More Dandies in Africa: Sapeurs and Swenkas

You may remember the post I made a while back about the Sapeurs, Congolese dandies whose styles are simply mind-blowing. They're super interesting because they don't just believe in dressing well. They bring beauty to the world at great cost to themselves under adverse conditions. Their emphasis on personal style over just following fashion has tuned them into celebrities of the best kind in their community- through standing out for doing something positive, and by setting a good example for and bringing happiness to others. They believe in non-violence and adhere to a high standard of elegance and polished manners as part of an entire way of life that goes way beyond the clothes. These guys are my freaking heroes.

Here's a great short video with lots of photos of them.

There are lots more videos of the Sapeurs on YouTube if you want to search for them there. For more images, also check out a copy of this book, Gentlemen of Bacongo by Daniele Tamagni.

And I'm really excited to have just found out about this totally other group of similar guys in South Africa, the Swenkas, who put on a weekly fashion contest to showcase their styles. Here's a short video profile about them and what they do.

A documentary was made about them a few years ago.

Here is a copy of most or all of it dubbed in French.

And here's the beginning of it with English subtitles (the video is ten minutes long but after the first five minutes or or, it starts over from the beginning, strangely). I'd love to find the full movie with English subtitles, but it's proving elusive so far. The competition scene with music by Henry Mancini is great!

I hope you enjoy seeing these images as much as I did.

Recap: Dandylicious Fashion Show

On June 1st, I participated in the 'Dandy-licious' fashion show, hosted by the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco as part of their popular Friday Nights series, in partnership with the East Bay Express. The show was held in conjunction with the DeYoung's current exhibition, 'The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier, From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk', running until August 18th. The exhibit is astounding and not to be missed!

It was such a pleasure to work with Dark Garden Corsetry (who provided the stunning corsets, of course) and Duchess Clothier (who contributed the snappy suits)!

Here's a video of the show:

Photographs also appeared in the East Bay Express, and on SF Indie Fashion.

Here are some great photos taken by Joel Aron. He's so talented, it's crazy. Except for two vintage top hats (as noted), I made all the hats that appeared in the show, and on the heads of many supporters in the audience.

The following photos show the models and crew getting ready before the show. With such a talented photographer, and such a pretty group of folks, even the candid shots are gorgeous.

 

Jeffrey (left) wears a lovely vintage top hat. My husband John (right) sports my brand new 'Clive' style hat in Panama straw.

John was a big help in finding the right hat to go with each outfit. Here, he tries a new 'Blake' fedora on a happy model.

 

 My new ladies 'Dee' fedora went well with a 'Dollymop' brand corset from Dark Garden.

 

 Something great (among many great things) about Dark Garden corsets is they look just as beautiful from the back!

 

This vest-fronted corset, made by Sarah of Dark Garden for her beau Erik, was the stunner of the show for me. I'm still floored by it.

 

Christopher wears a black 'Neville' bowler hat. He liked it so much, he wants to buy one to keep.

 Pre-show rehearsal. I brought a variety of 'Neville' bowlers and 'Drake' fedoras for the show.

 

Autumn Adamme, Proprietress of Dark Garden, wears a vintage top hat and white pique tuxedo vest corset. Her chic and inventiveness know no bounds.

 

The classic styling of Duchess suits were great in combination with the corsets and hats. 

The following photos are from the stage show itself. It was so much fun to see everything come together, and really exciting to see so many of my hats on heads in one place!

I haven't named this wide-brimmed Cab Calloway style fedora yet, worn by Raymond (2nd from right). I made it especially for the show with Raymond in mind, but I like it so much I'm thinking about adding it to my Spring/Summer 2013 collection.

Daniel (far right) models a 'Kingston' fedora. Watch out for those in Fall/Winter 2012. And I can't get over how cute Ben was with that fan.

And finally, a portrait that Joel took that night of one of the MCs from the show, wearing a 'Maman Brigitte' top hat.

There were hundreds and hundreds of people in the audience, and everyone involved with putting the show together was delighted with the result. Thanks again to all of our gorgeous models, and to the DeYoung Museum and the East Bay Express for helping make this great event happen!

Carnival in Venice 2011 Photos

I've just returned from an amazing trip to Carnival in Venice, Italy. It was part adventure with good friends, part pilgrimage (Venice has been a major center of masquerade activity for close to 1,000 years, and Carnival is the mother of all costume parties), part lifelong-dream-fulfillment, and part 10-year wedding anniversary celebration for myself and my husband John. Traveling with close friends who are also costumers, designers and artists made the experience even more special. We started working on our costumes last fall, and during the last few months before our departure for Italy in late February, making outfits was pretty much ALL we did beyond the bare minimum of eating, sleeping, and work. We had a magical, amazing, fantastical time in Venice, and started planning our trip back for Carnival 2012 before we even returned to San Francisco. Venice is truly beautiful and fascinating, and we met so many amazing new friends - it was like summer camp for adult costumers. I can't wait to go back!

Here are a few pictures from our trip. There were too many great shots taken to include them all (thanks to the fine photography of Daniel and Steph). Unless otherwise noted, costume pieces were made by the person wearing them in the photo (or someone else in our group), or pulled from one of our closets (John's heavily-braided jackets were borrowed from another friend). With very few exceptions, all hats pictured were made by House of Nines Design (i.e. me), and all corsets and corset-jackets were made by the geniuses at Dark Garden Corsetry. We had great luck finding fabrics and materials at Burnley and Trowbridge Co., Renaissance Fabrics, Britex Fabrics, and Lacis.

