This collaboration was made possible by a series of somewhat unfortunate events for me. I quit my previous job early last year due to burnout, and spent some time trying to relax by designing a few looks for the 2021 Her Universe Fashion Show (the 2022 show is tomorrow, which y’all should check out btw!!!). I was not selected for HUFS (and therefore had no time commitments), and as soon as my friend @kristisiedowthompson knew, she immediately reached out to me to be her sewing assistant for a look that Yvie needed for the all winners season of Drag Race. All I knew at the time was that it was for a light-up runway, and that Yvie wanted an elegant lavender glowing mushroom dress. Kristi sent me a few basic sketches, and then we started brainstorming various fabric manipulation techniques that we needed for the dress to scream “mushroom”! Additionally, our need to find a way to diffuse the lights so they would be a soft glow instead of points, while imparting enough structure to the dress without blocking the lights, were our two biggest challenges. I believe @athel_artistry and I both suggested plastazote independently (after all, it is *the* light diffusion material for cosplayers that is moderately stiff). Luckily I had some plastazote in my stash, and with some scrap organza I was able to whip up some mushroom gills for testing (yes it looks like a toilet seat cover, it was a test sleeve 😂). I also did some other fabric tests that did not make it to the final dress – these were mainly to find a method to make the light-up blue spores from the original illustration. Kristi refined the technique to create the mushroom gills seen on the final dress, and the mushroom heads are supported by plastazote inside – hopefully you can see that in the pictures. I’m sorry that the test photos aren’t terribly aesthetic, but our trials were necessary before we spent hundreds of hours on the final piece. Surprisingly, I really enjoyed all the experimental stuff. As a cosplayer, I make costumes on tight budgets and tighter deadlines, so I rarely spend time testing or exploring new techniques. I’d like to do that again! #rupaulsdragrace #dragraceallstars @oddlyyvie