Paper Dresses : Unpractical Dreamy Pretty by Isabelle de Borchgrave

Clothing that takes hours and hours to make and when finished is not even meant to be worn. Welcome to the fashion world of Isabelle de Borchgrave. Designer of exquisite replicas of historical dresses ..... all made of PAPER!!

Panier dress of the Countess Vittoria Elisabetta Alfazio
by Isabelle de Borchgrave
from Threads

I used to work in an art gallery and I would see countless art posters by Isabelle. Always the same mass-produced prints (the identical ones that you and 40 others of your neighbors had) and they were always very bland, inoffensive watercolors suitable for reception rooms and hospitals. They were very popular though and she was a very savvy businesswoman for catering to what the WalMart masses wanted. But her paper dresses are something different. Something very different indeed. Something rare and beautiful, filled with passion and originality. Just look at this replica of a Fortuny Delphos dress.

Replica Fortuny dress made of paper, not fabric
by Isabelle de Borchgrave
from Telegraph

Paper can be such a fragile medium, but there are so many varieties of paper in the world and so many different ways you can treat, decorate and transform it. Even the humblest, most inexpensive of newsprints. See more of how she transforms paper into high fashion from throughout time in the very spendy, but utterly cool book, Paper Illusions: The Art of Isabelle de Borchgrave.

(Thanks to Artful Muse for sharing news about this book with me!)