Project: V&A Lucile 1910s dress

Do you remember this little number that I'm in LOVE with?

Well, on 11 November Cecile Pelous (page 6), the former first draper at Dior during the best Galliano years, came back to BYU for her third year. She stops by because she's friends with one of my costume professors and she works with students who bring in sketches of what they want to drape. In general if you bring in a really interesting sketch (or in my case my soulmate dress) she'll basically drape it for you. With this dress she had a lot fun (I hope) figuring out the bodice. She went on about how you should really drape in jersey for a dress like this, but it worked out. I learned a lot from watching her and she would have us pin and mark when she went to help other students.

starting with the skirt

the bodice and "sash" are in one piece, the CF really takes a drastic turn to make this happen

Sadly we had to drape on a size bigger than myself because that's the only form we have an arm for.

I did drape the back skirt, so hard, I know.

absolutely every detail needs to be marked bc it's a big fat mess once you take it off the form

DEV is French for CF (center front)

so gratifying and artsy

I have taken the muslin off the form and done the pattern for the bodice and sleeve. It is still a big fat mess. I'm anticipating needing to redrape once the general shape is cut out. I'll post another entry about patterning. I also just got back from the L.A. area and purchased two jerseys from Michael Levine's to do a "mock up" and a final dress. I figure I'll make a dress from the pattern I get then see about scaling it down for my size. Right now I'm just going to make a cocktail length dress bc everything is on the bias and I'm anticipating needing 8-10 yds just for a short dress. Plus, I'm going to struggle to find an occasion to wear it short, where would I ever wear it long? My wedding? yes, but that's awhile off still.

Historically accurate Disney princesses

I thought after my first time at Disneyland on Monday I'd do a Disney post. I happened upon the article below through a facebook friend a couple of months ago and just absolutely love it. Claire Hummel, an LA-based illustrator, has researched the Disney princesses approximate historical times and has rendered them accordingly. Her illustrations are beautiful and her explanations for each are great and very well educated.It just goes to show how much costume knowledge many disciplines need.

http://flavorwire.com/195401/reinterpreting-disney-princess-costumes-through-a-historical-lens
more current princesses can be seen here...
http://shoomlah.bigcartel.com/

Ms. Hummel has also captured some of my other favorite character...
http://shoomlah.bigcartel.com/product/an-awful-lot-of-running
http://shoomlah.bigcartel.com/product/fish-custard

rules of engagement [photos]

As a twenty something person surrounded by similarly aged people in a culture that is rampant with marriages I have seen my fair share of engagement photos. These are my rules of engagement photos followed by examples from commercial photography which is allowed to be avant garde bc no one's getting married.

-No touching of stomachs, mostly the lad touching the lass', we needn't be distracted by whether or not we are being invited to a shotgun wedding.
-Both bride and groom need to be fully visible. The biggest violation of this law is 'candid' whispering shots where the groom is being oh so secretive and is completely obscured by the bride.
-No looking pissy. You're getting married, you're in love, even if it's super hipster or trendy to look super pissed at everything the announcement of your intent to marry should not cause your loved ones to walk on eggshells around you.
-No piggy back rides. Groom carrying bride, bride carrying groom (original), this is just dumb  and awkard.
-As few props as possible including signs, umbrellas, balloons, flowers etc.
-The photo is not about the ring. Showcasing the engagement ring as the focal point of your photo is tacky and unnecessary. He bought her with a diamond, whoopty doo. If your guests want to see the ring they need to buy you a present and come to the reception.
-Coordinate outfits but don't be matchy matchy. Just look good people.
-Be careful about on the ground/lap poses. These just get dicey when there are too many knees, groins and elbows in a shot.
-Pick a relatively neutral location. Pretty meadow, great. Waterfall, perfect. Abandoned junkyard with a tire fire? Distracting.
and lastly
-ABSOLUTELY NO KISSING. seriously, I mean it.

be very careful about awkward poses.

pissed, not in love and too trendy.

can't see their faces

no kissing!

The morale of the story is that an engagement photos should...
a) show how attractive you and your fiance are (meaning fully visible shots of both w/ normal faces)
b) show that you are in love
c) look great on someone's fridge and not attract negative attention

"look how attractive and in love we are"

appropriate way to showcase the ring b/c the rest of the necessities are present

All in all an engagement photo should look like a Brooks Brother's ad. If you choose to do any of the above shots for a personal collection that's fine, but an engagement photo serves a very specific purpose and therefore should be as simple and straightforward as possible.

favorite picture: Liberty ties

Michael Levine's in L.A. carries Liberty of London cotton prints for $35/yard that are beautiful. Seeing them yesterday made me remember fondly my trip to Liberty while in London. Martha and I dedicated a whole day to Liberty of London, Savile Row and SOHO. It was one of my favorite and most fondly remembered days.

Here are Liberty of London ties. Great? yes.

favorite picture: vintage dior

I've had this photo in my cache for ages and am still hopelessly in love with it.
the hat, the waist, the blouse, the make up, the skirt, the jacket (which I'd die to see more of) and just the staging overall. This is one of my dream outfits on a very long list that I need to make for myself.

