A Dress for Liz

I've worked with Miss Elizabeth Fleming on several CHOG (Cambridge Handel Opera Group, for those not in the know!) over the past decade or so. I've even dressed her in a couple, once as a Grecian maiden and once as an 18th Century man... So the chance to actually make her a concert dress made a welcome change!  As Liz has never been one for big sparkly over the top clothes it was always going to be a simple and elegant design-so no feathers/beads/clashing colours/sequins/large bows etc etc! So curbing my natural shiny thing enthusiasm, I came up with a simple empire line design in this gorgeous shot blue/green taffeta.  The fabric is from John Lewis and is just gorgeous, from different angles and in different lights it can look any colour from dark green, through purple to dark blue with occasional hints of grey. Sadly my photos of the dress on the stand in my messy workroom doesn't really do it justice... but I do think that the result is rather lovely even if the photos are rather dull-

Liz wore it for the first of a series of concerts she is performing in with fellow singer Christina Sampson at Emmanuel Reform Church in Cambridge on April 16th, which I went to.  It was a truly lovely concert including some of my favorite aria's and duets from Le Nozze di Figaro, some Benjamin Britten songs and a  couple of new Rossini arias that I'd never heard before and will be attempting to locate on itunes! In fact you can still get to one of these concerts if you happen to be in Bristol on Saturday the 1st of May, and I thoroughly recommend that you do. They will be performing at Henleaze Reform Church at 7.30pm.  There is even a Facebook event-
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=103901172984956