Witty Wednesdays - Throw-Back to Titanic

Today I thought I'd share something I made many, many years ago!

Fashion Friday - Give Three-Piece a Chance

Last month a protest was held on the famous Saville Row. Several hundred people took to the street to protest the encroaching of Abercrombie & Fitch upon one of the most Venerable Institutions of the Fashion Industry. Unfortunately, this protest - or the cause of it, rather - heralds the final chapter of the Age of Couture.

This all started at the end of the 19th century, with a man named Charles Dana Gibson. Gibson was a turn of the century illustrator, and while he didn't invent the styles of the 1890s and 1900s, he is widely credited with popularizing the look we now know as the "Gibson Girl". This might not have been revolutionary. It might have been simply the latest in the series of fashionable changes to Victorian dress, except for one thing: for the first time in history it became fashionable for women to wear separates.

Before then, stylish ladies had worn dresses almost exclusively. This had left dressmaking in the exclusive realm of individual tailors and seamstresses, as the corseted and bustled figures made standardized sizing and mass-manufacturing impossible. The only people who bought pre-made clothing were sailors and other workmen who didn't have any family to make them clothes. This was looked down upon by the upper classes. While Sears-Roebuck and others also produced clothing for their catalogues, these, too, were considered déclassé.

With the arrival of these fashionable separate skirts and blouses (then known as shirtwaists), standardized measurements and mass production became not only a possibility but a reality. Manufacturers began popping up all over major cities - you may have heard of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire.

Ready-to-wear slowly pushed it's way to the forefront of culture and society, and got special boosts with each of the world wars. However, couture was still king in the fashionable circles. Wealthy women still traveled to Paris each season to purchase new gowns, dresses, suits, etc.

A Dior Haute Couture Show, 1950s

The next part of the story begins on October 23rd, 1957. Christian Dior, the toast of Paris, dies of a heart attack while on vacation in Montecatini, Italy. In his wake, Yves Saint-Laurent is tapped to take over the fashion juggernaut that is Dior. However, after only a few years, the investors butt heads with the young designer purposefully fail to have him excused from his military conscription. After several years of struggles with military service, doctors, and drugs, Saint-Laurent pulled himself together and in 1966 announced a ready-to-wear line. While other designers also had prêt-à-porter lines in the works, YSL is greatly credited with being the first due to his strong ideas on the subject of democratizing fashion. Saint-Laurent's Rive Gauche stores were a huge success, and this spelled the beginning of the end for couture.

It's interesting to note that it was around this time that the miniskirt came into fashion. This is widely considered to have been the last major fashion trend. Nothing since has been so widely pervasive as the miniskirt, and it heralded the end of institutionalized fashion, where Parisian couturiers dictated the styles to the masses.

Nowadays, design companies lose money on their couture lines, and they are becoming less and less prevalent as the shows become too expensive to produce and as more and more of the artisans and craftspeople who provided lace, feathers, beading, and all of that to the design houses fold due to economic hardship. In spite of this, Saville Row has remained a bastion of bespoke against the rising tide of ready-to-wear. The tailors and seamstresses of Saville Row resent that a fast fashion company such as Abercrombie & Fitch would trespass onto what is effectively the Vatican of tailoring, and consider it both disrespectful and an economic threat.

However, will their cries be ignored? Will the suit-makers of Saville Row be swallowed up by fast fashion the way Barnes & Noble or Starbucks swallowed up so many businesses before them? Will centuries of experience and incomparable quality be replaced by lower prices and quick turn-around times? I believe they will, sadly. They simply cannot compete in a society that holds price above all other aspects of a product. I hope they'll stick around for a while yet, and at the very least live to preserve their wisdom for posterity.

Macabre Mondays/Tableau Tuesdays - Draw This Dress and More

Please note that all artwork shown in this article is the intellectual property of Misses Carroll and Bee, and is used here fully crediting them as the creators thereof.

I recently stumbled onto a very, very interesting Tumblr: Draw This Dress, where the incredibly talented duo of Emily Carroll and Vera Bee get together and draw beautiful garments from bygone eras. Here are some examples:

Stunning. It's one of those things that just turns me green with envy at the sheer talent of these women, but I'm sure you're wondering why I called this "Macabre Monday" if I was just going to show you a bunch of pretty dresses - well, I'll get to that soon enough. If you have the time, also check out the sites they used for reference, such as Ye Olde Fashion or OMG! That Dress!. They have tons of amazing vintage and antique clothing for you to ogle, drool over, put into your swipe files, or what have you.

Like This one.

Or this one.

Or this one!

OR THIS ONE!!!

Vera Bee's website contains lots of beautiful artwork and a rather bizarre animation, but it was Emily Carroll's site that really dragged me down the rabbit hole of the macabre. Most of you are probably familiar with fairy tales, and because of movies like The Brothers Grimm or television shows like Once Upon a Time many of you will probably be familiar with the much darker origin of the fairy tale; stories told to young children to basically scare them into behaving. These were the original Goosebumps.