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My melancholy playlist

For when you want a good cry.

I'll Be Seeing You-- Rosemary Clooney
Smile-- Nat King Cole
When She Loved Me--Sarah McLachlan
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas--Judy Garland
Love, You Didn't Do Right By Me-- Rosemary Clooney
And So It Goes--Billy Joel
Hallelujah--Rufus Wainwright
Somewhere Over the Rainbow-- Judy Garland
Sentimental Journey--Doris Day
La Vie En Rose-- Edith Piaf
Somewhere--Connie Fisher
I'll Be Home for Christmas-- She & Him
Moon River-- Henry Mancini and his Orchestra
Someone Like You-- Adele
Cavalleria Rusticana, Intermezzo--Pietro Mascagni
Les Avions en Papier--Bruno Coulais, Les Choristes
How Deep is the Ocean-- Ella Fitzgerald

 

 

V&A: sculpture gallery, bust with great hair.

I loved the sculpture galleries in the V&A. They're so bright and long and have beautiful tiled floors. Also a lot of artists sit in the galleries and sketch the sculptures (and me sometimes, I could tell). I took pictures of many of the nudes for figure drawing and many of the busts for hair styles. This was one of my favorites for hairstyles.

trendi: beards

With two of my very good man friends now sporting beards I thought it an appropriate time to discuss them. Now it might just be that beards have been almost non existent in the last four years of my life, but I find a well trimmed beard rather dashing and distinguished. I personally prefer a shorter beard than one the length of  Mr. Beard himself Zach Galifianakis, but his is indeed well trimmed.

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In general these are the characteristics of an ideal beard...

- is of an even consistency aka not  mottled or splotchy
- has "the connection" between mustache and beard. While this is not always a necessity it is very much the preference.
- is well trimmed= no neck growth (that's scruff, not beard), no creeping onto the cheeks, well defined beard lines
- is short to medium in length, Mr. Galifianakis is a bit long for me. If your beard has started to curl, it's too long
- is well conditioned: a beard is hair men, it needs to be washed and conditioned appropriately

I realize that an "ideal" beard may be out of the genetic grasp of some men, for this I am sorry, but that was the hand you were dealt.

a bit too long, but wellkempt nonetheless. 

Mr. Quinto walks a fine line between beard and scruff. At any rate he's got too much neck growth.

Why yes Mr. Efron, you are beautiful, but you have neither "the connection" nor adequate or consistent coverage.

Mr. Levi, near perfect. Just needs a neck touch up.

Now, while nothing is technically wrong with Prince William's beard he sadly falls into the "just doesn't look good with a beard" category.

Mr. Clooney, perfect.

One more thing, if you have hair other than red and you grow a red beard 5 points. I have a huge soft spot for men with red beards and currently have a mental list of celebrities and friends that grow ginger beards. Want to freak a guy out? If he has red sideburns ask him if he grows a red beard, for some reason they never think that you can tell by their sideburns.

Ginger sideburns...

ginger beard. Although I have a sneaking suspicion that Fassbender dyes his hair and is in reality a ginger.

So, the verdict on beards, Yay oder Nay? Yay when the above rules are adhered to, otherwise NAY! (think Brad Pitt's beards, blech).

Lambert Wilson

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In the Silver Fox category is Lambert Wilson. The general American public might know him best from the Matrix series and mostly as the bad guy in general, but I was introduced to Monsieur Wilson in Pas sur la Bouche (Not on the Lips) my sophomore year of college. In this charming French musical Monsieur Wilson plays an American that speaks and sings French very badly. He was hilarious! I later saw him in whichever Matrix happened to be on TV about a year later and I just got done watching La princesse de Montpensier (The Princess of Montpensier) which I would only recommend for the costumes and Monsieur Wilson bc other than that it's just another obnoxious movie where all the men are in love with one beautiful but dull woman, also the French love naked women FYI. In Princess Monsieur Wilson plays an absolutely noble to a fault count and only wears delicious black doublets and breeches and the first seven minutes or so is Wilson fighting and riding a horse like he's Russell Crowe. Overall sexy voice, sexy hair, sexy face and FRENCH.

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Also, like our fave Anderson Cooper he had quite the delicious dark locks before his Silver Foxness.

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thbh: bedazzled and bedecked jeans

As a costume designer I LOVE glitz and glam and any excuse to put sparkle in a show. If you saw BYU's production of Peter Pan you know that Captain Hook is evidence of this. In my personal life however I think that glitz and doo-dads and what nots on clothes should be heavily regulated a la the Coco Chanel rule. It is in this spirit that I abhor the trend of ridiculously decorated blue jeans.

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Things that fall into this category? butt pocket jewels and gems, heavy embroidery, those giant yarn type stitches, whiskering and of course unnecessary holes and fraying, basically anything you can find at the Buckle.

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And sadly this trend is not just in women's jeans.

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I understand that there is a culture of 16 year olds that adore these jeans, mostly everyone in my high school, but I just think for a high functioning adult in a college type or higher atmosphere these jeans have no place in society. Projecting my bias and conservative style views on the world? Most definitely, but that's why it's my blog.

