Soutache Princess
My adventure with the Soutache Project began in September 2019. It was a very spontaneous beginning. Urszula Łęczycka-Jeziorska came up with the idea to invite handicrafts women from all over Poland to collaborate on an ambitious creative journey. She posted an announcement on the Facebook group “Ogarnij sutasz z Ewą” (“Learn soutache with Ewa”, provided by Ewa Genge) that she would like to make a fairy-tale costume to which every artist can contribute.
The response was amazing! In the end, 60 female artists from Poland, Greece, Italy, Germany, and Great Britain took part. One of them was me.
Before we started, Urszula, a professional costume designer, gave us a short introduction to the history of clothing. Armed with this knowledge, together, we chose the dress’s cut and the decorations’ colours. Each of us made two symmetrical soutache elements. You can see my two pieces below.
Then Urszula started creating the costume. It was magic! We could observe her work from behind the scenes. She uploaded photos from each stage of the project. I was surprised by the materials used, the technique and the design of the costume. It turns out that it is not enough to have tailoring skills to make such a costume – this is architectural work!
Finally, she showed us this! The Soutache Princess,
or maybe rather Warrior Princess!
The photos were taken by Jola Borysewicz. She breathed life into this beautiful dress. For me, her photos tell a story about the different faces of women. She created the image of a woman who is delicate and seductive, majestic and proud, brave and fearless.
So, who is this beautiful princess? The Soutache Princess was played by Julia Karol. In my opinion, she is fantastic in this role. By the way, she also did the make-up.
The photos went viral all over the European Internet! The project was very positively received by soutache enthusiasts, the art world, and ordinary observers, which does not surprise me at all! But that’s not the end of the story. The outfit wandered between the girls involved in the project. Some of them did their own photo sessions. So, it is very likely that you will find on the Internet another beautiful Princess dressed in this beautiful costume!
I would like to thank everyone for the opportunity to participate in this project. I met a group of fantastic, optimistic women and made new friends. I learned a lot about costume design and the history of fashion. But most importantly, it was a difficult pandemic time and this project was like a ray of light breaking through dark clouds. It was a very upbuilding and therapeutic experience. Thank you all!
But it is not the end! The Soutache Project had one more act. It was Sunset Queen.
The official project website: https://www.soutacheproject.pl/
