Tag: Gown

Dorabella & Dorinda do Doors

On By ResaIn Dan Antion's Annual Door Challenge59 Comments

It was the social event of the season. Announced in all forms of media, it would raise a lot of money for GIFFT (Global Initiative for Flora & Fauna Trust).

photo ©️ Teagan R. Geneviene

Scandalous gossip ran rampant. Apparently 2 Cafe dancers from the Kit Kat Club, (Dorabella & Dorinda) had been selected to headline the entertainment.

photo ©️ Robbie Cheadle

How could that have happened? Simple. Dorinda pointed out to the board that their smash hit act, THE MIRROR, was drawing in hundreds every night.

Dorinda, wearing a vintage hand crocheted dress, told the board to think of all the money their act could generate. That was all the board needed to headline the 2 girls.

When the hoi polloi found out that Suzette was doing hair and make-up for the girls, ticket sales soared.

It was near impossible to get a beauty appointment at Suzette’s Pink Place, as she only took 2 each week, tops.

photo ©️ Suzette Benjamin

The Mirror

by – Holly Rene Hunter

In the mirror
nothing comes nor goes 
without passing
A woman admires 
gold baroque and the 
form inside it.
When she dances 
the image moves with her.
Over her shoulder
The sad café is still and silent

filled with sacrificial shadows
of devotion in repose, and so
she dances for no one but
the mirror.

The big night came

A car was sent for the girls.

photo ©️ Teagan R. Geneviene

They arrived in style to the hotel.

An overflow crowd was being held back behind velvet ropes.

photo ©️ Dan Antion

They took an elevator to the Grand Ball Room, where a special stage had been set up for their performance.

photo ©️ Robbie Cheadle

The show was a massive hit.

Dorabella and Dorinda had helped to raise a lot of money for GIFFT . A dinner and Gala followed.

The Gala

Everyone gasped when the girls made their entrance to the Gala.

Dorinda wore a hand beaded strapless black voile gown.

Dorabella awed in a cerulean silk with interwoven gold thread gown and floralette styled tail.

An orchestra began playing waltzes. Dorinda & Dorabella’s dance cards were filled.

A big Thank You to Dan from No Facilities for hosting this Annual Doors Challenge. He has a weekly doors event on his blog, with many participants.

Click on above badge to go directly to the 2026 challenge and check out all the entires!

The Gowns in this post were designed and hand made in the spirit of Art Gowns Sustainable Glamour especially for this challenge. Photos ©️ Resa McConaghy -2026

Special Thank you to Holly Rene Hunter for her contribution of poetry for this post. I love the way her poetry and my gowns work so beautifully together.

Please note: GIFFT (Global Initiative for Flora & Fauna Trust) is a fictitious charity!

Wedding Love

On By ResaIn Reblogs, Weddings84 Comments

Robbie’s gown has icing on it.

Resa’s gown thinks she’s a sonnet.

Both are made, to love, an homage.

Different Kinds of Art: Wedding Love in Fabric and Cake by Resa and Robbie

Robbie Cheadle made a fun and gorgeous wedding post on Latinos USA with Art Gown Victorian Sonnet and her fabulously creative cakes. Pop on over for a taste of beauty!

By the way,

As a guest artist at my friend’s Pop-Up Art Gallery Show, I have space to show 2 Art Gowns.

A few Art Gowns pics printed on faux canvases, then painted over selectively with iridescent paint, will also be there.

Additionally, five portraits will be on a slice of wall. The 4 below are now framed.

One of the drawings below will be the 5th. If you’re leaving a comment, let me know which one you’d pick!

This is my first time showing in public, and it is a small sample try. If you are already in Toronto, pop by if time allows!

Special thanks to D. Wallace Peach, who sent me all the special antique fabrics that became Victorian Sonnet!

Finally, to all my northern pals who have endured a cold, snowed-in, icy and hideous winter,

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanza, Merry Solstice – To all who celebrate anything this time of year, have a good one!

On By ResaIn Reblogs

Thank you to Robbie Cheadle and Latinos USA for featuring Flora Blanca this Holiday Season!

