A couple of months ago Theo asked me to send her two wedding gowns for a photography workshop. I was excited to make two dresses for her, as I had all the creative freedom I could ask for. So I sketched my ideas to her, she approved and then I had them shipped in less than a week. Below you can see my favorite photographs of each photographer from the Sakis Batzalis Photo Workshop. Florina made the Josephine jewelry and she wrote about it here. Models: Andreea Ungureanu and Olga Vintaniuc. Make-up: Ioana Cristea.

Sakis Batzalis

Theo Manusaride

Vlad Cosmin

Mihai Zaharia

Cristian Martinez

Mihai Buta

Andreea Draghici

Andrei Dragon

Monica photographed beautifully by Theo Manusaride in a silk one shoulder pleated wedding gown that I made for a wedding photography workshop. I always enjoy and appreciate creative freedom, that’s why when I get opportunities like this one, I take them in the blink of an eye. Hope you like the pictures as much as I do!

Adriana was a client of ours and recently we have been working together a lot. Because I am mostly very sleep deprived, as I work a lot, it’s always great to have a make-up artist around who will always be able to make you look pretty, no matter the circles around your eyes. Regardless to say that you will see her wearing lots of DB clothing from now on! You can see more of her work here and also in the post below, as I indulged in showing you different pictures of myself, being made up by her.

We started working on this fall collection right before Christmas last year. After a very long and very busy 2011, I felt the need to really concentrate on a new collection and really make something on a creative whim. I wanted it to be an exercise in the unusual color combination of pink and green, the sweetest hue of pink and the freshest hue of green. Our obsession with green and pink, and by our I am referring to me and my sister Flo, probably started with her prom dress and it just took of from there.

And what better model, for a green mood, other than a redhead? Fortunately we found Ildiko who came all the way from Targu Mures for the photos! She was amazing, I absolutely love her face and her hair and the visual results of this photo-shoot!

Andi Popescu took the photographs, Anca Mihalache made her look flawless, Catalin Vela was in charge of the hairstyling, Florina made the Josephine jewelry and Adriana Unguras helped us, being present on location. I dare say she was my assistant for the day! And then the next day she made me up because we filmed about the new fall collection for Raluca’s ‘In Voga’ TV show on Analog TV. I cannot wait to post the show online, as soon as I get it.

The mood board for this collection:

Below you can see the collection organized color-wise, so that you better understand my way of thinking and building this collection: starting from a neutral color and then slowly integrating pops of bold hues into the looks.

The dresses on the hangers before the photo-shoot:

A few of the initial sketches are below. We always start from a few ideas regarding the silhouette and then I always take it from there and add on looks, after we have an initial fitting.

Cristina Radonici was sweet enough to come for a fitting, because she is the perfect model for size S – 38.

Above are some of the fabrics that we used. I never can stick to only a few, I always go to the fabric store and see all sorts of amazing fabrics that I’d like to use. My biggest challenge will be to use only about 5 to 7 fabrics, and I find that impossible right now.

I was fortunate enough to be fully supported by the lovely people around me, who first thought it was crazy to make this project happen in a couple of days. But we managed to get everybody together and besides the fact that we froze during the couple of hours in which we ran around the city like rebel teenagers, everything went well.

I thought of the dress, Flo styled it, Florina made the Josephine necklace, Cristina Radonici was the bravest of us, wearing this outfit at -9 degrees Celsius, Adriana Unguras made her face look like a very angry but chic clown and Vlad Gilcescu & Ale Flamy where there to capture everything. Lots of ‘thank you’s’ for all the support.

I am so lucky to have creative and amazing people around me who say ‘yes’ most of the times to all my crazy ideas. And if these pictures spark any kind of commentary or motivate you to protest in your own way, for what you believe in, well then all the work and freezing was well worth it!

If you follow me on all the social mediums I am using (tumblr, facebook, twitter), then you probably noticed that I posted some pictures with fabrics and looks from the next fall/winter 2012 collection. We are working on it since the beginning of the new year and I am hoping we finish it by the end of the month. We have 10 more looks to do and then re-edit the collection for the photo shoot of the look-book. It’s one of the most exciting parts of making a collection – deciding on the styling, accessorizing and adding finishing touches.

I promise to keep you updated on the process!

The color palette for the next fall 2012 collection.

Florina published her new Josephine collection of jewelry today and I had to share it, as I made the dress for these photos (click to see the full post if you want to better see the dress) taken by Andi Popescu of the pretty Romina. Anca Mihalache was responsible for the perfect fall/winter make-up. How amazing are all the vintage golden and bronze frames behind her? The photos were actually taken in a local store in the Unirii Square in Timisoara, where they are actually produced. Thumbs up and support for local businesses who survive in this economy!

Alex Matusciac took these photos last year, but I forgot to post them. I made this navy velvet stretch dress for the photo shoot, very last minute, but I love the glam feeling and atmosphere of the photographs. Makes me crave for some sunshine.

”The Rainbow Dress’ photographed by Vlad Gilcescu, modeled by Davina Sinjorz.

The idea and inspiration for this colorful collection came from my painting background – I studied painting all through grade and high school and then I went to the Art University, so you can imagine just how much I enjoy working with color (even if I mostly dress myself in black – the world that I envision in my work is very bright and colorful). Everybody knows the basic colors and color combinations, so I wanted to make a collection of dresses using only primary, secondary and tertiary colors meaning: red, yellow, blue – orange, purple, green (as they are combinations of primary colors) and the tertiary colors are actually combinations of primary and secondary colors.

Fabrics that we (me and my sister, as she helped me a lot with the concept and sewing of the whole collection) used for the collection were mostly chiffon, silk chiffon, light cotton, Georgette, silk organza – meaning light and transparent fabrics for a very ‘summery’ effect.

We did not plan ‘the Rainbow dress’ from the beginning. It was late one night when me and Flo saw ourselves surrounded by all these bright, colorful fabrics, so we thought of a dress to feature them all.

The initial sketching of the collection.

These are the colorful dresses on hangers before we went to Valiug for the runway presentation.

I made this collage for you to better understand the idea of the collection. Taken separately, all of the dresses have elements in common, being either draped details, cotton colorful ribbons or colorful silk handmade flower attachments.

Look book photographs by Andi Popescu, model: Oana, make-up: Anca Mihalache, jewelry: Josephine.

You can see all the looks detailed on dianabobar.com in the category ‘Collections’ by clicking on the Spring/Summer 2012 link.

We had the opportunity to show the dresses in a summer presentation at Ponton Casa Baraj in Valiug. These pictures make me miss summer so much! Photographs by Vlad Gilcescu.

The end of the presentation – me posing with the lovely girls who walked for me.

Theo Manusaride asked her friend Andreea to pose for her in Paris. I loved to be able to take part of the project by making the wedding dress for the photo shoot and Florina made the Josephine headpiece. I custom made it for Andreea, she lives in Paris and she sent over her measurements, meaning we had no way to make the fitting, so I made the dress and sent it over hoping that it would fit her – and it did! I was pleasantly surprised when Theo posted the pictures online, as they were even more beautiful than I expected. Paris is indeed an amazing city, hopefully I will get to visit it more next year.

I also can not wait to be able to do more projects like this one in the year to come.