Wait for it. Here comes the macabre. If you know about these uber-macabre stories (for instance, how the Little Mermaid actually tries to stab her prince, or how Sleeping Beauty's mother-in-law was actually an Ogress who repeatedly tries to eat her grandchildren), and still enjoy them, I strongly encourage you to check out the Comics page on Carroll's website. However, these are not for the faint of heart or stomach. You have been warned. Check out Carroll's amazing comics here. Hope you all had a lovely weekend!

Fashion Friday - Cannes of the Century

Now, I wasn't sure whether or not to wait to do this post, seeing as the Cannes Film Festival is still in full swing, and there are still several red carpets to, so maybe I'll end up doing some special weekend posts about the rest... or maybe not. Anyway, I realized a fun way for me to cover red carpet events without it just being another runway fashion review - I'll sort the gowns I like or don't like by time period! Here we go:

1900s

Romantic lace, a soft decolletage, and the diamond collar necklace all make for a beautiful Gibson Girl silhouette on the lovely Eva Herzigova. The a-la-Draper hair is simple and elegant.

1910s

Grecian detail, a wide belt, and chiffon shoulder panel all give a dash of Lucille to Eva Longoria's gown.
1920s

The simple design, drop waist and tiered ruffle skirt all give Ms. Rossy de Palma a Flapperish Flair. This gown is also reminiscent of the Sevillanas.
Honorable Mention

1930s

A Clingy silhouette, halter top, and bangles bring back memories of Nancy Cunard.
Honorable Mentions

1940s

Woah. Who brought Gilda to life? This is 100% Rita Hayworth. Lovely!
Honorable Mentions

1950s

It's no surprise that Marion Cotillard should be chosen for the 50s when she's decked out in Dior. Gorgeous.
1960s

I find it ironic that Ms. Fonda should have been picked for this decade, as it was the decade of her youth. Her sweetheart neckline, ratted hair, and cinched waist all bring back the stylin' sixties.
1970s

I'm torn. I really can't tell how I feel about these disco era digs. They are very seventies, and very very much the color of mustard. Either way that is Charlie Chaplin's grand-daughter.

Hope this was fun! I might go through this again next week to round up some more dresses... Or I may simply update this post. Either way you'll be updated of anything I do with this. Have a great weekend, readers!

Musical Mondays - Katharine Hepburn in "Coco"

I have always admired the work of Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel. She was the first designer to truly liberate women and single-handedly shaped the look of the 1920s. So many of the things we consider "staples" in our wardrobes came from her. She was an amazing designer and an amazing woman to boot.

If ever a woman gave fewer f@%*s, I don't know of her.

I have also always enjoyed discovering new and obscure musicals and plays.

Look up the Broadway cast on Youtube. You will love it.

What I enjoy more than both of those things is finding a way to combine two things that I enjoy. Clearly, what I'm getting at is a combination of an obscure musical and Coco Chanel, right? Right.

"What's that, you say? The person writing this article
must be some sort of huge gay nerd, you say?"

The story itself isn't phenomenal. It's a largely fictionalized take on Chanel's comeback in 1953, as Chanel gets involved in the love life of one of her young workers and inevitably flashbacks on her own love life (again, largely fictionalized)... Basically if you took the Lifetime Chanel movie and "Coco Before Chanel" and added music, you'd have this. Normally I wouldn't even be bothered to look up something with a plot that mediocre, but there was the tiny detail of Katharine Hepburn playing the title character.

*gasp*

Both Katharine and I were ambivalent about the idea. The part had originally been imagined for Rosalind Russell, who is most famously known for *ahem* squawk-blocking Ethel Merman out of a part in the movie version.

Pictured: mixed feelings.

I say "squawk" because that's about all Russell could do, especially compared to a voice such as Ethel Merman's, but a bout of arthritis made it impossible for Russell to continue, so the producers went with yet another actress who is not known for her signing, Katharine Hepburn. It was a fair choice and she does a marvelous job, but what really struck audiences was the production design: A complex reproduction of Chanel's mirrored staircase, rotating backdrops and hidden entrances. The show won the Tony for Costume Design but not much else.

Really though, if you don't at least get a nomination you'd
 have to question your abilities as a costume designer.

All of this rigmarole is really just an excuse to show you a bunch of pretty dresses. Remember that Tony I mentioned? Well, the finale of the show is a lengthy lament by the designer about forsaking love for her work (groan) but the number features a procession of Chanel repros from 1918-1959. Check it out - you can always skip to 4:20 to get right to the dresses:

Impressive, eh? What do you think of the whole thing? Should they have gone with a different actress for the lead role? Tell me in the comments below.