Sondra Celli was asked to create an original ensemble for the newly crowned Miss Maine, Kristin Korda, a twenty-one-year-old native of Saco. Korda contacted the designer because she was familiar with her sparkling and innovative creations featured on the hit series My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding. Korda explained, “I knew Sondra would create a Maine-inspired costume that would exceed my expectations. After all, her motto is, ‘It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that bling!’ and that was evident everywhere in her shop. She had the most dazzling designs I’d ever seen.”

Sondra Celli’s signature “bling” style will take your breath away. In honor of Maine’s Homarus Americanus (American Lobster), Celli designed an exquisite ensemble that must be seen to be believed. A cold-water crustacean never looked so good!

Celli’s design consists of a lobster-red fitted dress with detachable floor length skirt. The skirt features crystal organza ruffles resembling ocean waves that cascade down the back. An unexpected feature of the design is the lobster tail train created with bone and wire that bends and folds like Maine’s most notable edible.  

A sparkling collection of starfish, seashells, seaweed, and lobsters, all covered with genuine Swarovski crystals, cross up and over one shoulder of the design. More sparkling sea life accents can be found at the hip, hem, and down the back of the skirt to the train.

In addition, Miss Maine will wear a matching custom fascinator in her hair that combines golden fish netting and more crystal crustaceans. But it is the pair of crystal heels Korda will be wearing that will truly take your breath away—just like a jump into the cold ocean waters of Maine. Fifteen thousand Swarovski stones in colors like Fire Opal, Light Siam, Padparadscha, Aquamarine, and White Opal were used to create a stunning three-dimensional shoe seascape. Multi-colored crystals artistically hand-placed, one-by-one, blend to form images of sand and sea and even a lighthouse on each heel. One look at these exquisite shoes and you can appreciate the more than fifty hours it took to create them. “I absolutely love my shoes!” exclaimed Korda. “Everyone has to see these shoes. They are beyond extraordinary.”

Sondra Celli’s opulent custom design ensemble for Miss Maine contains more than fifty thousand shimmering Swarovski crystals. So, if you are planning to attend the Show Us Your Shoes parade on September 14, 2013, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, we strongly suggest you wear shades! 

Source: Contact: Audrey Findlen, Public Relations for Kristin Korda, Miss Maine. Photos by Tisi Farrar and Audrey Findlen