Different Kinds of Art – Resa McConaghy’s Enchanting Holiday Art Gowns Part 1

While we are celebrating the Holidays, pop over to Gigi’s for an Art Gowns’ Fashion Show of all original designs, created especially for CHICKMAS at The Coop!

The CHICKMAS FASHION SHOW…begins now.

The Sad Café II

On By ResaIn Art Gown Muses, Art Gowns Art338 Comments

Featuring poetry by Holly Rene Hunter

& Allegorical Drawings by Resa

There is music. The cafe is filled with revellers. Their drunken laughter is loud, but the seasons slip away, and they need something to remember.

A year has passed, and I still light my candles for the window and hope fades like summer into fall.
The mirror has no mercy, a reminder of all that has passed through these hands. There is no holding back the past or what lies ahead.

The night deepens as we raise our glasses to the seasons of honey and fire and the aching memory of lovers slipped away.

Snakes and Metaphors

suspended

At the top of the stairs the hours pass hurriedly, lovers flee the break of dawn.  Subdued seduction , silhouettes in flickering candlelight.

In black tie and silk gowns, the bourgeoisie sip cognac , exhale circlets of smoke from cigarillos into the softly whirring blades of a bamboo fan.

The walls are thin and the wood floor is bare. Music drifts upward, slips under my door, “La Vie En Rose”, the sighs of desperate lovers , their bodies pressed against one another. 

At my mirror I braid silver thread through my hair. Should the Frenchman return I am wearing the dress he likes. Last night he signaled with a stone at my window . 

He has taught me how to say I love you and other endearing terms in his tongue. 
At the hollow of my throat I dab a bit of the perfume he bought for me in Berlin. I’m not sure that is true but I like the scent.

He wants me to follow him but he is not my kind. The weak can not survive love that is bound to die nor can they forgive.

All Poetry © Holly Rene Hunter – Visit House of Heart to read more of her fabulous poetry!

All drawings © Resa McConaghy

Thank You!

Holly for contributing your luscious poems to this collaboration & to Gigi for being the hallway model (where the music notation is actually the first 5 bars to La Vie en Rose).

One Door leads to the Other

On By ResaIn Art Gowns Events, Dan Antion's Annual Door Challenge149 Comments

The Invitation?

It was a nothing, no where, no how day. No one seemed to know who sent the invitation?

Up for adventure and treasure, Genevieve donned her favourite party dress. Arriving at the address on the back of the invite, she found herself in beautiful garden that lead to a porch with 2 cats on it.

Image © Teagan R. Geneviene

She stood in front of the door on the left, and wondered if it was the right one to knock on? This One, or the Other?

Using the knocker, she rapped on the left door, the one she was standing in front of.

The door opened, she walked in and suddenly began to feel herself fade.

South Africa

A few seconds passed, and Genevieve began to feel herself recover.

But where was she, and why was she in new gown?

A beautiful woman in another fabulous gown informed Genevieve she was at a wedding, in South Africa. It was very special, and being held at….

“Helen Martins’ Owl House, an extraordinary, other-worldly home of concrete and ground glass sculptures in South Africa.

She was gifted turquoise-blue glass beads made from left over bits of glass.

It was a wonderful party and she danced what seemed forever under the blue celebration sky. Then someone took her hand.

Photo © Robbie Cheadle

They said “come, come see”, and they walked through the door of the outside room.

Whereupon Genevieve found herself in blackness.

Tokyo, Japan

As darkness yielded to light, she found herself wearing an elegant kimono with obi.

It didn’t take long for her to realize that she was in …

The Mori Art Gallery which Robbie had visited while in Tokyo. It featured a giant spider sculpture by Louise Bourgeois.

Photo © Robbie Cheadle

Suddenly the giant creature came to life. Like a gargantuan thin, wiry Godzilla it began to attack, sending people fleeing out of the door.

Genevieve began fleeing, then espied a massive red net, just outside the door.

She grabbed the net, and deftly threw it over the spider.

After finishing off the spider with a few martial arts moves, she began feeling cold. She became so cold, she began turning blue.

El Palazzo dei Pinguini

Genevieve was in a blue frozen land at the bottom of the earth.

She walked with 2 Pinguini through a door and into an ice manor.

Image © Teagan R. Geneviene

She adored the Pinguini. She held them and hugged them and kissed them.

