Inspiration

For an eveningwear module in post-secondary, designer Jess Fox created a collection of ideas, sketches, and designs inspired by high fantasy fiction games such as World of Warcraft and Dungeons and Dragons.

By pulling inspiration from these fantasy games, Fox focused on intricate color-blocking, heavy structural elements, and sharp dramatic silhouettes. Her goal with this collection was to create both a beautiful gown, but also a beautiful piece of understructures such as a corset, hoop skirt, or some form of metal-boned garment.

Fox pulled colors and identifiers directly from these high fantasy worlds, in the final chosen design, it was decided to use earth tones; to create a high fashion gown for a mage turned away from the light, a gown for a necromancer.

Design Development

While the initial design process provided numerous exercises for sketching, only one gown was chosen for the final look. The main design features included sharp points and corners, long cumbersome sleeves and trains, high leg slits, and intensive color-blocking.

Once the final design was settled on, Fox created a basic boned bodice with hipcages, and draped a pattern along the top of it to create the gown’s foundations.

After critics from industry professionals, and Fox’s own notes, the design was corrected and a sample was made.

Final Design

Model – Tara F

To see more information on the gown’s custom understructure, check out the Sparrow Corset post!