If you've never heard of him, Erte was a 20th-century artist and designer in an array of fields, including fashion, jewellery, graphic arts, costume and set design for film, theatre, and opera, and interior decor.
I absolutely love his elegant models swathed in drapey fabrics, and his illustrations have inspired a lot of my designs. Here are a couple more of my favorites, inspired by the awesome of Erte:
This fanciful Venus-like image tickled my imagination for a long time before I found the right pieces to put together to bring it to life.
The original striking black was replaced by mermaid colors of turquoise and purple, though I kept the side lacing and tasseled ties. This sassy tunic is one of my favorites, and was a lot of fun to put together.
The dress in the drawing looks like just swatches of silky cloth draped and tied with beads and braids. Completely impractical, and also completely wonderful.
I didn't completely abandon practicality in my recreation, adding a sturdy beaded halter style neck and sewn in slip, but this is still a pretty frivolous dress. I still love that draped fabric look, though!
This drawing isn't Erte's work, clearly. It's an old ad for petticoats, reproduced in another of my vintage craft book collection. The swirl of the ruffly skirt spoke to me in the same way though, and I knew I had to make a fabulous petti-skirt.
A trove of Dutch lace curtains at my local thrift store gave me the perfect material for my layered skirt. Big and ruffly and swishy, this skirt is a dream to twirl in.
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