Women Fashion Power Exhibition at the Design Museum.

One of the March meetups of the club was a visit to this exhibition, which runs until 26 April 2015.  If you want a chance to look at garments from the late 1800's to the present day and see what women in prominent positions in various walks of life choose to wear currently then this is for you.
Anyone who gasped at the corset making challenge on the Great British Sewing Bee will be intrigued by the corsets shown at the beginning of the exhibition.

This exquisite example of 1895 has a ventilated mid section with no fabric between the boning there.  It makes one realise that fashionable women of this era felt it necessary to wear corsets all the time, even in the hottest weather.  There were further examples of underwear, showing the evolution up to the Lycra girdle, throughout the exhibition.
In the late 19th century some upper class women had begun to rebel against the high fashion tyranny of layers of heavy, voluminous clothing that restricted their movement and ability to lead an active life as revealed in the advent of the Rational Dress Reform and the Aesthetic Movements.  Their simpler styles did not require the abandonment of beautiful detail as seen in the smocking used to shape this dress of the late 1800's.

However videos show that World War I catapulted the changes ahead as the lack of men at home meant women of all classes undertook types of work never open to them before that were previously the preserve of men and which required them to wear appropriate clothing, even trousers.
The following decade, the 1920's, seem to me to be one of the happiest times for the home dressmaker with garments being of a simple cut and loose fit and sewing machines being available.But, as members who have attended some of our special costume archive visits will know, for evening you could go berserk with beading.  Even shoes followed the trend.

And look at the heels!

Moving on to the 1930's the exhibition showed clothes that we might consider wearing  now.  These, as the tag shows, were Elsa Schiaparelli's own.  Wow, what a colour!

  This is a home made outfit for casual wear at a resort, a jacket and what they called "beach pyjamas" but seemed to me rather like a loose-legged version of the cat suit hack in the new Sewing Bee book "Fashion with Fabric".  I love the fabric pattern of the jacket and the way it is applied as a trim.  The simple jacket shape really allows the fabric to take centre stage

Now patterns became much more easily available and, in the 1930's and 40's, were sometimes linked to clothes seen on Hollywood actresses.  I would really like to sew the Ginger Rogers outfit below.

 

World War II made a difference to style but home sewers came into their own, particularly in this country with the difficulty in obtaining fabric  meaning that one had to find ingenious ways of saving on fabric and creating new clothes out of old ones.   Below you see a trend for exaggerated shoulders,  as though wearing military epaulettes, making the waist appear smaller although not as small as the drawing below seems to indicate it would be.

  With the end of the war  I had expected that we would see some "New Look" clothing on display but what you get is videos of clothes being modeled.  What I enjoyed next was these great skirts.  Don't they make you want to Rock and Roll?

 I am afraid my interest flagged a bit here because the exhibition continued with fashions going up to the present day that are within my own memory, including these by Pierre Cardin and Andre Courreges.

Thus I tended to concentrate on details that interested me such as the cuffs, ruffles and buttons of this Vivienne Westwood outfit.

And the trim on this power suit by Thierry Mugler

But I was electrified by the Philip Treacy hats.

I enjoyed perusing the fashion choices of contemporary women and decided to ask the members who came what they would chose from that section so here are their choices.

Jennifer chose a Prada cream satin cape from the wardrobe of Dame Zaha Hadid.

Erin went for a black silk dress by Zambesi with a green silk jacket by Merchant Archive from the wardrobe of Anna Jones, CEO of Hearst magazines UK.

Tasha went for a cream wrap dress, there was no label for this one, from the wardrobe of Shami Chakrabarti, Director of the organisation Liberty.  There is a front and back view.

And I eventually decided on a wrap coat from the wardrobe of Jiang Qiong'er, CEO of Shang Xia.    There are  no seams on this coat and it is created from Monologian cashmere by felting.

It is interesting that we all went for simple, fairly minimalist styles  and not items such as Lady Gaga's dress made, chiefly, from black polythene bags.  Who would have thought that rubbish bags could be used to create a gown like this?

There is lots more to see so why not go yourself before it closes next month.

