Thursday, April 10, 2003

Fashion Notebook

The designer, who was born in South Africa and now works in New York, is the first to admit that he knew next to zero about the sport prior to Twain's request. "I went online for hours and hours, researching the teams that she wanted, their logos and their home and away colours."

Sketches were revised and recoloured again and again, with e-mails and phone calls flying back and forth between Bouwer and Twain. "Then it was a mad rush to get patterns done. And hours and hours of work to make stripes match, and get the colours right."

Twain's management company sent Bouwer a stack of team jerseys. He pretty much left the Ottawa Senators shirt intact but chopped up eight Montreal Canadians jerseys, rejoining them as a pop top, jacket and hipster pants with jockstrap-style thong detail over the hips.

The Edmonton Oilers logo was transferred on to sparkly stretch silk chiffon, a shapeless Calgary Flames jersey was transformed into a racer-style bodice worn with a tulle skirt, the sleeves of a Vancouver Canucks jersey were worn as gauntlets with a velvet gown and a Maple Leafs shirt was recut to follow Twain's curves.

The garments were then shipped off to India for beading.
Last Wednesday, Bouwer arrived in Ottawa with his business partner and head seamstress, and Twain's wardrobe packed into one suitcase.

"It was surprisingly light," Bouwer describes. "The beads are very tiny glass that give the outfits sparkle and the sequins are transparent micro-sequins that pick up the colour of the jersey underneath."

A temporary studio was erected in Bouwer's suite at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier complete with sewing machines, cutting table, rolling racks and steamers to handle last-minute adjustments.

Fittings with Twain went until 1: 30 the next morning and Bouwer was up at 7 a.m. stitching revisions. "We have a form of Shania's body in New York that we make everything on but there are always things that need to be tweaked."

On Saturday, after a run-through of the show using similar, less expensive garments Bouwer realized the time allotted for some of Twain's changes would be tighter than he thought.

"You are doing up buckled shoes, putting jewelry in pierced ears, and dealing with the whole contraption that holds the mike against her back," Bouwer laments.

So the day before the show he replaced two zippers with Velcro. "Invisible zippers are notorious for breaking if you do them up quickly," he sighs. "You have to gently coax the zipper up through the beads."

Bouwer greased the remaining zippers with tailor's chalk and strategically cut away some sequins increasing chances that things would go smoothly. Even still, he stood nervously backstage with a raft of threaded needles so that, "if a zipper broke, I could whipstitch her into the outfit."

The cost of all this?
In the realm of a Paris couture gown, but Bouwer wouldn't specify the amount or who paid.
Twain is donating the outfits to the National Hockey League with the intention of having them auctioned off for charity.

OSCAR HIGHS: Susan Dicks isn't bitter that she wasn't mentioned when Chicago won an Oscar recently for best costume. Even though it was her Richmond Ave. W. design studio that had made many of the clothes.

"I didn't expect anything," the affable Dicks commented this week.

She and a staff of up to 10 toiled for six months on a spangled pinstripe suit for Richard Gere, the prison dresses and male dancers' ensembles, and a frock coat and pants for John C. Reilly- altogether 200 garments plus alterations and reconstructions of store-bought pieces.

Dicks emphasizes that she was only one in the army of sewers, shoppers, dyers and on-set stylists it took to outfit the cast.
Still, in her acceptance speech costume designer Colleen Atwood did thank the Los Angeles cutter she brought up to Toronto to work on the film.

But then it's not unusual for foreign production crews to be ignored at awards time.

Oh well.
Dicks sees it this way: "It was very exciting to have been a part of the film and it says a lot about the calibre of workers up here.

Lots of the outfits we made have been pictured in magazines so I'll frame them and put them up in the studio."
With a photo of Oscar I hope.

FYI: Julia Roberts' sleek Oscar look was an unknown vintage label- Jean Jourban Paris- from the Paper Bag Princess in Los Angeles. The shop's owner, Toronto native Elizabeth Mason, found the dress at a California estate sale. "If I could find more of that fabric today I'd be a millionaire!" joked Mason yesterday, while racing to a shoot with ex-ER doc Maria Bello. "It's a slinky poly-jersey that has a wonderful sheen."

Mason, who has a second Paper Bag Princess on Davenport Rd., connected with Roberts through Film Fashion, an agency that reps a number of fashion lines and where Hollywood stylists can do one-stop shopping for the stars.
Bernadette Morra is The Star's fashion editor.

Illustration(s):
CP PHOTOREUTERS At the Oscars, Julia Roberts wears a vintage gown by Jean Jourban Paris from The Paper Bag Princess, which has a shop on Davenport Rd. Right, at the Junos, Shania Twain in a Maple Leafs hockey jersey that was sent to India for beading. REUTERS At the Oscars, Julia Roberts wears a vintage gown by Jean Jourban Paris from The Paper Bag Princess, which has a shop on Davenport Rd. Right, at the Junos, Shania Twain in a Maple Leafs hockey jersey that was sent to India for beading.