Leather Evening wear for Margo Manhattan
with roughed out dress idea
these were nixed for hair!
was cut to show off appliqué against the skin
Over the last few Months we’ve had the great pleasure of working with one of NYC’s Premier Jewelery Designers, Margo Manhattan.
She designs very bold and feminine jewelry with a strong Rock n’Roll vibe. Her Luxury line is featured in her namesake shop (formerly at 88th and Madison, now online) where she specializes in fine sterling silver, gold and precious jewelry.
Now, she has created a much more affordable line exclusively for Evine Live in sterling silver & vermeil featuring topaz and amethyst as signature stones, it’s bold & fun and pieces range from the dramatic to the delicate. (It’s currently available at HSN)
Best part is all of is – it’s perfect with Leather! (and a whole lot more)
To celebrate her debut at Evine. We’ve created a leather evening wear outfit made up of a Patent leather and stretch suede mini-dress with a dramatic overgown of Silk Organza with a “back tattoo” and delicate appliqué details in the patent leather.
This leather evening gown was created to highlight an incredible showpiece belt of heavy sterling silver chain, with a large sterling medallion accented with topaz, that Margo created as a trademark piece for herself. It’s actually based on one of her bracelet designs – just hugely scaled up.
The project was done on a pretty short schedule. Under 10 days. There were quite a few 18 hour ones. The design kind of evolved as fittings happen, more than usually, since I was not able to see the belt until about halfway thru. The overgown was mocked up first in paper, to get an ideal of what type of fullness would work. Initially the ruffles were envisioned as continuing from the skirt, up around the neckline. But it was a bit too “boudoir-y”. The mini dress was very initially going to have patent appliqué but when mocking up, it just was too busy. So things got streamlined pretty quickly.
The appliqué on the back I saw as one of my Leather “Tattoos” especially given the open back of the mini dress. I designed the appliqué based off of one of Margo’s early logos. Margo had wanted hanging crystals highlighting the tips of the design, but in order to have it wearable with her hair down those had to go.
Leather evening wear doesn’t have to be the traditional long gown. Since leather is an alternative fabric there are so many ways “evening wear” can be interpreted in leather, From the Icon gown worn by Angelina Jolie some years ago, to a body conscious cocktail dress – like our Lily dress that was worn in MIB3 or simply our patent leather stretch “Ayesha” sheath
Featured Event & Editorial Photos are by Luciana Pampalone and Lisa Zari.