Fashion Feature: Unusual Suspects

For this Fashion Feature I want to take a look at some really unique and interesting clothing creations, ones that aren’t made out of the normal fabrics and such. No, these are made from things like real live flowers, candy wrappers, and teacups! Gracious, I can’t even imagine the design process on some of these, not to mention actually making them! Or wearing them for that matter, although some of these may not have been made to wear, on the other hand some of them obviously were.

I found quite a few unique, weird, pretty, and artistic dresses while I was researching this blog post. It was an odd rabbit hole to fall into but I’m kind of hooked 🙂

Click on any image for a larger picture.

Sadly I can’t find any information on the creator of this lovely and unique (but I’m assuming completely unwearable?) tea cup dress.

Scallions, Brussels Sprouts and Cabbage dress by Sarah Illenberger.

Papier Couture – Paper Dress by Lia Griffith.

Another paper dress by Lia Griffith – She has several pretty paper dresses that you can check out at https://liagriffith.com/new-post-here/

Chive dress by Yeonju Sung

Flower Dress by Vashti Cassinelli

Skittles Riddles Candy Wrapper Dress! Made by Candyality

The skirt of this pretty dress is made from Lindor truffles and Swarovski crystals – By Lindka Cierach

This dress is made entirely of plastic bags and was designed by Jolene Vuong.

Fashion Feature Part Three: 1500s

Examples of dress from the 1500s:

Click on any image for a larger picture.

Elizabeth Tudor ascended the throne in 1558

Mary Tudor – sister of Henry VIII

Leather Jerkin, circa 1550-1600 (Museum of London) Via: The Pragmatic Costumer

Cape, 16th century – may have been male or female

Believed to be from 1560, this is called the “Red Dress of Pisa.” It is a Florentine gown from the sixteenth century – it was found on a wooden effigy at San Matteo. It is housed at the Palazzo Reale di Pisa (Museum Nazionale).

circa 1520

Dress of Queen Mary of Habsburg – made between 1520-1530, in the Hungarian National Museum

Marguerite de Valois (1553-1615). Said to have been the most beautiful woman in the world at that time.

Doublet

Part One Here

and

Part Two Here

There is a lot more I could explore throughout these eras, I mean I don’t even consider this scratching the surface! So definitely expect more history and pictures in a future Fashion Feature.

Fashion Feature Part Two: 1300s and 1400s

Not a lot of real examples here, paintings and reproductions are the order of the day when we’re going so far back in time.

Examples of dress from the 1300s:

Click on any image for a larger picture.

Reproduction costume is inspired by Codex Mannese (1300-1320). Cloak is made of orange silk green wool underlaid. Clothing is fastened by two brass fibulas connected by silk tie.

Reproduction of servant’s garb.

Sideless Surcote—A woman’s over-gown cut away at the sides from under the arms to the hips to show the cote-hardie or kirtle underneath; it was usually worn with a plastron at the front of the figure.

This bird shoe is dated ca 1300-1350… it is not known whether this was a shoe for men or women.

Men of high fashion in later periods began to wear shoes called Crakows or poulaines. They were long pointed shoes that are said to have come from Poland. They became fashionable in the 1300s. While they were worn by women, they were more of a man’s shoe and could reach impractical lengths, some even had toes held up by gold chains attached to the knee!

German – 1300s

Examples of dress from the 1400s:

Click on any image for a larger picture.

Brocade giornea (overdress) reproduction by rebelshaven.

Reproduction lady’s Italian Renaissance Blue brocade gamurra and gold giornea according to Italian fashion (1485).

Lady Margaret Plantagenet Crown worn at her wedding on 9th July 1468 to Charles the Bold of Bruges, it bears her name and the white roses of York in coloured enamel and is encrusted with pearls

French – 1400s

‘Maria Magdalena’ (1480) by Italian Renaissance painter Carlo Crivelli (1435-1495). Tempera on panel, 49 x 152 cm. via the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Reproduction of clothes worn in the Burgundian court in the second half of 15th century.

Original Golden Gown of Queen Margareta – carbon dating has shown that the cloth was very probably woven during the period 1403-1439. In other words, the gown could very well have been made during the lifetime of Margareta, Queen of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.

Reproduction of the Golden Gown of Queen Margareta – for more information see http://www.durantextiles.com/newsletter/documents/news_3be_10.asp

Part One Here

And

Part Three Here

Fashion Feature: 1300s, 1400s and 1500s

Bit of a broad scope here with three hundred years of fashion, but I was doing some research and ran into an old friend; also known as Sumptuary Laws, these pesky little laws were meant to impede the extravagance of dress so as to restrict lavishness and to make clear the distinctions between levels of society (sumptuary laws weren’t just about clothing either, they included such things as food and furniture but we won’t get into that here). Sumptuary laws are very popular throughout history and date back to ancient Rome, for some reason the ones from the 1300s through the 1500s are my favorites to read about.  For more about Elizabethan sumptuary laws involving clothing (as well as horses and swords), including links to the statutes with updated language and punctuation, you can check out this page at elizabethan.org. Although sumptuary laws are actually really fun to read about, I’d definitely rebel if anyone tried to pass them into law now. Anyway, I got so lost in sumptuary laws that I ended up getting a bit far away from my original topic of 1400s and 1500s by going too far into the 1300s so I just decided to throw the 1300s in here too, mostly because I fully plan to expand on these eras in future posts so I’m using this post as a bit of a starting point.