V&A: instruments in the sky!

I lived in London for 6 weeks between my junior and senior year of college (spring 2010) and studied Shakespeare and theatre there. We had our classes at the Hyde Park chapel which was very close to the Victoria and Albert Museum. To see just how close, here's a link to the Google map of the V&A's general area. See the London Family History Centre on the NW corner of the block the V&A is on? That was my school. Jealous yet? Hopefully needless to say I spent a lot of time at the V&A. The first day of course I spent in the permanent fashion exhibit, then I started going through the entire museum. All told I think it took me about 4 or 5 afternoons to go through every exhibit in the museum. Along the way I looked for any and all costumes and clothing resources and took pictures of all that I was allowed to. Sadly, some/most of my early pictures are rather awful because I didn't know if I could use a flash or not and was too shy to ask so lots of blurry photos of clothes, BUT I did get the hang of it and have ended up with a rather nice collection of more or less detail and wide shots of what I found interesting in the V&A. Honestly, if I lived in London I'd probably go to the V&A more often than the Temple...and I'd need a V&A book budget bc their bookstore is phenomenal.

Anydoctorwho...I went through my V&A photo folder last night and got all teary and nestalgic and decided that I'd share my photos with you! It's hard to pick the first photos to share, and I hope you're not disappointed, but I figured I'd start with two that aren't of costumes. The first is of the outside western facade of the building about a half a block from the main entrance.

Of course dumb me saw the scars from WWII before I saw the sign and thought that something was terribly wrong with whoever was in charge of building maintenance, then I was incredibly moved when I saw this inscription. As an American it's easy to forget that European cities were terrorized during WWII and that the blitz affected London deeply, my beautiful beautiful London.

Next is something I stumbled upon through my meandering and fell in love with. I wasn't smart enough to find and take a picture of the description that goes along with this, but it's pretty self explanatory. These instruments were crushed and hung by basically fishing line above this study room in a perfect plane. It just cracks me up and blows me away. Such a pleasant surprise and one more thing to take my breath away in my favorite museum!

SO much more to come in future entries!

favorite picture: 1930s wedding

Today's just one of my favorite pictures. Isn't this absolutely fantastic? I mean the VEIL for starters, the dress, the top hat, the morning coat, the French cuffs, the cravat, the bouquet, the gloves, and the background. If I get married in Nebraska this is sure to happen and I will revel in it.

NES: pictures of champions

Here's a picture of Martha playing Super Mario 2 and looking chill and me playing Dr. Mario and looking totally dumb. I haven't played any type of video games for quite awhile and now realize that I don't play them often because I'm a super anxious person that can't really take the pressure. I got a second controller so Marth and I played Dr. Mario for a bit. I get the other games on Monday!

New Nintendo is HERE!

I went to get my NES console yesterday but it hadn't come yet, so I ordered Mario 1 w/ Duck Hunt, Mario 3, and Excite Bike. I'll get the gun when Duck Hunt comes in. They only have gray ones, and I grew up with orange, but oh well. I can't recreate my childhood exactly. They weren't able to find 1942, but I did get to buy Dr. Mario at the Gray Whale in Orem which I got for Marth so guess what we're doing tonight?! Hoo-Ray! I also got my BBC Emma so...excited about that too.

Rosemary Clooney

Here are some great things about Rosemary Clooney.

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-she's not a complete knockout, total girl next door
-her hairs are perfect, always
-she sings some of my favorite songs and I didn't even know it!
-the woman had curves which was oh so refreshing compared to Vera Ellen
-she did both voices for Sisters in White Christmas
-she wasn't very coordinated which makes her so likable

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And now some well known, and not so well known Rosemary Clooney numbers.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan vs. Colin Firth

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 Ok, so this should be no contest right? I mean Mr. Darcy, come on! But I watched The Accidental Husband on Netflix tonight and it's a real toughy! As Martha says Jeffrey Dean Morgan just looks so "capable" like he can fix things. He's so beefy and masculine. On the other hand, English accent, Oscar winning looks great in a tux (best dressed man at the Oscars ever) Mr. Firth. But I bet Jeffrey Dean Morgan would look great in a tux as well, except I can't find any pictures of him in a legit tux, but he does have 1/2" on Firth...ug, don't make me choose! Ok, physically it goes to Morgan, but emotionally I got to give it to Firth because I mean, come on MR. DARCY and HRH King George VI.

So smug

Best dressed Oscar winner EVER

My favorite stores.

It's a wonderful day when everything you wear comes from one of four places: The Gap, Eddie Bauer, Nordstrom or was made by yourself. I give you my Sunday outfit. I will admit, it is not Sexy. I'm out of contacts and was running late and it was stormy so end of the story was this outfit. I never want to wear flats to church again, but bottom line is every piece I wore (minus jewelry and the glasses) was from one of these places. I'd also accept Banana Republic as a suitable source for my favorite clothes.

scarf: The Gap
jacket: Eddie Bauer
skirt: made by me
sweater: The Gap
tights: The Gap
shoes: Nordstrom (size 41, yup, they're European)