All Hallows Eve Dress, Veil, Top (ish)

When I started this project, more than anything it was an inside joke - I was making a veil in honour of the day when the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead were thinnest. The material was mohair and silk so it had the appearance of being crocheted out of spider webs which felt vaguely appropriate for Halloween. The closer it got to completion, though, the more I wanted to pair it with other clothing. It felt worthy of a full outfit, so using some organza bags and an old curtain I played around with draping effects of various 2D shapes.

Testing the look of a bustle, I was clambering up things to get a good look at the ruffling in the bathroom mirror. The light from the sun caught the fabric from behind, it appeared to me to be totally alive.


That was the real beginning.



Something in the way these angles and seams made light dance differently mesmerised me, and I set about ripping up an old waistband to make the full circumference of a skirt. The panels themselves are very simple, rectangles gathered at a corner to make an asymmetrical diamond, but because the material is so lightweight the folds hold themselves stiff in the air. It's very sheer fabric so each new layer is hugely impactful, and as they build they create the impression that your feet and lower legs are appearing as if from a cloud of mist.


Put a blue light under that and you look as though you're emerging from another plane!

It rather required a top of some kind, but at the time of writing this I never fully finished that detail. I only cut out a front draping section, and pinned it behind my neck to get it ready in time! It just about did the trick though.

A poem came soon after.


I had this metaphor in my head that the physical body in the dress represented the living, and the light represented the dead. Therefore the interaction that occurs in the fabric itself (rather abstractly!) becomes a metaphor for All Hallows Eve, the original inspiration for the project and a way to celebrate this festival that feels aligned and honest to my own experience of this being a celebration of life and death.


The poem "What Makes It Through The Veil" is intended to be a linguistic telling of the same metaphor, and is available for free! All that's required is to join my mailing list and put the title of the poem in the box titled "Is there anything you're excited to see from mailing list updates?".

All in all I feel quite proud of this mini collection...

This sharing of what I've been up to behind the scenes marks the end of the creating part of the project, but there's more to come. I'm no photographer, so I've instead spoken to a dear friend of mine about using their skillset to explore what a proper camera can do with this set of clothing! I hope to share that exploration with you all, and until then -

Happy Hallows Eve!