Is greed always such a bad thing?

Is greed always such a bad thing? For my 7 deadly sins project I can guarantee it was not the case.

The 2012 Seven Deadly Sins project started of as a simple corsetry project to help myself gain a greater knowledge of corsets and how they’re made for future bespoke costume orders. After talking with Evad Photography, it quickly expanded into a full costume range, hair and make-up and photo shoot.

Greed is the sin of desiring and pursuing material good and possessions, so naturally golden colours had to be the main base of the costume with heavy jewellery incorporated into the outfit. As Thomas Aquinas once wrote, "Greed is a sin against God, just as all mortal sins, in as much as man condemns things eternal for the sake of temporal things." 

The wonderful Daria who modelled greed pulled the character off with style and flair, by showing the objects that humans most treasure. Her initial costume design was quite complicated, with a fully flared wrap around slit skirt to go with the corset, jewellery and accessories. After talking with the model we found several compromises that worked with the character.

I made Daria's corset from a medium coutil, with an outer layer of patterned satin, which shone when hit by the light at the right angle. I chose this material specifically as I felt that the occasional glint of gold showed wealth well. I gave the corset a rounded top and a slightly tapered bottom that were both bound with gold coloured bias binding. The corset had a fully functioning busk and each of the boning channels contained either flat steel bones or spiral boning that were tipped for comfort.

The skirt was originally designed to be fully flared with a long front slit, however at the time Daria was under the age of 18 and I personally felt this would be an inappropriate design for her age. To combat this problem, I chose to manipulate the skirt once on the model, to create a draped effect that preserved modesty. A tiara, necklace and bracelets were added to portray the indulgence of the character and gold coloured shoes completed the outfit to show the need of material possessions.

Evad Photography spent an entire day working with the 7 models and when it was the turn of greed, he chose to use various lighting effects and backdrops to enhance the costume and model. A long day and several weeks of work were put into the costumes, and it was wonderful to see the final products that represented each sin and that the models enjoyed themselves.

All photos (c) Evad Photography