The Pinguini gave her an icy blue velvet gown, a boa made of snow and diamonds made of ice. Genevieve was made Principessa del Pinguini.

Principessa del Pinguini.

She never felt so warm.

Through frozen tears, she told the Pinguini she could not live with them forever. She asked them if they could help her get home?

Sad as they were, the Pinguini told her to look up into the sun!

As she looked up, she felt a ray of sun capture her.

Treasures

Next thing Genevieve knew, she was back on the porch, by the garden. Her treasures surrounded her: Ice diamonds, a snow boa, glass beads and an obi.

She had gone in One Door and come out of the Other Door. Genevieve was back where she had started. In the end, One door led to the Other.

The snow boa and Ice diamonds began to melt, yet she was happier than she had ever been.

It was evident that things were ephemeral, and that the only lasting treasures were inside her memories; inside her mind and heart.

A Thank You Rose to Dan Antion!

Visit Dan at the Annual Doors 2025 Challenge! OR Check out his fab blog in general!

Teagan, thank you for your doors and the inspiration they fostered!

Visit Teagan!

Thank you Robbie for your fab doors from your travels, and the ingenuity they delivered.

Visit Roberta Writes or Robbie’s Inspiration.

Quote by Jim Morrison

Helen Martins Owl house & Mori Art Gallery sentences are hot links.

All outfits are one-of a kind designs hand-made by Resa.

Except Doors images, all photos are © Resa McConaghy.

Of note: Opening party dress is made from a batik silk scarf made by my m-i-l, Yuki (RIP)

Kimono fabric is from a 100 year old piece made from pineapple strands – A gift from Diana (Myths of the Mirror)

Victorian Sonnet

On By ResaIn Romance, Tribute456 Comments

Inspiration came in 2 boxes from Diana – Myths of the Mirror

Linens & laces inherited from great grandmother & grandmother to mother then her, became all mine; an Art Gown to share.

Her beauty holds memories of Victorian times, and the bright light of many tomorrows.

Victorian Sonnet is dedicated to Diana, her great grandmother Emilie, her grandmother Truly (Caroline), and and her mother Tineke (Dutch nickname for Anna Martine). 

Sonnets from the Art Gowns

Structure

Iambic pentameter – 5 feet to a line – 4 lines to a verse – 3 verses & a couplet

Rhyme scheme – ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG

Third verse volta

I

Dear Diana your lace and your linen
Great grand mother, grandma, mother then you
Woven treasure fair sent passed on to begin
Romance dance a dress white and blue.

Lace held, fabric draped inspiration gold
Creation libation confusion strewn
All threads gay with gathers theirs to unfold
Ancestry, a love light shimmering through!

Yet should something arise break then the spell
To find magic's construct tattered  and torn
Ere rendered fore tendered tossed into the swell
Became fragments merely blithely left lorn.

Our memory painted lingers in mind,
Inherited Victoriana's time.

                                                               © Resa

The Making Of

When the fabrics arrived, I threw the lot on top of Lilac Fan Dance. There was also a fabulous mosquito net with cotton top.

There were various lace yardages
2 delicate bed jackets
A huge lace tablecloth
Large assortment of doilies & table covers

When the time came to begin, there was so much lace and linens, I needed to spread them all out.

All laces and fabrics were hand washed, and tested for tensile strength.

A bertha collar was formed from a bed jacket’s trim and lined with mosquito net.

An underskirt was cut from the cotton top of the netting.

Mosquito netting was added to the underskirt to make it full length. Lace cut from the lace tablecloth was sewn on top of the netting.

A blue linen jacquard tablecloth was formed into a corset shaped top with straps into a plunging back.

My friend Kat gifted me a new Judy, so I transferred the gown to her. She also sent massive yardage of new, but cut into, winter white synthetic curtain sheer, found for a pittance at the good will.

After washing, the sheer was cut into a 3 tiered overskirt, and trimmed with the lace yardages. The sheer makes a solid backing that fortifies the antique laces.

Two side tails were draped in bias from the sheer, then trimmed with edges cut from the lace tablecloth.

A third centre tail was draped from the mosquito netting on bias. This tail was trimmed with the last of the lace yardages. It was then filled in with geometrically placed doilies, table covers and bits of cut up lace edgings.

