Crayola Couture: Fashion Designers Create Dresses From Crayons
(Photo: ©MatthewCarasella.com)
Right now in New York City, a collision of creative giants lies behind a set of unassuming plate-glass windows on 59th Street. Crayola and some of our favorite designers have joined forces with Bloomingdales to turn 18,000 individual crayons into a spectrum of high-end fashion.
(Photo: ©MatthewCarasella.com)
The designs were inspired by the new Crayola Meltdown Art Kit, which allows artists to melt crayons into colorful designs. We took a closer look at the construction of these styles, and even tried our hand at creating wax fashions of our own.
Designer Dresses with Kindergarten Appeal
(Photo: ©MatthewCarasella.com)
Peering into a window at New York City’s flagship Bloomingdales store is often akin to Alice contemplating a trip down that rabbit hole. Inventive diversions have been traditionally crafted in the Bloomingdales windows for more than 100 years, but we’ve never seen pops of color quite like this. Here is a run-down of each dress, and some of the work that went into each.
Parker’s Jungle Green Jumper
(Photo: ©MatthewCarasella.com)
It can’t be easy to give a few pounds of wax some bounce and flounce, but in true Parker style, this jumper set in Crayola’s Jungle Green® is flirty and fun. Parker used just the crayon wrappers to form a light kimono-style top, lending weightlessness to the cropped crayon shorts.
(Photo: ©MatthewCarasella.com)
Designers Derek Farrar and Laurieanne Gilner told InStyle of their design, “Jungle Green is energetic and sure to bring any wardrobe back to life; not only is it environmentally sound, but it gives us a serious case of spring fever.”
Torn by Ronny Kobo’s Bittersweet Dress
(Photo: ©MatthewCarasella.com)
Red is the ultimate demonstration of power and confidence in our wardrobes. This spiked dress from Torn by Ronny Kobo is serving up thorny rose, composed of Crayola’s Bittersweet® red crayons.
(Photo: ©MatthewCarasella.com)
(Photo: ©MatthewCarasella.com)
While we wanted to love this one, it appears to be more of a case of crayons glued to an existing dress instead of crayons driving the design. A quick up-close look reveals a hot glue hot-mess.
(Photo: ©MatthewCarasella.com)
Then again, I’m sure the wrist cramps from gluing on hundreds of crayon tips was fairly brutal. Concept gets an A+ from us; red lends itself well to spikes and studs, but the execution was definitely sacrificed.
Nanette Lepore’s Laser Lemon Dress
(Photo: ©MatthewCarasella.com)
The Nanette Lepore spring collection is heavily inspired by the straight, clean lines of 1960’s minimalist frocks. Her work with crayons is no different. With Laser Lemon® as her guide, Nanette Lepore created this intricate cocktail dress that presents popping ‘lace’ crayon detail along the collar.
(Photo: ©MatthewCarasella.com)
This dress has been curiously marked as another Crayola color, ‘Unmellow Yellow’ throughout the campaign, even though the color used is clearly marked ‘Laser Lemon’ all over the dress.
(Photo: ©MatthewCarasella.com)
Upon closer inspection of the photos, we can see that hot glue played a key role in the construction of the bright flowered collar. This is a dress of complete fantasy; many of the pieces are glued right to the mannequin.
Rebecca Taylor’s Midnight Blue Jumpsuit
(Photo: ©MatthewCarasella.com)
This bold jumpsuit from Rebecca Taylor got the Crayola treatment in Midnight Blue®, with the wrappers lined up precisely to create stripes along the pant legs.
(Photo: ©MatthewCarasella.com)
Rebecca Taylor said of her Crayola design, “It’s modern and sophisticated while not being too serious; Midnight Blue evokes confidence.” The spiked crayon studs certainly help to boost the self-esteem of this look.
Clover Canyon’s Mountain Meadow Frock
(Photo: ©MatthewCarasella.com)
Designer Rozae Nichols embellished this playful summer frock with Mountain Meadow® crayons.
(Photo: ©MatthewCarasella.com)
With minimal interaction between the crayons and the dress, this one seemed more of a crayon-trimmed design than what we could call fashion made out of crayons.
(Photo: ©MatthewCarasella.com)
Rebecca Minkoff’s Banana Mania Dress
(Photo: ©MatthewCarasella.com)
A design that appears to be made completely of crayons is Rebecca Minkoff’s Banana Mania® shirt-dress.
(Photo: ©MatthewCarasella.com)
We can only imagine how heavy this crayon armor would be, but Minkoff pulls off a light, flowing impression with her soft design. Upon closer inspection, it is hard to detect any adhesive. Her perfect execution and exacting symmetry are a testament to her talents.
(Photo: ©MatthewCarasella.com)
Minkoff said of her sunny contribution, “Yellow is the color of optimism, happiness, and creativity, it brings to mind warmth and sunshine—the perfect feeling to have after our long, cold winter in N.Y.C.”
Making Your Own Crayon Fashions
Why should Clover Canyon and Rebecca Minkoff have all the fun? We took to the studio with the Crayola Meltdown Kit to try to create some waxen dresses of our own.
(Photo Courtesy of Crayola)
The kit provided the canvas and sticky tape required to place the crayons. There were three sets of crayons included, and some paint to make things interesting.
In love with Rebecca Minkoff’s Banana Mania shirt-dress, we created the ballgown version with melted Crayola yellows, oranges, and a bit of loose lace:
(Photo: Rain Blanken)
While the kit recommends taping the crayons to the canvas, we found that crumbling and melting individual crayons (while holding them with tongs to prevent burns) was the best way to control the wax. Since the wax is so thick, you can even add in fresh crumbles of crayons, paper, or fabric for texture.
Use hot glue to attach studs made of crayon tips, just like Nanette Lepore and Rebecca Taylor’s designs. We made our own version of Taylor’s Midnight Blue jumpsuit with crayon tips at the side to emulate our inspiration:
(Photo: Rain Blanken)
It was fun to turn one of our first mediums, crayons, into an advanced method of plotting design. Our hot wax haute couture almost made us feel like our designer counterparts in the windows of Bloomingdales. Almost.
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