The Addams Family: "Morticia, have I made you very Unhappy?" "Oh, yes, My Darling, Completely."

Part two of my mini-collection of darkness is Morticia Addams.  This suit is one of the main reinforcements of why I don't like to design in black.  This is the most complicated jacket that I have ever drafted.  It has three collars going all different directions, one and a half peplums, tiny pinstripes angled every which way, and hard-to-make sharp-cornered seams.  And you can barely see any of the work!  The unfortunate outcome is that Tish looks like a dominatrix 50's airline stewardess.

In the end, I kind of knew that I wasn't going to like this one.  After all, it's not really my style, but I really wanted to do a black collection so I could get over it and "come out of the darkness and back into the light."  Corny, yes?  But whatever!  You don't know me!

But for those of you who want to know, "What was he thinking?!" I can point a few cool things out.  First of all, I do know that the original Morticia costumes, both the Carolyn and Angelica versions, put the actresses in dresses so tight at the knees they could barely walk.  Making a fishtail gown, though, would be too obvious, so I started by making very tight pants with huge flares at the bottom with a corset at the top.  Then I realized that flared pants are SO not in style anymore, so I scrapped it and started over by making an uncomfortably tight jacket with padded shoulders and a strange, spider-like collar treatment with an attached choker that makes her decollete' look like a heart.

I even made a pair of impossibly tight ankle pants as an option to try and make it look less stewardessy.  I like the pants, but I think I'll leave the jacket/tight pants combo to another designer who likes to use black and make similar combo outfits.

So this was a good excercise, but soon will be put into the phail file!  I should have taken a picture of what a mess my sewing room was after all this.  Black fabric trimmings all over the place makes it look really creepy!