to fly down to Florida (on my first business trip) and install the dress, the window display, and help out with the new store. There already was a Papyrus in The Gardens Mall, but they were being upgraded to Cherry Blossom status and were moving to a new and more spacious locations within the mall. The old store there did not have the large window that is signature to the Cherry Blossoms, so I lead the installation of the display and shared my experience with the woman who would be in charge of it.

The new store was still under construction when I was there, so I don't have any photos of the window from the outside with the finished store.

I also made a headpiece for this dress and shoes.

Edina

The Edina dress was the fifth dress, and the second of the spring dresses. It also had a headpiece. Since I was not going to Minnesota, I decided to make this one a little longer so that it hopefully would not be in need of shoes.

The shoes are rather difficult, though mostly because I need the feet of the mannequin to construct them on since I do not know the mannequins' size(s) nor what position each individual mannequin (particularly her feet) is in. Also I haven't found an easy way of attaching the shoes without actually taping them to the mannequin's feet. If I need to make many more paper shoes in the future, I will hopefully find solutions to all of that.

San Diego

The sixth dress went to San Diego. Again, this one had a headpiece, and though it was shorter I did not make shoes for this one.











After the sixth, I got a brief respite from paper dress making from April to about June. I then began working on a few new dresses. I have completed three others and am now starting work on 11 for Fashion Night Out in NYC. I am on a very tight schedule for those, so when they are done I can hopefully get the other three up. After Fashion Night Out I will be sure to share about that experience.

Once again, I would like to state that this project is owned by and the property of Papyrus and the Schurman Fine Retail Group.

Until next time, farewell.

- Ari

Paper and Ribbon

And I'm back.

I know it's been several months (well, a bit more than several) since my last entry. I do rather have a tendency to disappear from the online world suddenly for extended periods of time. Life beckoning and distracting and all that.

Anyway.

So the most recent and exciting work I've done lately has been as the result of the part-time job I have at a Papyrus store. Last year, Papyrus started this project with paper dresses. A couple weeks ago, they decided to do another round of dresses, which are wedding themed this time, and my store manager suggested that I design and create a few.

I worked on a number of sketches, and wound up with the top three favorites between my store's manager, our district manager, and myself. The first two dresses I finished within a week. They are now displayed in the Papyrus windows of Grand Central Station and Short Hills Mall, which I also helped install/setup.

Grand Central Station

and

Short Hills

Because the mannequins the dresses were being displayed on were considerably taller than the mannequins I made them on, we had to add more length to the bottom of both. I also made paper shoes for both.

I have begun working on the third dress, which is due in Florida for a grand opening at the end of February. I'll be sure to put up pictures of that one when it's finished.

I do just want to state plainly before wrapping this up, that this project is owned by and the property of Papyrus and the Schurman Fine Retail Group.

Until next time, farewell.

- Ari