SDA Fashion Show

My favourite winner of the SDA 'Bodies of Water' Members' Fashion Show - Marliss Jensen, from Minneapolis, called her 2 outfits - 'Homages to Yves and Yves'.

She made body prints on cotton knit using Procion H fiber reactive dye.
Sorry the images are not clear and are not taken from the right angles to really show off the garment. My best shot was looking at the back of the garments but I had to then dodge a spot light.

Beth Kendrick, also from Minneapolis, won 1st place with 'Lucette', a hand dyed, painted, discharged embellished dress.

The waving black scarf stuffed into the top of the corset appeared to be a last minute addition for modesty's sake. It was distracting trying to work out why it was there and wondering if it would fall out before the model got back behind the screen. So we didn't get time to really look at the garment.

India Flint @ SDA Conference

Another 'favourite' exhibition at the SDA conference is India Flint's 'the WindFallMaps' exhibit in the Katherine E. Nash Gallery www.nash.umn.edu

Each garment has been printed and dyed with plant materials and metals found in a specific place.

So each is like a map or visual record of a place and time.

Floating garments are hung with hems at viewers' eye level so we felt dwarfed by evidence of places the garments came from. It was all quite ethereal.

Art Deco in England

A box full of a semester's worth of Art Deco Movement research has been sent to England to be assessed. Phew! I am looking forward to a month's break but I thought you might like to see some more highly innovative fashion from the period, courtesy of Richard Martin's book.

This pink silk satin dress by Gabrielle Chanel has spiraling bias-cut panels encircling the body.

I may not agree with Richard's attempts to convince me these creative dress designers were inspired by Picasso (I think the inspiration flowed the other way) but he did describe this dress well, "A kind of 3D, silk-swathing puzzle." It is a 1920 design by Madeleine Vionnet.

Madeleine wasn't big on colour, as you can see in these ecru and pink dresses, in fact they are all skin-like in colour. Colour would have been a distraction from the brilliance of these designs. What was important to her was the cut and how the cloth related to the body.

The detailing on this sleeve is exciting in an understated way: threading, tying, hanging, wrapping, joining with faggoting, gathering - all on this quiet, elegant sleeve.

Another Madeleine Vionnet (1938) garment speaks of utter simplicity while it drapes the body with such complexity. All without the help of Lycra or Spandex. Pure genius.

Art Deco Art on the Figure

Here are some more luscious garments from that MOMA book I previously posted images of.

In 1927, an unknown designer has appliqued an abstract floral design on a 2 piece garment.

Yes, it does look 60s ish because that's when there was an Art Deco revival.

Mariska Karasz's 1927 appliqued silk jacket would be misinterpreted if thought to be inspired by Matisse's cutouts. Matisse didn't start doing his cutouts until he became ill  and he first published them in 1947. It is now understood how much textiles influenced Matisse's work so could it be he was inspired by Mariska's work? His mother made fashion garments. However, it is said, both Matisse and Mariska looked to folk costume embroideries for inspiration.

Jean Lanvin's wonderful 1927 evening coat of black cotton velveteen is embroidered with white wool. The radiating energy of the sun burst motif is so Art Deco.

Christian Boltanski

Christian Boltanski is another artist who works with cloth and the body.
I wrote about his work in my essay too.

'Art can only be made if one has a Utopian faith in the possibility of changing the world.'
-Christian Boltanski

'Costume In Detail'

I just received this yummy book in the mail & I have already spent several hours dipping into it.

Nancy Bradfield obviously loves costume because it shows in the inspiring, detailed drawings she has made of the outside & inside of hundreds of garments & accessories. Most of them have never been seen by the public and never will because they are too delicate or are disintegrating.
Most of the earliest costumes are drawn from a cache she discovered in the basement of Westminster Abbey on wax effigies beside the owner's tomb.
The drawings are so detailed they are an 'invaluable source of information for those concerned with fashion, with period dress, with history, and with theatre, film, or TV.'
ISBN 0-89676-217-3

Hand Block Resist Dyed Textile

Stage 9 - Dabu mud-resist is applied where the 1st shade of indigo blue needs to be kept. Dabu can withstand a maximum of 4 dips into the indigo vat.

Stage 10 - The textile is immersed again into the indigo vat & spread in the sun to develop the colour.

Stage 11 - The textile is washed to remove the mud & loose dye. The result is a textile with 2 shades of red, 2 shades of blue, black on white background & magenta where indigo over-dyes red.

Wedding Garments

Members of our tour party are dressed in heavily embroidered wedding garments.

Mutwa Embroidery

Mirror glass is cut to shape with scissors for shisha work.

A blouse embroidered in the Guj style where there are woven braids across the front.

A blouse in the Kungeroo style. It is usually made in one piece & is fully embroidered with a larger range of stitches. It is often made for a daughter-in-law.