Princess project: engagement photos

 I would like to have an engagement ring with Finnish jewels. There are several different jewels found in Finland, even diamonds, but the Finnish diamonds are really small. There are topazes, sapphires, rubies, and other stones, but I would choose a labradorite, or in Finland a spectrolite. The Finnish spectrolites have more amazing colors than any other. 

Maybe something like this?

I also love the Wallis Simpson jewelry legacy. I would love to have something similar but with foxes. And - of course - Finnish design. 

I would be wearing Finnish design - of course - in colors that match the spectrolite in the ring. I want the dress to have a V neckline, empire waist, and 3/4 sleeves with something interesting happening around the wrists. Now, Finnish design is traditionally very sculptural and minimalistic, so this dress is the closest I come at the moment. It is Ishtar by Klaus Haapaniemi. I love the sleeves. I don't love the color. I don't work well with muddy colors like that. 

This is Marchesa, and too festive for the event, but it has the "required elements". (Also, it's not Finnish. I wonder if I'd need a designer for my clothes... Marimekko really isn't princess-y.) The colors aren't nice, either. 

As a princess, I want to be known especially for my hats and hairdos. Now, for the engagement photos, there will be no hat, so the hairdo must be especially interesting. 

I also want to be known for my accessories, all Finnish, of course. We are especially good with shoes.

I would like to push the envelope, but it's not easy when there are rules about how princesses should be dressed. 

This is by Alexis Mabille, and it has the sense I want to achieve... I really like Wallis Simpson's wedding dress.

Princess Project

 There has been some videos of people making copies of royal tiaras and crowns lately on my YouTube recommendations, and I realized that it's all a show. I mean, I will not have a crown made of diamonds and sapphires, but I can make a crown of paper and plastic that will look good enough to do the job I need it to do - look like a tiara. 

And then I was thinking about princess Kate's wedding dress. It was a huge disappointment to me. I mean, she chose Alexander McQueen, who made amazing, extravagant, intriguing, unexpected, macabre, beautiful clothes, and then they made that wedding dress... 

Sure, it's beautiful, but... it's not Alexander McQueen. It's boring. And it doesn't do Kate any favors, as it makes her look very bony. 

On top of that, they are trying to make it look more amazing by explaining how HARD it was to cut all the flowers off the lace to get the lace lay smooth and flat over the bodice and not add any ugly seams, and I'm here like "le sigh". That's like the least to do. Now, you could have done the favor of using the round shapes of the lace to enhance the breasts and put it under them instead on top, to enhance the nipple and... emptiness under? And one of the unlikable things about women's chest is the bones, and you created that ladder effect right there. Kate doesn't have a bony chest, but that dress makes it appear such. Sure, one could argue that's the Alexander McQueen right there, you got some skeleton bits in Kate's wedding dress, but I am 100% certain of that that effect was totally accidental. 

And then there's the hats and all the other stuff. I keep thinking "I would have chosen something different...", "I wish she would have worn...", "that would look good on..." It's not just Kate, it's all the royals I see, like Crown Princess Victoria and Queen Mary. 

So, I got the idea of creating my own princess. 

Now... Let's assume I was 30 years younger and marrying the crown prince of Finland :-D 
I would choose a very Finnish design. Like Alvar Aalto and Marimekko. Simple and geometric. But yet following the traditions, as the whole idea of royalty is very traditional. So long sleeves, long skirt, veil, modest decolletage... I do love Grace Kelly's wedding dress... So it would have to be something similar with a twist.
Also, as I am marrying the crown prince, I would need to add Finnish symbols to the dress. Lilies of the valley, bears, swans... Those could be woven into the fabric... linen damask.

Now these two are by Balenciaga, who isn't - obviously - Finnish, but who has the simplicity and geometry of the Finnish design.

This is Vesa and Pipsa Pallasvesa in 1974, and the wedding dress is by Vuokko Nurmesniemi. 

Another Vuokko dress, with "angel sleeves"

Now... combine those a bit, and add the asymmetrical waves of Alvar Aalto... One could have a shaped petticoat with wire to keep the folds correct...

I also find this dress by Junya Watanabe inspiring and interesting.

Then there's this Givenchy wedding dress from Funny Face.

Oh, she looks so sad! I don't like Fred Astaire, so I find it hard to believe she would be so sad for believing Fred doesn't love her...

Klaus Haapaniemi's Ice Flower dress worn in the Presidential Independence Day gala. Pattern like this would work beautifully, woven white on white.