Circus Costume Etc.

My circus costume is now almost completed. As usual, before I started, I said 'no problem! this won't take long'. But, sewing this crazy petticoat (red and white gingham taffeta with matching and red silk dupioni ruffles) took a week. So. Many. Ruffles.





The circle skirt to go over it also took a week. I made it in red silk satin with gobs of sequin trim and giant antique red glass sequins. It took almost the whole week just to sew on the trim.

Mid-way though on the skirt, before the rhinestones came on board:


Finished:


I'll be wearing these with this red satin corset. It's currently back at the shop (i.e. Dark Garden) for a tune-up: they're kindly adding shoulder straps for me, and making a matching stomacher that I'll bling out to match the trim on the skirt.



I need a feather headdress of some kind to go with it, but haven't had a minute to think much about that yet.

Thankfully, since finishing those pieces other things are moving along more quickly now. I've finished one linen 18th-century style shirt (originally intended for John, but it turned out too small, so now it's mine) and have cut out the pieces for three more. Also, I have three skirts and some giant red and white striped harem pants cut and ready to sew this weekend. Production line makes things go faster. Only 47 outfits and hats to go!

Venice Costume Update

The last few weeks have been crazy! I thought I would get a bit of a break after the new year to do my taxes, etc., but no dice. If anything January was even busier than December, mostly due to the ramp-up to the Edwardian Ball (making hats for other people, and getting my own self ready). Here is a photo of my husband John from the ball. The photos are slowly rolling in as everybody recovers from the weekend, so I'll post more soon.

John in his white tie tux best, on Saturday.


We've been spending more and more time on our costumes for Venice Carnavale over the last few months, but now that the Ball is over, it's going to be all Venice, all the time until we leave in late February. I'm trying not to freak out about the fact that there is only one month left. I still have to find time to finish my bookkeeping and taxes somehow, and to finish up some orders I have in process, but I'm breathing, eating, sleeping, dreaming, and living prep for Venice otherwise.

The breakdown of costumes we are trying to get through include:

--Venice dominos (the classic carnival look: a black cape and hat with a mask)
--1790s outfits (a striped jacket and skirt, and a yellow 2-piece dress for me, and a red cut-away tailcoat for John with a black shirt, waistcoat, and breeches)
--Some kind of Arabian Nights-themed get-ups
-- An 18th century outfit for me in plaid
-- Circus outfits
-- of course, hats for each outfit
-- Undergarments (shirts, shifts, etc.)

Written out that way, it doesn't seem so bad, but I feel like I'm swimming in a sea of project. We have a got more ideas, but these are the ones John & I are focusing on trying to get through right now.

We'll also be taking a lot of things we already have in our closets, heavy on the Dark Garden corsetry of course.

I haven't been taking many photos of costume prep along the way, because that would just slow me down, but will be posting a few as I finish things. Please excuse the not fantastic quality of some of the photos that follow. We'll have time for really great photos later, these are just documentary.

Here are some inspiration pictures for the Domino outfits. These were standard street wear on the streets of Venice during carnavale (which last 6 months out of the year, for a few hundred years until Napoleon conquered the city in 1797).



Our Venice Domino capes are done, done, done. I made them in a beautiful black wool broadcloth (surprisingly warm and dense for being so thin) from Burnley and Trowbridge, edged in black satin bias tape. Used a pattern (slightly modified) from Reconstructing History. We've decided to buy masks, if we want them, there, I hear Venice is crawling with mask shops and we can undoubtedly find nicer ones there than here. John is really close to being done with his waistcoat and breeches (which he'll wear in several different outfits), and his shirt will be starting shortly. I have plenty of black dresses to wear for this outfit, but am hoping to making a black kind of a riding outfit with jodhpurs to wear with the cape if there's time (for rainy days).




Everything else is either in process or will be started shortly. More updates to follow.

Booked up till 3/15

I'm officially not taking any new custom orders until mid-March. Fully booked until then.

New Hat Style: Yvette

Inspired by the quirky, asymmetrical 'doll' hats popular just before and during World War II, this slightly mini top hat shape is shorter on one side and taller on the other, with the brim canted at the opposite angle, and the crown tilts forward like a little Alice in Wonderland teacake about to topple over.


I made this sample in a gorgeous charcoal gray fur felt with black and gray ribbon trim.


Dressed up with peacock sword feathers, dyed to match the felt and curled into spirals.


I've been collecting vintage hats for almost 25 years and my all-time favorite was made by a Parisian Milliner named Yvette Delort: a little late-1930s 'doll' top hat that is asymmetrical, has a ruched silk lining and a silk plush exterior (rare for the period), and is entirely hand-sewn. This hat has seen better days, is a bit squashed and rubbed around the edges, but it's my Velveteen Rabbit of hats: a little pal, my millinery mascot, bursting with personality. If my house was burning down, it's one of maybe 10 things I would try to grab on my way out the door. The more I learn about hat making and the more I look at this hat, the details and fine workmanship that went into it, the more I'm convinced that the person who designed it was a genius.