Our household mascot of late has been 18th century painter Joseph Ducreux. Here John strikes a pose that says "Disregard photographers, acquire prosecco."


John got a lot of mileage out of his huge new Kevenhuller tricorn. Over the 10 days of Carnival, I piled more and more stuff and feathers all over my hats. I wanted them to be bigger and crazier everyday.


John in front of Harry's Bar. He normally wouldn't wear such enormous feathers on a bowler, but we figured: why not? It's carnival. Plus, the extra height made him easy to spot as we moved through dense crowds in the streets.


We spent part of almost every afternoon at Florian, the famous cafe that's been sitting pretty on San Marco square since 1720. It has incredible ambiance and history, with mural-painted walls and gorgeous furniture, not to mention being the main hang-out of serious carnival costumers. Here's Daniel lounging amongst the art.


A few days later, I re-shaped the same hat from the last photo into a bicorn, and was very pleased with the foxy results.


When planning what to make for and bring on the trip, as a group we agreed on a set of themes and a basic color palette (red, black, white, yellow and gray) for most of our outfits, so our wardrobes would coordinate but not be identical. That way, we wouldn't be too matchy-matchy, but we could share accessories and use pieces in different combinations to make new outfits. Here's Autumn, rockin' our color palette in a gorgeous 18th century gown at the Hotel Danieli on the Grand Canal.


And Steph in an incredible mantua and fontange. Steph, Autumn and Daniel brought Baroque-style (late 17th century) outfits, but I was surprised that so few other people at carnival tried that period. Maybe we should do more with it next year. (Costume: Past Pleasures Ltd.)


Since it was the first trip to Venice for most of us, we had to take a gondola ride. I was disappointed to find that nobody seemed to be using gondolas for actual transportation very much, it was all just tourists being taken in a big circle like a theme park ride. But it was still pretty great seeing the city from a very different angle. Autumn looked like a beautiful cupcake that day in her pink and white shepherdess dress.


The gondolas are works of art, and pretty romantic despite all the corny tourists. I half-joked about how many lottery tickets I'd buy after we got home, to be able to afford our own private gondolier to transport us around the city next year in style.


Another fun afternoon at Florian. This was my first attempt at a Marchesa Casati outfit (my hero!). As she famously said, 'I want to be a living work of art.' I'll be doing more to channel her next year.


Why was (almost) all food so delicious in Italy? Especially anything dairy or baked. It was uncanny.


With all the Victorian-themed events we attend in San Francisco (Edwardian Ball, Dickens Fair, etc.), a Victorianesque team costume was easy to pull together.


Here are a few pieces of the circus themed team costume we brought, hopefully we'll develop it more for next year.


Another fun thing to do in the afternoons at carnival is to attend one of the many lavish 'chocolates' hosted at fancy hotels around Venice. They have all-you-can-drink hot chocolate (the consistency of thick pudding, and so delicious) with special cookies and pastries. This one was especially fun, the hostess had set up 18th century card games for everyone to play. Our friend Erin met us there in full Gypsy Warrior Princess regalia.


One of the highlights of the trip was a Japanese Manga / 18th century themed party. I love a mash-up, and this one was especially fun to play around with. This was party number two (of three) of the evening, with complete costume changes in between.




Afterward, I sat on our private roof deck and watched the sun come up. There were a lot of late nights!


Another fantastic party we went to had a Turkish theme. We took photos on the roof before going to the party, as the host had requested 'no photography' at the event. Here's Steph, looking picture-perfect as always. She re-purposed the yellow pantaloons from a Victorian-era 'Bloomers' outfit she made for Dickens Fair last year, and built the rest of the outfit around them in gorgeous vintage fabrics.


I was surprised at how comfortable the Turkish pantaloons were to wear. On another day, I changed out the accessories, threw on a marching band jacket, and went out as a Zouve, which was super exciting because I hadn't even realized I had that costume with me till I was putting it all on. Giant pants may be my new go-to piece for next year.


When we initially found out about the theme of this party, we wanted to make outfits similar to a Turkish/French mash-up style that was popular with avant-garde ladies in the late 18th century. It didn't work out for the rest of us, but Autumn carried it off beautifully. Maybe next year we'll have another crack at it.


It's hard to believe, but the guys each wrapped their own turbans in about 10 minutes with little-to-no practice, and only a little help from YouTube. They look *fantastic*.



Needless to say, we're all tired, broke, and happy. And dreaming every minute about more carnival fun in 2012.

Una Bell Epoch Mini Top Hat

In a recent blog post about top hats, I included one of my favorite pictures of a female dandy, Una, Lady Troubridge (painted by Romaine Brooks).



I go back to this image again and again, it's an inspiration to me. I included it in the post about top hats, even though she's not wearing a hat, because I love her Lady Tux style and I like to imagine what kind of hat she would put on her head as she walks out the door after her portrait session, dressing up her head like a paper doll. Or maybe what she would wear later that night, going out with friends...

Here's one idea: the 'Una', the latest addition to my 'Belle Epoch' mini top hat range. This one is in midnight blue with black trim. Ribbon pleats circle the crown of the hat, ending in a large bow at the back of the hat.



It's topped with long, springy, curled black pheasant feathers.



The peek-a-boo veiling is a rare, antique silk net woven into a delicate hexagonal pattern, edged with a gorgeous lace border.





The veiling could be worn down over the eyes, or folded up onto the brim.



Today, I'm making up two more of these, one in all-black and another in red with black trim. I might also try one out in brown tones, but the veiling would be different, as I only found this veiling in black and in blue.

This one is available for sale now at ADS Hats on Valencia in San Francisco, and also online at Etsy and Smashing Darling.