Beautiful women dressed in velvet and lace drifted down the runway Thursday night in Dawn Younger-Smith’s new Ready To Wear collection for her line Boudoir Queen. If you’re unfamiliar with Boudoir Queen, it’s about time you two get acquainted! Dawn is definitely one of the best designers in Austin. Usually known for working with antique fabrics and drawing upon inspirations from the past, Boudoir Queen makes the type of clothes that when you wear them you will feel like you are taken away to another time and place. Her clothes have a magical quality. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Dawn has made many custom stage clothes for musicians like the Veronica’s, Imogen Heap, and Patty Griffin, just to name a few. While her clothes usually have a disheveled ease about them, they still retain a sophisticated elegance.
While Dawn’s new RTW collection does not use as many antique precious fabrics as her one-of-a-kind pieces in the past, they definitely still look the part. Usually playing with looks inspired by the 1920s and 30s, this new collection took a bit of a different turn and drew upon a few films from the 1950s for inspiration. Each one of the RTW dresses is named after one of the female characters in the Tennessee Williams screenplays: Babydoll, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and A Street Car Named Desire. With an innocent yet sexy quality, the clothes particularly seem to reflect the storyline of Babydoll, a film about a sensuous 19 year old virgin. It’s hard to pick favorites from this collection because there were so many for me. But I especially loved the see-through black dress with daisies because of the unique silhouette. Compared to the rest of the collection this dress stood out to me because it had the fullest skirt and seemed more like a playful party dress than most of the others. Plus, when the model turned the corner and I saw the giant bow in the back, I was sold.
This new collection from Boudoir Queen can be ordered wholesale for boutiques and will be available on their website starting August 25th.
photography by: Patrick Meredith
Joanna Wilkinson
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