07/07/2026
Well, it’s been a hot minute, but here’s a quick peek at the finished photo shoot for my “manhole cover” creations. What a blessing to be invited to participate in this.
These were rubbings created over a lifetime of travel by professor Carroll Schleppi. They were gifted to my friend Tracy's Sewing Studio LLC Tracy McElfresh who put together this collaboration. The assignment: create something interesting out of these rubbings.
I immediately had the first outfit in mind… the black linen jacket and pants combo. The jacket is made out of a circle, including a shawl collar as the top of the circle, and the swing back style creating the large expanse of fabric to hold the manhole cover. The pants are a barrel style, low slung waistband-less slouch style, and the legs are actually sort of circular in the pattern. All of these rubbings come from Hamburg Germany. Huge thanks to Meesha Kay TheLazyPhotographer who is the model, totally slaying this outfit!
The second outfit was another immediate reaction in my brain, to take these rubbings and organize by size, and create a dress with a skirt full enough to hold six different rubbings. I’ll be honest, this dress is not quite complete. There are two more large rubbings that go on the back, and then a bunch of black crinoline to go underneath and hold out the skirt. But I loved this magenta fabric, it has amazing movement and body. All the rubbings on this dress are from all over Europe: London, France, Germany and more. Massive thank to Michie Michael who absolutely knows how to rock a swinging dress, plus Michie was our photographer for the day!
I’ll reshoot both of these outfits when totally complete
Finally, the beautiful Turkish coat was fashioned by Tracy McElfresh Tracy's Sewing Studio LLC, and is modeled by Andria Hahn Misutka Andria Misutka.
What a great event, and I’m just so proud to have been a part if it!!
