The Chocolatier, Part 3 : Worn Magazine : Fashion, Art, and Style in Washington, DC

Back in June and July we introduced Co Co Sala‘s chocolatier, Katie Musser, who constructed a dress out of sweets and brought a cocoa-based Cruella de Vil to life. In the next print edition of Worn Magazine (coming in October) we’ll share the full story written by Maura Judkis and more photography from the month-long project.

For today’s post, we’re sharing images of other characters I found during the final competition at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Before all the models walked the runway, makeup, hair, sugar and chocolate were constructed into final assembly and a delicate troupe of personalities took shape. The Sweet Charity fashion show is something that chefs spend weeks, often months, preparing for, and it was obvious how hard everyone worked to achieve their final outfit. It was tough to predict who would win.

In the next photograph you’ll see a list of everyone involved, each model teamed with a chef who assembled a chocolate costume themed on a fictional storybook character. It might be a man (Ben Hur), woman (Chiyo from Memoirs of a Geisha) or in one case a little girl (Tinkerbell). Then in the following image, you’ll see how the floor of the dressing room was covered in saran wrap to protect the carpet from damage (one competitor’s outfit began to melt before the competition began and shards of her chocolate dress fell onto the floor, as a hushed silence fell over the room that disguised her team’s frustration).

This event only happens once a year and I felt very lucky to photograph it for the conclusion of our story. Stay tuned for more information on the next print edition of Worn and save the date! We’ll have a photography exhibition of this story that opens on November 7 at Biagio Chocolate. Biagio’s got the Amedei Chao 70% bar, ranked the world’s #1 dark chocolate bar by Seventypercent.com. If you get a chance, stop by his store and/or Co Co Sala to indulge yourself in a chocolate fantasy.