to create this majestic one off piece
for Viktoria’s opening ceremony.
The ice Queen leg, “they were just
going to have her with her regular
foam shaped leg, no one would know
she’s an amputee. Once she was
doing rehearsals she approached the
director and said, ‘you know I know
someone that could do some amazing
stuff with my leg, why don’t we turn
it into a feature, it’s the Paralympics,
why don’t we make a point of the
fact that I’m an amputee and I’m
being spun round on one leg in these
massive heels.’” For the ceremony,
Viktoria’s costume was sponsored
by Swarovski, so it was Sophie’s job
to crystalize the snow queens leg.
“They gave me basically what they
had left which was an entire table
full of crystals, which was amazing.”
Sophie sneaks in that she actually
still has some of the crystals left, I
can just imagine them dotted around
Sophie’s workshop glamming up the
odd silicone hand or foot. “I started
experimenting with the crystals
having got a drawing of the outfit she
was wearing. I had to keep it really
lightweight though, that was always
a factor because all the jewels were
getting really heavy. So I used parts
of plastic bottles and lined it, they
probably hate the idea that I used
plastic bottles alongside their crystals
but I had to think of other ways to
keep it light.”
Viktoria Modesta is an amputee
model with a cracking pair of leg’s,
no one can deny that, another design
Sophie created for the model was her
stereo leg. A speaker actually fitted,
and working into her prosthetic.
Amputees are not seen enough in
mainstream media, and this is the
important change that Sophie hopes
to have an impact with, “Prosthetics
within mainstream media is definitely
changing, with the Paralympics
anyway. I don’t know whether its just
because I’m in it, I see it all the time.
I get so many emails from amputees
and full bodied people contacting me
and saying ‘oh this is amazing, I’m
really inspired by this,’ so its great to