In 2012, I got an email from a company called Simply Spray, asking me if I’d want a box of their fabric spray paints to use on one of my future wedding gowns. I was so excited when the box of colorful spray paints arrived, and it just so happened to be on a week that I wasn’t busy with other projects.
Needing something to paint on, I took a trip to a local thrift shop, bought some old wedding gowns which I then cut up and revamped into the perfect canvas.
I was ready to paint.
I put on some music, threw a tarp down in the backyard, and tore the packaging off all the spray cans. I spent hours making a beautiful mess. I added acrylic paints, and obnoxiously huge plastic rainbow crystals. I loved how the splatters of colors would drip down the dress and blend with swirls of color. It began to almost look tie dyed or like candy, and I loved that it reminded me of Jackson Pollock.
It was the first dress I made for no reason other than I had a box of beautiful paints and I just felt like it.
I fell in love with the dress, and decided to wear it for my engagement photo shoot.
I posted a photo of it with my Rainbow Bride gowns on my website: www.EveyClothing.com, and the dress has since taken on a life of its own.
It has done more things on my bucket list than I have.
A couple weeks went by, and wonderlust wedding photographer Laura Grier contacted me to see if I had any light up wedding dresses to send to Burning Man. After boxing up 5 of my electrical light up wedding gowns, I looked at the paint splattered dress hanging in my studio and thought… I should make that dress light up cause it really needs to go to Burning Man.
So I wired it up with an abstract design with hundreds of LED bulbs, and there it went. It was later photographed under the LACMA light exhibit by Laura.
It was featured in London’s Rock N Roll Bride Magazine!
Celebrity hair stylist, face painter and model Krystal X Kaos wore the dress.
It was worn again for a rainbow wedding photo shoot by Cloak Photography at the iconic Santa Monica Pier, which was featured in the Huffington Post!
You can imagine my excitement when Minna Dufton, aka Rebellious Bride, Finland’s leading offbeat wedding blogger and rock star comedian got in touch to see if she could wear the dress. Rebellious Bride looks like a real life version of Jem, the pink haired rockstar cartoon from my childhood.
She calls herself “The Bride from HEL” since she’s from Helsinki, Finland.
She believes getting married should be fun, for everyone, even if you’ve already been married before. She encourages women to let their personality and attitude shine through their wedding, and to shake up the traditional and conservative white, picture-perfect way of getting married. She wrote the book “Rebellious Wedding Guide” which came out in August 2015 and is now Finland’s leading bridezilla, alternative wedding blogger, and crazy bride act at weddings and events. She strongly urges people to “stop looking for the light at the end of the tunnel and instead, turn the light – or lights – on themselves, with no fear of being too over the top or too this or that or the other.”
In that spirit, I even made her an electrical light up rainbow gem covered veil with an incredible yellow bow on top to go with the dress, and a show stopping purple petticoat from Tutu Yummy, to provide awesome volume and saturated color peaking out from the bottom.
This recycled dress, full of adventure and color and lights, couldn’t be more perfect for the creative and colorful Rebellious Bride and I can’t wait to see the adventures it has over the rainbow, through her life in Finland!
The dress is due to make its first public appearance at the Joensuu Wedding Fair on February 25th in North Karelia, Finland with some Tutu Yummy bridesmaid and flower girl tutus.
Stay tuned for more adventures of this dress through the Raggarimorsian – Rebellious Bride website, and you can find her on social media
@raggarimorsian