A bussel was formed from blue serviettes that matched the bodice’s tablecloth, and eyelet lace trim from the second bed jacket.

Vintage hand covered buttons adorn the bodice.

Voilà! Victorian Sonnet

She’s so beautiful, I went overboard taking pics.

OUTTAKES

Serendipity

November, 2023 – The 2 boxes arrived, from Diana. Lilac Fan Dance was still in the making. I knew Diana was mid book. In May, 2024 Victorian Sonnet was begun. 6+ months later, the gown and Diana’s book – Tale of the Seasons’ Weaver – were finished, more or less at the same time.

Release – January 2, 2025

Available exclusively on AMAZON – Worldwide

About

How is an art gown like a good book?

You hate it to end!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Gown-In & Love-Up

On By ResaIn Gowntoons155 Comments

Dahlings, we are loving it up in Miami, Tim’s Magic Tree Sanctuary and around the world. I’m one radiating Ms. R., reporting from Ocean Drive, as I present Art Gowns for peace and love.

It’s an all out love fest, with special guest star Boogapony Holly, who will pony on down in roller skates. It’s a go-go like you’ve never seen! And now, from her special stage of TMTS* black bamboo, let’s all get down with MC, Art Director and palazzo pantonista , Rebecca Budd!

Thank you Rene!

As beautiful as the bougainvillea she poses by, AGM Marina wears a strapless, fishtail gown made from a pink-tone ecru velvet & recycled Ribbons for Peace.

P                        PINK
E               EMERALD
A                      AQUA
 C        CLAIRVOYANT
E                       ECRU

Boogapony relays her message of love ,with movement, as she glides through the bougainvilleas.

Let’s hear it for Boogapony!

That was fantastic and so is Gigi. AGM Gigi tied on BP’s extra pair of skates, tore a strip out of her strapless skin-tight turquoise gown and rolled on down to Wynwood Walls,

… where she models next to a tiger painted by Faith47 in 2014.

In a simple breath-pink slip-style gown with baby blue godets, AGM Holly showcases a breathtaking boa of roses designed by TMTS’s own Dr, Huey.

© Holly Rene Hunter

What’s a Love-Up without some fringe? AGM Dale shows in a red gown with heart shaped décolletage and asymmetric plunging v-bodice with fringe at its point. Watch out! With bougainvillea hearts, she’s going to “take you higher”!

Now, for an important message from Ms. R.!

Dahlings, there was a slight glitch trying to get AGM Shey over to Miami. DracGoth made yet another attempt to morph Shey into SheyGoth, and transport her to Otherworld.

While suspended in black between worlds, Tim's Roses of Love surrounded her. They gently guided her to Princess Blue Holly's Tangle-Heart. AGM Shey passed through the Heart in darkness, and surfaced by her golden tree in the light

Thank you Rene! 

Wow, seems Shey’s tree sent her to Miami with some enchanted roses. As the roses change colour, so do the roses on her boho, sheer voile angel gown. This is Flower Power at its finest!

And now, from the Florida Room of her ocean view home: with the sand, ocean, sky and sea birds behind her and surrounded by one of Tim’s roses in many spellbound colours here’s RR with a parting message!

Dahlings, Sweet Dreams until Art Gowns & friends returns with another extravaganza! Until then, remember to Love-Up everyday, everywhere!

Here’s a FAB send-off featuring Boogapony skating a go-go through Ocean Drive! Check out those crazy high jumps

Art Gowns drawings & storyline © Resa McConaghy

Music selections – Holly Rene Hunter

Ms. R & Boogapony Holly © Resa McConaghy & Holly Rene Hunter – since 2019

Loved Like Roses © Holly Rene Hunter

THANK YOU BIG TIME TO

The AGM’s. Visit them on their blogs!

Dale – A Dalectable Life, Marina – Art Towards a Happy Day, Holly – House of Heart, Shey – Smexy Historical Romance, Gigi – Rethinking Life

TMTS = Tim’s Magic Tree Sanctuary – Trees & Roses © Tim Price. Visit Tim at Off Center Not Even

Visit Rebecca Budd at Chasing Art