Romance Novel Dresses
The Fragile Fantasy
The dresses I create from the pages of romance novels examine the demands that feminine culture places upon women by utilizing the garment as a social signifier. Women often define themselves through clothing; we use our appearance to project ambitions, attract mates and signal our social status. Fashion magazines become the bibles that guide the creation of self-image, and generation after generation of females have been programmed to buy into this culture of unrealistic beauty.
Romance novels echo this sentiment, as they represent an impossible alternate reality, one where love and relationships are all-consuming and eternally passionate. Reality never touches either the fashion or romance realms, but the former is advertised as a way to obtain the latter.
The dresses reflect this as they are seductively beautiful, but due to the material from which they are created, unable to be worn. Completely without function, it represents how useless the feminine myths we have created are in real life.
Romance novels echo this sentiment, as they represent an impossible alternate reality, one where love and relationships are all-consuming and eternally passionate. Reality never touches either the fashion or romance realms, but the former is advertised as a way to obtain the latter.
The dresses reflect this as they are seductively beautiful, but due to the material from which they are created, unable to be worn. Completely without function, it represents how useless the feminine myths we have created are in real life.
