2008-05-21

RANDOM POST


"Vanessa Randall of Wayne made her prom dress out of 3,000 gum wrappers.
WAYNE — Walking into the gym on prom night with a girl on his arm draped in a chewing-gum-wrapper dress was definitely different.
Max Pistner, a Maranacook Community High School senior, said he thought it was "very cool" that his girlfriend, Vanessa Randall, made her prom dress out of 3,000 gum wrappers.
Randall, a 17-year-old senior from Wayne, started collecting Wrigley gum wrappers three years ago to make the dress. Friends, relatives and co-workers saved wrappers for her.
Pistner, who lives in Manchester, said he was just glad she got the dress done in time. She started sewing it together only a week before their recent prom.
Randall said she reinforced the dress with duct tape inside along the edges and used elastic braids around the straps and collar and in between some of the chains down the back so she could easily slip into the dress.
She came up with the design after drawing sketches all year.
"I came up with how it was going to look like the week before the prom," she said. "The theme of the prom was Japanese, so I was inspired by that in making the collar and flower pattern around the middle and back."
Her father, David Randall, an artist and sculptor, said his daughter got the idea from an article she read about a Lewiston girl who made her prom dress out of Starburst candy wrappers.
"We had that newspaper article on the refrigerator. That was the inspiration for it," he said. "Vanessa wanted to do something different and came up with the gum wrappers. She was really enthusiastic about the whole thing. My only concern was that she wasn't going to get it done in time, but she kept at it."
"She has a lot of creative energy and uses it in a great artistic way," said her mother, Ellen Randall. "She is following her dad's footsteps in creating art."
She said her daughter enrolled in a yearlong internship program in Germany, where she hopes to study art. Last summer, she studied fashion design under the auspices of the Early College program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Vanessa said she will continue to fold gum wrappers into chains and turn them into her own designs, possibly one day to profit from her work.
"I have some extra that I was thinking of making corsages out of and accessories like purses," she said. "I might be able to sell them on the Internet."

Source


39 comments:

Lexie said...

TOTALLY brilliant!
love it.

rg. said...

That's totally crazy. That takes real determination!

rg. said...

That's totally crazy. That takes real determination!

ellie said...

That is totally impressive. What a cool outfit.

Fashion Is Poison said...

wow that is so crazy! good for her

Elizabeth said...

I made a gumwrapper chain like that, about seven feet long. She wove hers into a dress. Far more impressive than anything I ever did. Good for her.

WendyB said...

That's hilarious. Good for her.

Unknown said...

no need or no words i get to write after i saw your blog , nice blog , i suppose are you very busy with your work ,these lines is saying by your work , nice work you have done.

keep it up in forward direction

god bless you

karla deras said...

that's pretty sweet. must have taken some serious dedication/patience

THE DIVINITUS said...

good girl; economic, self made, recycled dress shows the true qualities we should support.

;)

Secret Agent said...

WTF.

Sharon S said...

Wow-this girl has some patience!! I could never do that-good on her!

Anonymous said...

That's awesome! What a great idea.

STYLE AND THE CITY . COM - PARIS said...

Jen,

i juste wanted to tell you thaht on monday i met Sarah jessica Parker in Paris and did great shots.

have a look

cheers

Kamel
street style romancer in Paris

Guerreira said...

amazing! that girl has future!

aizat.cinta.goddess said...

she is super brilliant!!!

Pamcasso said...

looks really cool, and that takes a lot of commitment. I tend to hate things after I've worked on them for a while. Actually a friend of mine made her prom dress and then was so sick of looking at it that she went out and bought a different one!

Giselle said...

insane!
There's a whole website (forgot what it was) thats bsically pics of kids who made their prom outfits completely out of ductape. Pretty intense!

Jessica said...

this article reminded me of my old high school art teacher who makes dresses our of candy wrappers.
http://www.kruktart.com/wearable_sculpture/ws_thumb.html

she used to let us sit around art class and eat candy, and leave the wrappers for her. :)

LBIC said...

So creative.

Nothing said...

Wow that is kind of awesome, and strange. What patience she must have!

Rebecca, A Clothes Horse said...

This is really impressive...perhaps I'm being knit-picky though because I don't like the "design"/shape of the dress...

Kira Aderne said...

so cute!
she is really criative!]

a kiss!!

Miss White said...

That's some serious dedication! I wouldn't have known where to start!

Anonymous said...

wow, what a funny idea!^^

Anonymous said...

what a nut case haha ;)

The Stylish Wanderer said...

At first I thought it was high fashion! That is the coolest.

J.M. Powell said...

its definately a take on the whole bottega veneta weaving thing...but i don't think i would have the guts or the desire to wear it lol

nv said...

That's crazy, I feel like it's going to fall off her even with the ductape underneath...haha.

Jeffrey said...

So Awesome! cheers!

alis said...

wow good for her. some people sure have a lot of creative energy, and the result dress is nice too. I could never tell it was a "project".

Imelda Matt - The Despotic Queen of Shoes said...

she did a great job but i would have stopped at the shoes.

Cate said...

JEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENNNN :))))
what a brilliant/crazy/genius/ZOMG idea! i would be scared for the dress to tear apart while i was dancing!

Ella Gregory said...

This reminds me of that white dress Paris Hilton wore last week
if you missed it it's in my hit and miss of the week (last)

alloftheabove said...

Wow. I envy this girl. I never stick to my projects. She's got so much drive and energy.

Adele said...

wow thats very interesting!x

1234 said...

thats insane!!

Imelda said...

That's amazing!!!
Love the idea!
And good for the environment aswell!

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