oh 1910s, how I love thee aka thanks for the wedding dress idea

When I tell people I sew, and that I design, and that I like to design wedding dresses and plan to sew my own wedding dress most assume I already know what it's going to look like. False. A wedding dress depends on groom, venue, season etc and since I have none of these things I have very little idea what my wedding dress is going to look like, but I recently found a dress that is definitely on the short list.

I give you this silk crepe by Lucile circa 1910-12. It's currently in storage at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Ug, I just love it. Of course I'd make it in an ivory or ecru. It could also work for an evening gown in dark teal or merlot. In case you are having trouble imagining it as a wedding dress, here is a rendering I did of someone with my body type and hair in the dress with the groom in a super nice three piece that he can wear later :)

It'd work so great for a fall or winter wedding and it meets all the Mormon modesty standards. You just can't beat extant dresses for modest ingenuity. It's 10x harder to design a pretty dress with sleeves, anyone can design something strapless. Stretch yourself people!

Anyway, there you go.

when they were young: George Clooney

Yup, George Clooney.

My TV boyfriends.

I've compiled a short list of actors from TV that are my type and whom, in a completely fictitious world, could be my boyfriends: Lance Sweets (John Francis Daley) from Bones , Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) from Community and Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott) from Parks and Rec. Each is handsome, but kind of goofy, has great hair and is tall (-ish in Ben's case). At the end of the day with all things considered I'd have to go w/ Sweets b/c he's absolutely adorable and not pushing 40.

TV boyfriends that are out of my league? Matt Bomer (the HAIR!!), Zachary Levi (tall, dark and SUPER handsome), & Jon Hamm (SUCH a man)

too horrible by half: Mustaches

I support most things hipster. When I feel so inclined I hipster it out myself, put on  my boy specs, red lip stain and nautical neckerchief and I'm ready to go. But there is one hipster fad that I cannot get behind, the mustache, which ruin many a handsome boy.

The thing with the hipster or "ironic" mustache is that those who sport them hardly have the ability to grow anything close to a beard, let alone some lip fringe. Is that what makes them ironic? I just don't get it.   Apparently "in addition to being stylish, mustaches also serve as excellent salt licks during exercise" or so says my friend Scott. I hesitate to mention anything remotely positive about the hipsterstache, but trust my readers will see this pro as one of the biggest and most disgusting cons. My freshman year of college I was introduced to "no shave November" that had something to do with raising awareness for something (the cause obviously stuck). The boys on BYU campus would grow their 'staches, then shave them off come December. Somehow "no shave November" has gone year round. Having gone to BYU where being clean shaven is apart of the mandatory dress and grooming standards, I assumed 'staches would be poo pooed as beards (no matter how well manscaped) are, but alas alack, they are not. I don't know why they aren't. In my opinion a well trimmed beard is much more becoming and groomed looking than a mustache, at least on 20 something dweebs. Is it that those who can't grow beards are trying to prove that, even though minute, they can achieve something in the facial hair department? All or nothing boys, all or nothing.  Leave 'staches to the unironic professonials such as Tom Selleck, Clark Gable and Ron Swanson.

 Jude Law committing the hipster sin of nasty 'stache-age. Combined with the deep-V and messenger strap I'd say he's the poster child for the dark days of Hipster-dom.

 

 

 

 

 

Clearly Mr. Selleck rocks the 'stache rather than not, but let's remember how much of a nonhipster man's man he is, and how well groomed the Tomustache has always been. 

Review: Creation (2009)

I just got done watching Creation on InstantPlay with Paul Bettany as Charles Darwin and real life wife Jennifer Connelly as wife Emma. I've been meaning to watch it for awhile (costume drama, has Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Bettany's a fave) but was never really in the mood for an intense drama on evolution.

I can't say that I was particularly in the mood for one tonight, but I was pleasantly surprised. Very slow going at first, and never really too terribly thrilling, the overall feel of the movie was nonetheless appropriate and comfortable for the subject matter. A gem at playing specksy pre-electricity naturalists (Master and Commander) Bettany turned in a great performance as perhaps the most famous of them all. The movie shows Darwin's struggle to come to terms with the death of his eldest daughter Annie (played by a beautiful, charismatic and toothy Martha West), finish his studies on evolution and publish a book "disproving God" while having marital problems with his very religious wife. After seeing or reading an interview where Bettany tells how before filming he doubted his wife's ability to pull off an English accent, I'd say Connelly did wonderfully well, with the accent and the role, but I'm also a sucker for her since A Beautiful Mind (another Bettany/Crowe favorite).

Anyway, I seem to be rambling. Awe yes, I was very pleasantly surprised by Bettany's portrayal of Darwin as a devoted family man (which he historically was). His scenes with his daughter Annie, flashbacks with his infant children and family time on the beach or watching a fox kill a rabbit were touching and heart warming. Overall the movie was well focused and I enjoyed it a lot. 

Costumes were well done, esp Mrs. Darwin's maternity wear (I'm a sucker for old-timey maternity wear). I was especially captivated by the hair design. Present Darwin was balding rather badly and flashback Darwin was not. Based on the shadow evident of Bettany's hairline in some scenes (if you are able to grow hair it's hard to hide the fact, even after a fresh shave) I'd say they shaved his head and he was wigged. I'd be surprised if this wasn't the case and a bald cap was used. Most surprising for me was a very close shot of Darwin's eye as he woke up one morning and the fact that a) his eyebrow lace was blatantly visible and b) he wore eyebrow pieces! I had no doubt his chops were fake and I knew Bettany had very light eyebrows, but I was shocked they didn't just dye them! Maybe this way was just easier? At any rate, you think they could have gone back in and edited those 5 frames so you couldn't see the lace. I only noticed a brow shift once after I knew they were pieces. Other than that Connelly and the little girls had some very pretty hairstyles. Connelly's wig and chignon was surprisingly thick and large but I've been learning that yes, some women are blessed/cursed with that much and thick of hair.

when they were young: Stephen Colbert

I'm starting a new segment, titled above. My friend Marth found this picture of Stephen Colbert from his younger years. We couldn't believe it was him until we found this other picture (right). It's odd how when viewed by itself we couldn't see how the bearded picture was Stephen, but when you compare the nose, eyes, nasal labial folds etc it's remarkable how similar he still looks. Way to be Stephen!

What do YOU want to read?

I'm trying to increase fashionEphemera's readership and now have more than ample time on my hands to do some more blogging. My question to anyone reading this, whether for the first time or not, is what has been your favorite part about this rather sporadic and scatter-brained blog? If you look on the right you'll see some of my categories I haven't worked on in awhile. You can have movie reviews (suggest some!), play reviews, outfit reviews, wedding dress or other clothing designs. If you bring something to my attention I can blog about it! I so prefer to post on this blog than the one about my life, haha!

So let me know if you would, leave me a comment, facebook me if you're a friend. I'd love to blog what you want to read!

Bless Shelby