I wore this beautiful dress to a work training today (unpaid, alas!) with my Lane Bryant sequined cardigan, pictured below (thanks to Homegoods for lending their mirror).
I borrowed Forever 21’s big mirror on the way out of the mall today to bring you my outfit of the day!
I wore a silver-sequined black cardigan from the 2010 Lane Bryant holiday collection, my Deadly Dames Pirate Dress, cheap Steve Madden shoes from T.J. Maxx, Claire’s hairflower, and El Dorado Club “New Orleans” Filigree Bat Necklace.
Would’ve been nice had I, you know, worn makeup or something. 😛
Before the 2009-2010 BBC Emma miniseries came out – and before I’d even started this blog – my friends Vic and Laurel Ann of Jane Austen Today kindly asked me to do a quick piece about costuming in the three previous major adaptations of the novel: the 1971 BBC tv miniseries starring Dorin Godwin, the 1996 Miramax theatrical release starring Gwyneth Paltrow, and the 1996-1997 A&E/ITV movie starring Kate Beckinsale.
Fellow Pinup Girl Clothing fan Jessica M. has launched a really useful blog dedicated to informing midcentury-retro shoppers about their options – Pinup Persuasion! She reviews pinup products and retailers of all stripes, everything from shapewear to kitchenware!
Her latest review features Pinup Girl Clothing, and includes a great video testimonial that she prepared last summer for PUG (as it’s affectionately called) to use at an upcoming trade show. I did a testimonial, too, but I’m way too shy to share it here!
Excellent work, Jess! I’m looking forward to your posts.
It’s barely January, which means that the shops are stocked with cruisewear and the strange seasonal hybridity of bridge lines. Last week, my brother’s girlfriend and I stopped by Ann Taylor Loft to find it awash in nautical blues and brash stripes; all stuff I like, but nothing that satisfies either current climatic reality here in the northern hemisphere or my severe jones for flowers and fragrance and sunshine and springtime.
I know it’s too early to be shopping in earnest for the season to come – after all, it’s only officially been winter for less than three weeks – but it’s a perfect time to look ahead at what’s coming down ye olde pipe and try to plan. First, an obligatory look at the official Pantone palette for Spring, 2012:
Spring 2012 Fashion Color Trends - Pantone Fashion Color Report Spring 2012.
Margarita, Cockatoo, and Sweet Lilac satisfy my craving for soft candy color; Cabaret is a hot pink right up my colorsense alley, while Sodalite Blue in conjunction with rich greens would scratch my itch for midcentury sofa prints and lucite grape lamps. Sodalite is more cobalty than your standard January navy, it looks like.
Retailers like Torrid appear to be jumping on the the orange bandwagon with their new Sweet Escape cruise collection, though I can’t quite tell if they’ve used spring’s Tangerine Tango or a softer tone like last season’s Emberglow.
Heartbreaker Gretta Top and Laura Byrnes Black Label Pencil Skirt (Pinup Girl Clothing).
Heartbreaker Fashion – one of my favorite brands – is offering a number of its timeless pieces in a sage print reminiscent of Pantone’s Margarita, a mod drink-themed pattern (“Happy Hour”) that utilizes several bold colors reminiscent of this season’s palette, and a navy “Orbit” theme that seems to shade toward Sodalite Blue. You can check these out at their spring lookbook.
I’m hoping to pick up some more Heartbreaker separates (like this Stripey Marilyn Tee) in the coming months, as they’re pretty much amazing. At a recent clearance sale, I purchased their Gretta Top in a rich beige color that they had discontinued. The fabric is substantial, which makes for a great shape. More, it perfectly matches my Heartbreaker Gypsy Skirt in Dandelion print.
Deadly Dames Je T'Adore Dress in Victorian Rose print.
Deadly Dames (Pinup Girl Clothing) will be rolling out both sleek and fluffy silhouettes in feminine hues and prints, most of which don’t follow the seasonal color pack. That, however, is part of why I like Deadly Dames. In fact, the parade of awesome winter-to-spring stuff from designer Micheline Pitt begins this weekend with the much-anticipated Je T’Adore Dress in four colorways. I’ve ordered it in the “Victorian Rose” pattern, which suits my springtime floral craving to a T. I tend to ride the line on the hip measurement in their largest size, so keep your fingers crossed that it fits!
Coming later are the Courtesan Swing Dress, available in a black/white gingham and the Victorian Rose pictured above (I want the gingham!), and the L’Amor dress, which I hope to get in the black with white polka-dot colorway. You can see advance images of the collection at Micheline’s Facebook fanpage.
My outfit of the day: The Mon Cheri Dress in Mauve by Deadly Dames.
