Cosplaying Pointillist Art
The TCE Trash Makeover Challenge theme “Living Masterpieces” brought designer dreams to life!
Team Dot, the winning Design for the TCE Trash Makeover Challenge, in Pointillist Style (image courtesy of Allison Lowery)
The Texas Campaign for the Environment
TCE is an organization whose mission is: “Empowering Texans to fight pollution through sustained grassroots organizing campaigns that shift corporate and governmental policy.” They work incredibly hard to bring knowledge and visibility to environmental concerns, and have incredibly creative methods for capturing the attention of the public. Every year, they host an amazing charity event called the Trash Makeover Challenge, which inspires local fashion designers to create works of wearable art that are comprised of at least 90% completely recycled materials. The Prize is a year of bragging rights, a trophy, and $1200.
Trash Makeover Challenge 2017 Event Poster
The Trash Makeover Challenge
This year, the chosen theme was “Living Masterpieces.” Each designer was asked to bring a work of art to life with their creative abilities, designing couture fashion looks that could walk a runway and speak to the inspiration of the artists they were embodying. I have had the honor of modeling for this particular charity show for the last 4 years, three of which I have been the muse for one of my favorite artists, Allison Lowery. Her love of musical theater is strong and deep, which is one of many elements we bond over. Her chosen work was “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” a Pointillist work by renowned painter Georges-Pierre Seurat.
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, by Georges Seurat
Sunday in the Park with George
The musical “Sunday in the Park with George” is one of Allison’s most inspirational pieces of musical theater. She listened to it almost constantly while working on her design for the TCE Challenge, and even went so far as to put an image of “Saint Bernadette (Peters)” inside the Top Hat for her creation, since she played one of the main roles in the production. Every element of her design embodied both the Pointillist style, and a love of showmanship and clever placement of strong, sassy women.
The Wig was created completely of recycled Kitchen Scrubbies
From Trash to Fashion
Allison’s design was pointillism down to the finest detail. She followed the technique that Seurat employed so beautifully, creating a myriad of colored dots from pieces of paper and magazine. SO. MANY. DOTS. Thousands and thousands of dots. (Hence our eventual team name, “Team Dot”). The wig, her specialty, was created entirely of re-purposed kitchen steel wool scrubbies. The Bodice and skirt bases were created from recycled bedsheets she no longer had a bed that fit, and the external bustle was created using old tubing and toilet paper rolls. The design of the skirt was comprised of a collage in the decoupage style, combing the faces of dozens of women in the music, theater, and film industries. She even went so far as to bring herself into the design, with a pair of cat-eyed glasses, red lips, and rollerskates!
Team Dot, model Jennifer Lynn Larsen and Designer Allison Lowery
The Makeup
As a Hair and Makeup artist with a Masters degree and two textbooks under her belt, Allison decided to take her design to the next level by incorporating the pointillist style into the makeup look as well. She was the only designer to accomplish her entire look all on her own. hair, makeup, wig, and design were all painstakingly created by her articulate hands.
Allison created the makeup in true Pointillist style, one tiny dot at a time
Off To The Show
The day of the show, each design team comes together to show their creation off to the world. The myriad of designers, models, hair and makeup teams, judges is a wonder to behold. Each design team must completely assemble its look before the Runway Show begins, and allows the judges to go over each creation with a fine-tooth comb. The judges analyze the materials, construction, and inspiration elements, marveling at all of the hard work each team put in. Then it’s off to the stage for the show itself, and the subsequent winning design announcement. This year, our Team Dot was honored with the First Place Prize.
The judges were amazed at each finite detail, and happily awarded us the First Place Prize
***Images Courtesy of Images from Elrick: https://www.facebook.com/PhotosfromElrick/
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