Zandra Rhodes and David Humphries

Do check out more about Zandra Rhodes as well. Can't help but love her and her love of fashion and mosaics:) This is the building of the Fashion Textile Museum. Enjoy!

London's Swinging Sixties

Poor me. I went to London again. This time with two beautiful friends, Nina and Natalia.

Friday we went to the Fashion Textile Museum which was exhibited the works of Foale and Tuffin: Made in England. The fashions were great! I actually saw a paper dress--true it was still in its envelope, but that is because it is insanely difficult to keep paper preserved over the years. The one I viewed was from 1966. (Here is some info on paper dresses)

The exhibition was setup like a swinging boutique accompanied with a Partridge/Mondrian-esque film of a girl from today's times wearing the dresses displayed--loved it! Really digging the fashion films.

While viewing the great clothes, a sweet petite lady with a pixie haircut, and sparkle shadowed eyes approached Nina and I. She asked us what piece we liked most and I pointed to chic knitted red herringbone jacket, Nina chose a lime green shift dress. We both then asked why she asked? She, herself, Sylvia Ayton, worked in constructing garments with Foale and Tuffin and has been life long friends since the 60's. They also all went to the Royal College of Art and Fashion together.

Nina and I interviewed and chatted with Ayton. Sylvia has constructed coats for 30 yrs, most notably for the Wallis Fashion Group, Ltd. Today, between teachings and lectures, she also examines the final collections at St. Martin's. (Sylvia's bio)

Sylvia Ayton (1937-) and Zandra Rhodes (1940-)
1966
Paper

Sylvia Ayton and Zandra Rhodes's innovative designs were taken up by boutiques and some of the more commercial stores. When Miss Selfridge opened in 1966, the buyer stocked their distinctive printed paper dresses. Customers loved them, but kept tearing the hems to see if they really were made out of paper - they were!
Sylvia Ayton

I asked her what she thought of the fashions of today and she replied, "I just like fashion. There is no decade that is better than another; fashion is just fashion." (Nina, Sylvia, and I)

Do take a look at the links and here is the dress that Nina liked. It is from the Victoria and Albert museum's website, which you should browse through. Cheers!

Merci Merceries et Georges Rech

At Georges Rech with Madame D'Argoeuves

marking off samples in the pink, above and below:)

don't know if he can hold a candle to Adele but...

Our fantastic Fashion Illustration Professor, Isabelle D'Argoeuves (click on her name to check-out our book that she wrote for teaching the subject), led us through a tour of one of the largest garment districts in Paris. The area is called Le Sentier, which is a quarter entirely devoted to the textile and ready-to-wear business. We viewed many mercerie shops which contain mainly notions and buttons, but some with textiles, too.

(About la mercerie (the shop), the original word is mercier (for a seller) & mercière (for a woman)

We walked through a couple of indoor, arcade style wholesale marts, and ended our tour at a fantastic design house, Georges Rech. Professor D'Argoeuves worked at Georges Rech for a substantial amount of time (she did not want to say how long) before teaching at CEA. She worked many designing ends, but predominantly designed accessories.

Some notes from the gracious employees' who spoke:

* takes trois mois (three months) to create one collection

* Georges Rech beadwork is done in India

* they are also under partnership with Apostrophe

* they work with 121 fabric companies, chose 40 styles, in which they order 3 to 5 colors of that style

* once they have all the colors and fabrics picked, then they design

* wonderful Thomas, designs knitwear and avows that it is more difficult to design knitwear than cut-and-sewn because it takes about 4 samples to get one piece designed correctly due to re-fittings

Check out Georges Rech's website too! (ps, check out raena's blog to see video of the pattern plotter in action!)

LE BOOK

Thanks Nico, my sis's cousin who now happens to live only 5 blocks away from me, for having a good eye. Nicoletta was leaving the Pompidou after studying French and found three LE BOOKs awaiting the trash. LE BOOK is the bible/phone book that is used in the fashion industry every year. Designers, photographers, illustrators, coiffures, etc. all pay big bucks to be in LE BOOK. For 2007, just a page in LE BOOK was $4,200. (nico found the 2007 editions) There are LE BOOK's for New York, Paris, and London.
www.lebook.com

Chanel. (brought to you by, JPC)

Our fabulous History of Couture teacher, Jean-Pierre Constant, gave a fantastic tour around the high-end stores and the history of the set locations. But, the tour definitely felt Chanel centered, and rightly so.

The dynamic Jean-Pierre Constant and a top student, Gabriella famous chocolate cafe where Chanel would have coco (no pun intended, well yes) The actual staircase! THE actual staircase. The actual staircase that Chanel would use for her fashion shows. She would stand a the top of the staircase and oversee the shows, and the slated mirrors provided an all angles for her keen eye to view the clothes. Truly dramatic. Miss Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel The famous Didier Ludot's vintage boutique. Chanel vintage bijoux prominently shown in the window.
She also had another shop in this circle and lived a couple of blocks away at the Ritz for the later portion of her life.

I am truly getting a sense of the importance that Gabrielle Chanel has had on the world of fashion. This recent understanding may show my ignorance, but when you only see her as an icon and her work restyled by other designers, the courage and reality of her work is not as tangible. I see how she wanted women to feel precious, cared for, and confident to be women. To come from nothing and be able to dictate fashion during war and fashion barriers/men's rules, is as Jean-Pierre would say, "INcredible."

Marriage, Murakami, McQueen

Feeling quite at home in London. Conley's good mate got married on Friday at the Ethlam Palace--Textile magnates Stephen and Virginia Courtauld built their glamorous Art Deco London showpiece in 1936, next to the remains of a medieval royal palace which was originally Henry VIII’s boyhood home--it was a fantastic and a gorgeous setting. We both stayed at Think apartments--totally ikea-ed out--near the London Bridge.
We checked out the Tate Modern and saw the Pop exhibit. The exhibit is a full experience. The exhibition designers for this show did a great job. I began walking through Warhol's work with his videos playing. Next, I enjoyed the setup of Keith Haring's replica shop accompinied with loud 80's hip hop. Then I moved on to a special 18 and over room for Koons--trully fun to see people's reactions to what sex, ego, and well excuted art techiques. Finally I stepped into the Murakami world. A music video of Kirsten Dunst dressed up like an anime charicture titled, Akihabara Majokko Princesss, directed by McG, and produced by Takashi Murakami, was on rockin' continual roatation;) here are some images from the film
You could be the next twins for Damien Hirst's installation!!!


Yesterday I experienced another well designed and engaing exhibition: SHOWstudio FASHION REVOLUTION at Somerset House. Yes. Yes. Yes! SHOWstudio is really pushing the Fashion envelope. There are touch screens that you pull and twist the garments with your fingers and mirrors everywhere, scrutinizing you at different angles. This really shows that there is no one right way to look at fashion. I enjoyed the films by Gareth Pugh. One of the films has shots through black lace--love. So check all these goodies for your eyes, mind, souls and/or wallets.

this is my favorite movie by Nick Night