Paris- Art, Architecture & Amour OR Fashion, Fabric & Food

Well, which would you go for?  To tell the truth you can do all six.  I was in Paris for a few days recently to visit an old Parisian friend, to catch up with some Canadian relatives while they were traveling in Europe (I love them dearly so there is the Amour) and to enjoy myself generally.
While I was there I went to a current exhibition," Paris 1900" at the Petit Palais, appropriately built for the 1900 Exposition Universelle-(Architecture), in which, according to the publicity "Over 600 works will plunge visitors to the Petit Palais into the atmosphere of Belle Époque Paris. There will be paintings, objets d’art, costumes, posters, photographs, films, furniture, jewellery and sculptures"- (Art).  It evoked a sparkly atmosphere of sophistication, luxury and change- ignoring the less fortunate of the time.  But what you want is the Fashion!
Look at the hours of work that must have been necessary to create this jacket. 

Clothes like these really were only for the rich. Even a day dress had much in the way of pin-tucks, insertions and frills to be sewn by some poor seamstress.

And you needed a maid to get into it as it is fastened down the back with buttons and hooks and eyes.

Even elegant footwear must have been a struggle to get on unaided.

And as for evening wear-  this dress is believed to have been designed by Worth, one of the most famous designers of the time, for a rich American client. 

However this exhibition closes on 17 August 2014.  Luckily you have until 2 November 2014 to get to  the Palais Galleriathe  and the exhibition  on French Couture in the 1950's.  Unfortunately absolutely no photography was allowed at this exhibition but you will see some images on another blog here.  This blog seems to indicate that it is only Christian Dior garments but it includes over 100 items from many different couturiers including Gres, Balenciaga, Cardin, Vionnet, Chanel, Schiaparelli, Piguet and many more.  It included both day and evening wear, swimwear, lingerie plus hats and other accessories.  Well worth a visit and I would have loved to get the hefty hard back catalogue but it was almost 45 Euros.

And I was saving my money for the next item- Fabric.  If you have never been then I can assure you that all you have heard about fabric shopping around Sacre Coeur is true.  And not just fabric but haberdashery of all sorts as well.  If you are going by Metro then the nearest is Anvers and the shops are concentrated in the area between that Metro and the steps leading to Sacre Coeur.  Look out for Rue d'Orsel, Place St Pierre, Rue Seveste, and Rue Charles Nodier.  Some retailers have several outlets so you come across stores with the same name "Au Bonheur des Dames", or  "Au Gentleman des Tissus" for example.  Just wander and rummage.  The most tempting are the "Coupons", lengths of fabric cut into 3 metre lengths and piled high inside and outside the shops.  You can also buy fabric by the metre, it ranges from the very cheap (and rather nasty) to the absolutely exquisite ex-haute couture and everything in between.  Furnishing fabrics are also sold.

Shops are open Monday to Saturday, usually from 9.30 to 19.00 but some do not open until the afternoon on a Monday.  The staff are usually knowledgeable and helpful.  Below is the lovely Sabrina, at one of the branches of "Au Gentleman des Tissus",  who eagerly asked me about fabric shopping in London.  I am about to buy the black and white striped cotton laid on top of the other fabrics near the counter: 3 metres of 148 cm wide for 10 Euros.  I eventually came away from the area with another 2 pieces of 3 metres each, for 5 and 10 Euros, making a grand total of 25 Euros for 9 metres of fabric.

There are several shops devoted exclusively to haberdashery with a fantastic range of colours in items such as zips and lashings of trimmings of all sorts.

 

Several shops also sell leather

And now for Food as after all that shopping I wanted a quiet and restful spot for a pot of tea so I went to my favourite place for afternoon tea and cake.

  Musee Jacquemart-Andre, 158 boulevard Hausmann- a fabulous mansion house, now a museum filled with works of art collected to decorate this home of a very wealthy 19th century husband and wife.  It is open every day of the year and, although you have to pay to go around the museum, entry to the cafe is free.  The cafe is a work of art itself with a ceiling by Tiepolo and Flemish tapestries based on the story of the Greek warrior, Achilles.

It is very peaceful ( I suspect people do not realise it is there and you can just go in the cafe without going to the museum) and I can imagine myself as a wealthy guest of the previous owners, choosing which type of tea I shall have from the varieties on offer, note that they do other drinks as well but tea has a sort of old-fashioned graciousness that goes better with the decor.  Oh, and the food- really you should go in two's because the cakes are so huge and rich and it is better for one's diet to share one.  However I did manage to consume all of this pile of deliciousness.  It's a massive pistachio macaroon cake filled with pistachio cream and the hugest raspberries I've ever seen.  I'm afraid I'd eaten a fair bit of it before I thought to take a picture But I think there is enough to give you the idea.