Posting zine pieces months late??? I would never...
Uhhhh so I finally remembered I needed to post the pieces I did for @mcyt-couture-zine! My pieces were part of Gilded Iris, a Life Series based fashion house within the zine, with some Hunger Games-esque lore behind it. Might post the individual pieces later??? We'll see
I got a lot of notes, sketches, and thought processes for each of their looks under the cut!
The lore idea was that the Life Series would be more Hunger Games-esque, where the players fight to the death, get forcibly respawned, and do it all over again for the entertainment of the Capitol counterpart of this universe. The fashion house itself would be part of the inner circle of Gamemakers/Watchers as another form of control over the players, choosing what they wear and how they present themselves; and the magazine itself is propaganda to sanitize the actual horrors of the Life Games, in line with a lot of the Hunger Game’s themes.
So, after every Life Series Season, a gala is thrown celebrating and glorifying the Winner and to unveil the new collection, with the Winner’s outfit as the centerpiece.
In design, some motifs I stuck to were restricting silhouettes, covering the eyes, gemstones dripping down like blood, red, their respective celestial bodies, and elements of the outfit that would remind the wearers of any painful memories of the games.
PEARL
I went through a few different ideations for Pearl, from being forced to wear Tilly as a pelt to a kind of moon goddess look, but I settled on my original idea that I went into the zine thinking about, that was Pearl in a Robert Wun-esque gown.
Pearl in Robert Wun’s Soul Gown was where all the design language for the rest of their outfits stemmed from: covering the eyes with some kind of hood or headdress, DRIPPING with gemstones like blood & reflecting the oppulence of the whole event, some element of red, and little reminders of the games.
For the Life Series Winners a motif I wanted for all of them was having some element of bright red, in the same way that in the actual costuming of the Hunger Games movies, the fashion incorporated some kind of black in the Capitol citizens dress to show that darkness within them.
Pearl’s whole gown was very heavily based on the Soul Dress, just with more emphasis on red.
Some other details:
- The classic Red Pearl hood was a must, I played around with having more of a cloak hood or full translucent veil, and ended up with more of a religious habit (?).
- Moon phase crown.
- A crescent shaped scythe for the “photoshoot”.
- Cut red threads trailing from her fingers, as a reminder.
Something I thought would be cool was injuries from the games that would still transfer over in respawn, things that the Watchers couldn’t cover up no matter what they did, so though it’s hard to see under her veil, Pearl has faint scars around her face.
BIGB (LAST LIFE)
As a non-winner, BigB’s outfit wasn’t going to be as opulent as the rest, which would give him an element of freedom in a way. There was the idea that maybe the Winners were under a tighter leash due to being in the brighter spotlight and maybe knowing a little bit more about the dark underbelly of the Games. So while the Winners were dressed closely by the Watchers, the other players had laxer teams, and looked a little more comfortable. I emphasized this by having BigB actually show his whole face in his piece, not needing to hide his eyes.
I saw this purple suit a while back and during the brainstorming phase it immediately came to mind for BigB. Watcher purple, fairy-like, shiny and shimmery and over the top but not the same level as the others.
And a fairy mask, for Last Life, though unlike the winners he doesn’t have to wear it.
CLEO
The leading idea for Cleo as “The Fool’s Winner” was obviously jesters, clowns, harlequins, etc, so I was looking a little bit into Italian carnival fashion. Instead of just doing a normal ballgown, I decided to tear the skirt to reveal a cracked open cage as a crinoline, and have the dress itself be made of strips of mismatching fabric in a striped pattern, like a circus tent.
A cracked open cage was a little on the nose: caged down by the very outfit they’re wearing, but it was cool.
Originally I was gonna have Cleo have a creeper skin stole, but it clashed so horribly I scrapped it 😅
Like with Pearl, a detail I wanted on all the players were visible injuries sustained from games because the respawns weren’t perfect. I only was really able to do this with Cleo and Pearl, but it’s most obvious on Cleo because they had the most skin actually showing, injuries from the final creeper explosion to end the game.
GRIAN
The leading concept for Grian was this serraphim winged headdress, with the wings covering the eyes and a sun halo behind the head. So the sun, gold, some form of red in there, angel imagery kind of in the same theming as Pearl. I also looked at more of the actual fashion in The Hunger Games for this one, with Katniss’ wedding dress.
For the silhouette of the gown, I thought with a desert environment, something with a lot of fabric and more loose would be interesting, especially since Pearl already had such a tight fitting outfit. In the actual sketch, Grian's giant collar actually comes up to his neck, which I brought down a bit lower for the “photo op”. Red gemstones didn't feel right against all the gold, so instead I gave him some blood red latex gloves, ala Dr Gaul. Could be interpreted as blood on his hand remaining from beating Scar with nothing but his fists :)
Extra:
Originally Scott was gonna be there too, but I never really figured out how to make the red work and I was in a time crunch as it was, so I left him out. Although I did really like my idea of a chainmail veil made of stars. For his concepts I was going off of the honorable aspect of his character, so knights, prince charming esque stuff, with some space age influence mixed in there. Never really thought of how to make the red work for him!
This was a really fun project to work on and yap about, so if you made it this far, thank you! :] Here’s a cookie🍪
Let me know if you read all this btw! It's awesome you did :D
