500 word Headdress Evaluation

My chosen theme is Day of the Dead so I wanted a mask and headdress that reflected this design; I wanted a light version of the brightly coloured tradition design seen on sugar skulls of the festival.

Creating my headdress was a very challenging but amazing experience. I had never done anything like that and I was completely unsure where it was going. I found pictures which gave me inspiration of what I wanted to do however I thought I couldn’t get close to creating that. I'm happy to say that I created that and more! It took me 3 long months to create. I only worked on it at college once a week which helped me out with the stress level and also kept my ideas open as every week I went back wanting to improve it. In a short summary.. I started off with wire, 4 foam balls and tape. I then attached in all the flowers and started creating the shape. The shape kept on constantly changing every week as I added in more flowers and changed my ideas. I then sewed in felt material underneath to hold it all together. I did this all around. I used a glittery mesh white material for the veil behind and sewed this onto the bottom of the headdress. Finally I added in long flowery 'sticks' at the top of the headdress. I found this all really challenging as I had so many ideas in my head, I didn’t know which direction to go.. I just let my ideas run and tried to keep the stress low. I found it quite hard to attach the hair extensions to the headdress therefore I decided to use clip on extensions in my models hair instead. Also, I was challenged with figuring out how to attach this headdress to my models head. I decided to place a non slip grip material underneath the headdress and use this to attach to the hair. I used a mix of different flowers and different colours as I thought that this would look really pretty against a white base (the skirt and corset). The flowers I used are obviously fake as they would have died by the time we had the show! However they are very attractive fake flowers and look pretty realistic! I first thought of using red flowers however that would have taken it a whole different direction and I wanted to stick with the 'festival' theme seeing as day of the dead is actually a mexican festival. Therefore I wanted to recreate it and make it my own. So, when I think festival, I think flowers and boho.. and to me, the prettiest boho clothing looks are in white and lace. I feel like I managed to construct something big, fun and exciting whilst sticking to my chosen theme. I made sure to use light materials to make it comfortable, light and easy to wear. I went down more off the contemporary fashion route as it suits my style most. The aim of this project was to create a "Hair and makeup design suitable for a photographic feature in a high end magazine, featuring the headdress as a prop". Therefore, overall I believe I managed to achieve that and I am happy with what I have done :)