Your Wardrobe Unlock'd

So you've finally completed your new gown – and you want to show it to the world.

But somehow, every time you try to take a picture, it just doesn't quite seem to capture the full glory of the thing itself.

Photography is an art, and teaching you to be a master is far beyond the scope of this article (not to mention my talent), but I hope to give you some tips and advice that will help make your costume photos as good as they can be.

Costuming projects tend to fall, more or less, into one of two categories: there are those projects in which we strive for historical accuracy and detailed facts, and there are those in which we depart on a tangent, using our own ideas to create a personal but fictional vision.

Neither is a less worthy pursuit than the other, but the fictional is often dismissed as sloppy or simply wrong. Extraordinary Belgian artist Viona Ielegems is here to show us otherwise. Her work demonstrates the enormous value in playing with fact to create a compelling and beautiful fiction...