A dear friend of mine is calling me "The Wolf."
I just thought this was the funniest thing, but then when I thought about it, its kind of true.
In Pulp Fiction, The Wolf is played by Harvey Keitel. In this small part, he is the gruff older dude who was consulted to solve the problems.......because he was experienced and knew how to get stuff cleaned up....and he was impatient with the guys who didn't know how to clean up their messes. And now I'm starting to call myself that too. Because its funny. And kind of true at times.
I cant tell you how often over the years that I have been sent projects that costumers don't want to work on or they found themselves in a bind, and my help was called for. There is a certain amount of trust needed there, and I was usually happy to help out until I realized that they needed to learn this stuff on their own. This is how we learn. And you don't learn this stuff overnight. Every project is going to bring a new set of challenges if you have not done that particular project several times before. Much of costuming is about problem solving. And we learn from our mistakes and experiences, both good and bad.. So I generally prefer to get my own clients and do my own thing these days unless I'm getting paid to teach and to consult.
Kendra Katz brought this teal, slinky fabric to me because she wanted a draped skirt to take to Russia on her current world tour with Mira Betz.. It was a rush job and had to be a group effort at that point, so having had plenty of experience with slinky fabrics, I knew what to do. And it made sense to send it to me. Nobody wanted to touch it, there wasn't time to problem solve and learn about it, and Ive worked with slinkys a lot.
I worked with Kendra on some sketches and draped this lingerie fabric on my dress form until we got the look fairly correct. I basted and pinned and copied the design out onto paper. I cut the fabric out and re-draped it on the dress form. And then of course, when it was sewn up and tried on, it wasn't quite right because she actually has curves like a real woman - unlike the dress form, so we had to tweak it a bit to make it do what she wanted it to do on her body. But with a little work, it was a fun project and looked awesome on her, as you can see in the photos. They came to The Wolf (LOL) and that was the right decision. It all turned out real pretty on this lovely lady!
.Belt by Medina Maitreya, bra base by Dusty Paik, bra embellishments by Medina Maitreya and Marci Ann. I had the medallion for part of the belt closure - it was a great collaborative effort................there are a lot of really excellent costumers here in the San Francisco Bay Area!