Here's a photo of the lovely young Mlle. Delort looking gorgeous wearing one of her own creations, circa 1931.


Yvette Delort opened her shop in Paris in 1930, and there are a handful of references to her in the fashion magazine L'officiel de le Mode from the 1930s. I suspect that she probably was working in someone else's millinery shop before that, given the Victorian or Edwardian characteristics of the hat (the way the lining is sewn together, the materials chosen, etc.), she obviously learned the trade and traditional techniques from other milliners of long standing. She was clearly still working through the 1930s-- my hat's shape is spot-on for the particular style of 'doll hats' that were popular right before the war-- but as yet, I have found no trace of Yvette Delort after the late 1930s. Perhaps she was one of the many French fashion workers who closed up shop at the start of the German occupation in 1940, and like a large number of them, wasn't able to recover enough financially to resume her business after the war was over.

So, I wanted to create a hat inspired by my little vintage favorite and the lady who made it, and turned to my custom hat block maker, Owen Morse Brown at Guy Morse Brown Hat Blocks, to design a set of blocks in the same vein. As usual, GMB came through for me with a fantastic work of art. Owen is as talented as all get-out. The 'Yvette' is not an exact copy of the vintage Delort hat, but an homage to it. I'm looking forward to experimenting with the 'Yvette' blocks to make hats in lots of colors and different types of felt (I'm planning one for myself in pea-green for daywear). While it is still a mini hat, it's a bit larger (in terms of head size) that the 'Belle Epoch' mini top hat that's been my best seller, and only half as tall. It should work better as a cross-over day-to-night hat than some of my other, more costume-y styles.

More photos coming soon, it looks even more striking in shiny long-napped 'beaver' felt!

ADS Hats has the charcoal gray one pictured in stock, and Dark Garden has one in black long-napped fur felt with black trim for sale right now.

Profile in Mission Local

Mission Local just posted a great profile of my friend Elina Tachkova, milliner and proprietress of Alternative Design Studio / ADS Hats. I retail at ADS-- House of Nines Design is mentioned in the article, and there are several photos of my hats in the slideshow.

Thanks, Elina!

There is nobody cooler than Grace Jones

Been thinking a lot about Grace Jones lately. Unlike so many of the empty 'celebrities' of today, who are famous for being famous, which is nothing other than their eagerness to expose themselves in public, Grace Jones is famous for being herself. And herself is more than enough to merit it. She is a musician, an actress, a model, and most of all, some kind of force of nature. She has mystery and is totally fierce. She's uncanny, and you don't really want to meet her in a dark alley. Seeing photos of her makes me feel a little bit of fear for my personal safety.












She seems completely fearless. It always impresses me that regardless of how much she is photographed with her clothes off, she never looks naked. She looks like she has just unencumbered herself from the inconvenience of clothing so that she can even more easily kick your ass.





As much as I think it's great that Lady Gaga plays dress-up, she'll never be this stone-cold amazing. Seeing photos of Lady Gaga, it's clear that she has a crack team of stylists on call 24/7 to do these things to her. The clothes are wearing her. She's transformed, but, like with artist Cindy Sherman, I'm always aware that there is a normal girl underneath. Speaking as a normal girl who also likes to dress up, that is great, and a feat in itself. On the other hand, Grace Jones is usually wearing some kind of crazy getup, but it's her force of personality that blasts you in the face. The outfit is just what she happened to be wearing when she stepped off her space ship to conquer the planet.

Spring / Summer 2011 Ready-to-Wear

I'm loving these looks from the *first* solo collection by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen (McQueen's assistant for 15 years before his death last year).




They reminded me of these outfits from past McQueen shows.

Alexander McQueen, Fall/Winter 2006

I think about this outfit a lot. That entire show, titled 'The Widows of Culloden', is my all-time favorite McQueen Collection. See the video here.

Alexander McQueen, Fall / Winter 2010


She's pulled together influences from a lot of McQueen's past work, including his recurring bird motifs, the padded hips, and the Atlantis theme from Spring/Summer 2010 RTW. I have to agree with some of the fashion reviews I've been reading, she has softened the house's style around the edges. But I don't like that, really. I'll miss his perfectly sculpted Grace Jones-esque bodices and sharp tailoring. And the FW2010 hair and makeup are totally bland. Why the hippie braids?

See the rest of the show here. And, there are high-quality videos of runway shows going back to 2002, on the Alexander McQueen website.

I'm NOT loving anything from my other usual favorites from the Spring / Summer Ready-to-Wear 2011 collections, except for Dior's 1940s South Pacific-inspired collection.
Going against the trend of the last few years, there are not very many hats in these collections, except for these bland, identical Gilligan hats on Dior.

Couture is always more interesting anyway, and more chock-full of hats. Those shows are coming up at the end of January, so there is always hope for the future.