The satin Mon Cheri Dress, from the Fall Deadly Dames line, comes in colors from the same palette. I purchased the dress in the mauve colorway, which is a breathtaking antique pink. It’s got just the right amount of gold to make it right for autumn, yet it’s soft enough to carry you through the winter into spring. If it weren’t lined or sleeved, I’d want to wear it in summer, too!
Anyway, it’s what I’m wearing to a party tonight! This is their 2x; except for the arms, I could have handled the xl. Even a little big, it still looks good. I particularly love the black velvet belt!
Me! In Ionic chiton, performing one of Lady Emma Hamilton’s Attitudes (I forgot to take off my glasses!). In some printings of Friedrich Rehberg’s sketches engraved, this is called “Cleopatra Seduttrice.” It is probably based on artistic rendrings of Agrippina offering libations at the tomb of Germanicus (suggested by John Wilton-Ely and confirmed by me). There is a priestess statue from the macellum (marketplace) shrine in Pompeii that strongly informs this pose and in its restored state includes a libation bowl in one hand. It is sometimes referred to as Agrippina.
Because I love Greco-Roman antiquity, I needed to make myself a chiton. Because I’ve performed Lady Emma Hamilton’s famous, classically-inspired tableaux vivants twice in the last twelve years, I needed to make myself a chiton. Because chitons are awesome and I like them, I needed a chiton.
By this point in the blog post, you might be asking yourself, “What the heck is a chiton? Who is Lady Hamilton? And those “tableaux” thingies?” I know it sounds like a strange combination of ideas, but it’s honestly not as complicated as it seems. In fact, the chiton – a very simple women’s (and men’s!) garment originating in ancient Greece and widely used as a basic dress or underdress for women in Roman eras – is extremely easy to make and wear. But I’ll get to that in a second.
Emma, My Inspiration
Rehberg’s drawing of Lady Emma’s “Cleopatra Seduttrice” attitude, likely influenced by both Roman and modern (as in, Renaissance onward) renderings of Agrippina (or others) offering libations to the gods.
First, the Lady Emma part of the explanation. Our English Regency society puts on various events dealing with events and culture from the late Georgian period of British history. In the course of preparations for a ball honoring the great naval hero Lord Horatio Nelson, I somehow got roped into playing a role. And not just any role; I would be recreating Lady Emma Hamilton’s famous “attitudes.” Lady Emma performed these silent tableaux from 1787 through the 1790s and into the early 19th century, sparking several high-profile imitations and influencing modern dance and other forms of performance art over a hundred years later. Now, this was 1999 and I was crazy busy trying to finish my last year of law school. The last thing I probably needed on my plate was a performance of some sort, but for Emma Hamilton I made an exception.
Restored priestess sculpture from the macellum (marketplace) shrine in Pompeii. Sometimes referred to as Agrippina, her pose is similar to Rehberg’s drawing of Emma.
Despite her long studio career and a stunning cache of major awards (including a record-setting 8 Oscars, the most ever for a woman, and 35 Oscar nominations), costume designer Edith Head is a star whose name isn’t readily recognizable to most people. Her work, however, is instantly familiar to almost everyone. She’s the woman responsible for the iconic fashions appearing in mid century classics such as Roman Holiday, To Catch a Thief, Vertigo, and Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
Head spent 43 years at Paramount, worked 14 years at Universal, and collaborated on various projects for other studios over the years, aggregating a portfolio of work totaling several hundred movies. “I do so many films that I would only like to send you work that is outstanding, or of importance to your collection,†she wrote in 1967 to the Wisconsin Center for Theatre Research, in response to a request to create an “Edith Head Collection†at the University of Wisconsin.
Her diverse collection of designs includes everything from period fashions to fantasy creations. Though she downplayed cutting-edge contemporary fashion’s influences on her work (“What is shown in Paris today is a dead duck tomorrow†she once said), Head was also in many ways a fashion trend setter. The popular demand for sarong-style dresses in the late 1930s and 1940s, for example, grew out of Head’s iconic designs for Dorothy Lamour in The Jungle Princess (1936). Continue reading “Edith Head: Star Costumer”
So I thought I’d share my new favorite dress, which I happen to be wearing right now for New Year’s Eve festivities! It’s the Grace Dress from Laura Byrnes Black Label/Pinup Girl Clothing. Yes, I buy and wear a lot of Pinup Girl Clothing items. No, they aren’t paying me to pimp out their stuff. I just love their clothes!
Anyway, Grace features a well-constructed fitted bodice, a superfull circle skirt, and a really sumptuous red sateen fabric textured with a midcentury black flocked pattern. This one’s size xl, and it fits just right! More images after the jump…
