Bright Flames

So to start off I thought I might try something different, something with a little more flare.

Bright colours was my theme this week, and there are many stunning Rhythmic Gymnastics leotards out there that use the brightest hues. So I am going to take inspiration out of their books and try out some colour, NOT just one block colour but a rainbow of colours.

Lime Green seems to be a Rhythmic Gymnastics favourite; I’m thinking that I should use this as a base colour with shards and shoots of morphing colours. How this is going to come to life, I’m a little unsure but I am envisioning a flame like or fern like shape, maybe two that come up the body and never touch.

I choose to use an interrelationship for the aspect of morphing colour, and Rio Carnival was where I ended up. To look at how the vibrancy of colours interacts at this great carnival. What I realize is that feathers are a big part of Rio Carnival, and because of their light weight disposition, when a whole array of colours are joint together they intertwine and form magical shapes and colours through movement.

Though I am not going to make a whole leotard out of feathers!!! But I can take the merging of colours away and use it for my leotard.

I guess the first thing I have to think about is colour, and exactly what colours I want to use and what will work well together. For this I thought about the colour wheel, especially when I want colours to morph together they have to be similar. So the colours I went with are; lime green, electric blue, sparkly aqua blue, fluoro orange, canary yellow, magenta pink.

Now this was the design that I came up with, I used colour on this draft to see if the colours would work together – even though they are not exactly the same it gives you an idea. And to see how the flame idea would interact and join together when sewing.

I have to admit many hours went into this leotard. As it is asymmetrical you find yourself trying to balance something that's not meant to be balanced. You also have a vision within your mind that you have to some how transfer across. Which means you spend a lot of time just dreaming and staring at the leotard!

Sooooo.....

The Final Product :)

A point to be aware of, the skirt may look like I've cut the fringing too short. However this costume is a girls size 2 and this body board can take up to a girls size 6 leotard. Therefore this costume is ultra stretched whereas the skirt is not!!

#leotards #costumedesign #calisthenics #lycra #dance #brightcolours