The Hobbit Wedding Dress- Created for the HerUniverse Fashion Show at San Diego Comic Con 2014

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Cressie Lewis

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This dress was an original design a huge labor of love. In summary, Her Universe (a geek inspired clothing company which creates clothing for Hot Topic stores and Think Geek) requested Geek Couture fashion illustrations from professional and novice designers across the US and the top 36 out of over 150 designers got invited to showcase their design on a runway at San Diego Comic Con, one of the largest pop culture conventions in the world. I found out in April that I was selected as a finalist and started fabricating my design based on The Hobbit immediately. I picked the Hobbit book/movie by JRR Tolkien as my inspiration because I’ve loved the book since an early age and wanted to highlight several design elements such as a map, cape and sense of adventure and wonder. I immediately thought of making a 1950s-esque wedding dress with a map of the Middle Earth world from the Hobbit/Lord of the Rings.   My dress would not have been possible without help from folks in Tennessee and Georgia. I sewed the entire dress myself but Jennifer Fox of Camden, TN helped me with the graphic design of the fabric which was custom printed, Stephanie Carter of Douglasville, GA made my bouquet of book inspired flowers and Dana Bell Wyatt of Huntingdon, TN traveled with me to San Diego to do my hair and makeup for the runway. Several other friends and co-workers in Georgia also helped me dye, cut and burn fabric book pages for the front ruffles on the dress. I was honored to be chosen and excited to share a runway with 35 amazing designers, including professional models such as Adrienne Curry winner of American’s Next Top Model. The highlight was seeing two of the actresses from Game of Thrones backstage at the fashion show! The entire experience was surreal and it was fantastic to share this excitement with my best friend, Dana Bell Wyatt. I really tried to bring a little “Southern belle” to San Diego with my design! Because of the high caliber dresses by many notable designers, many of whom work for TV/Film/Fashion, it was an honor to win Judges Choice Honorable Mention at the show!

Here is the sketch I submitted:

Dress Facts:
– It took 3 months to create working on weekends and after work
– The front of the dress is made from actual pages of the Hobbit paperback edition which was printed on silk organza from my inkjet printer, tea dyed and burned with candles to keep the edges from fraying
– The “rings” on the dress were inspired by double wedding rings quilts and were appliquéd on the dress. Each ring includes the rings words from the book/film.
– The dress weighs about 15 pounds
– The underpinnings of the dress include a custom built rig to lift the front of the dress when “the one ring” is removed from the pocket. This exposes a pair of Hobbit pants which depicts a scene from the movie to “light up the honeymoon with the fires of Mordor!”
Curious about how I rigged up the dress to reveal the inside? I used invisible finishing line attached to small plastic rings.

Here is a quick video:

My hometown newspaper, The Camden Chronicle, did a very sweet article about my experience here.
This dress also one Best in Show at the Tolkien Track costume contest at DragonCon 2014.

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