I am always thrilled to hear that the truly divine Jonathan Mayor wants to talk to me about a design, so was there like a shot when, back in June he sent me a message asking to chat about something "fabulously Roman-esque" for his part in the Manchester Pride Parade.
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| Original sketch |
Jonathan wanted to incorporate some red sequinned fabric into his dress, and true to form, wanted an absolute show stopper. "Think big, and then think bigger." With a reference image of Celine Dion in a Stephane Rolland gown for sleeve inspiration we sat down together and drew up a design with a huge, full skirt and kimono drop sleeves with massive shoulders. During his on-stage performances, Jonathan is very expressive with his arms so there needed to be lots of room to move.
As the dress was destined to be big and heavy, Jonathan chose a breathable silk fabric for the bodice part, lined with cotton, with a faux silk habutai for the billowing inserts and faux silk dupion sleeves.
Sewing with sequinned fabric is always somewhat of an experience, and creating the size and shape of the sleeves was quite a challenge involving a large amount of crinoline and coils of boning all hand-stitched in.
Sparkly heart-shaped buttons were added all the way down the front, and the chest area was left intentionally empty to accommodate Jonathan's wide variety of spectacular jewellery. He also wanted the sleeves to not come higher than shoulder height to avoid crowding his head/headpiece.
To create even more fullness to the skirt part of the dress, a ready-made hooped petticoat was bought online, which also helps to ensure it doesn't get wrapped in his legs when moving around.
Seeing Jonathan parading down Deansgate for Manchester's Pride Parade leading the rugby Spartans, I was incredibly proud too! I can't wait for Jonathan's next vision!
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| Back detail |
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| Featured in the Manchester Evening News |
His stylist provided me with fabric and trimmings and a tight deadline of 2 days! The requirement was a robe that looked luxurious, and had a train - quite a length for a man of 6 foot 5. 
I created a partially interfaced hood to ensure it draped over his head naturally, but didn't flop down over his face. The edges of the hood and centre-front opening were trimmed with a twisted black braid, and a decorative frog clasp was attached at the throat. The actual cloak was done up with about 25 hooks and eyes all running down the front and hidden.