Getting Dressed: Not an easy thing when you have so much to put on. Here are we have a couple of ladies showing us just how fun this can be (well depending on your definition of “fun” I think I’d probably enjoy it, until I had to do it every single day). On the left we have a Renaissance dress and on the right we have a Tudor dress. And just below are illustrations of both men’s and women’s dress in early Tudor costume and late Tudor costume.

---

Early Tudor

---

Late Tudor

---

Because this post was getting pretty picture heavy, I’m splitting it into a total of three parts. For more see:

Part Two Here

and

Part Three Here

New Feature: Fashion

Blogging 101 Task: Creating a Feature

I was shopping the other day and looking through a rack of dresses, and gracious they were so plain and boring! I was seriously wishing I could just make all my own clothes because that’s the only way I’m going to be able to dress the way I truly want to. Sadly it’s just as, if not more, expensive to sew your own clothes as it is to buy them ready-made (unless you get a good deal on fabric, which is totally possible) but the idea of having a wardrobe of clothes I really love is tempting enough to make me consider that it might be worth the price.

Anyway, the blogging 101 task today is to create a feature, in other words to choose something to blog about once a week, once a month, however often you want. I’ve been thinking about this for a bit and I’d really love to share some of my favorite fashions from the past and present as well as costumes and accessories. I have tons of material already so I’m thinking once a week.

Although I guess this week is mostly an introduction, I’m going to share a picture of one of the most beautiful dresses I’ve ever seen. It’s from Chotronette which is a design duo based in Romania, you can order off their website but they only deliver to countries of the European Union (so I’m out of luck, not that I can afford them anyway. But seriously, check out their website! These are some talented designers).

 Gorgeous isn’t it?

I’m really looking forward to this feature! My fingers are already itching to type up my next post. Speaking of next posts, next up is fashion from the 1400s and 1500s.

Pin Up Style: Cool Videos

Just saw these videos and had to share.

First off; kudos to Buzzfeed Australia for doing these awesome videos! I like how they’re showing people that, regardless of gender or body size/shape, anyone can rock a pin up look. In my opinion pin up is all about feeling sexy and confident, whether that means a tight dress and bright lipstick or a black leather jacket and a pair of cool sunglasses.

I really love pin up style. Pin up, rockabilly, and vintage styles are some of my favorites to incorporate into my everyday wardrobe. And I’d totally wear that red outfit in the women’s video, pure gorgeousness!

I’d love to do a pin up photo shoot. If I ever do I’ll probably have to make my own outfit, no shops around here would have all the appropriate stuff in my size. Hot Topic actually does stock some accessories that would be awesome for pin up, but usually in Hot Topic I spend all my money on Doctor Who stuff so…. What little pin up-type stuff that I have is stuff I usually make myself.

But I think making my own outfit completely from scratch would just make it more fun and I could go as crazy as I wanted to… or not. Simple can be pretty too! 🙂

A Doily and a Dress.

I’ve been crocheting like crazy lately to try and keep my fingers nimble. I haven’t been diagnosed with anything yet (don’t get me started on how slow this process has been, it took me over four months just to get an appointment with a rheumatologist) but it’s likely I have rheumatoid arthritis. My only defense against the pain, swelling, and stiffness is just to keep moving as much as possible. Sometimes, when I’m especially fatigued, I sit back and play with Play-Doh, kinda fun actually to just play like I did when I was a little kid.

But anyway, lots of crocheting lately and I’ve completed a doily and a dress that I want to show off, I had a lot of fun with both.

First up is my Wistful Red doily which I made from the free Wisteria Doily Pattern on Red Heart’s website.

I followed the pattern through round 11. Then for round 12:
(sc, ch 3 picot) in 1st st, ch 2, large shell in next ch 3 sp, ch 2, sk 3 st, +(sc, ch 3 picot) in next st, ch 2, large shell in next ch 3 sp, ch 2, repeat from +, sl st to first sc.

I love how it turned out!

Second up is a “multiaccessorie” that was designed by one of my favorite crochet designers; Elena Madsen. I’m wearing it as a dress in the picture but it can also be worn as a skirt, scarf, or poncho. The pattern is called Color Flow Skirt and is available on Ravelry.

I’m so looking forward to wearing this, I’m going to try and find a black dress to wear it with as I think it will make the blue pop more. It’s definitely one of my favorite projects to date, I’m thinking of making another in red.

The Great Lily Munster Dress Experiment!

I’ve been “commissioned” by a friend to make her a dress for her Halloween costume. She’s dressing up as Lily Munster from the classic TV show The Munsters. I love the TV show, I mean it’s goofy and campy but hey :shrugs: it’s funny too! And Yvonne De Carlo, who played Lily, is gorgeous. I may or may not have occasionally envied Lily’s beautiful wardrobe and hair…. Okay, I definitely have! I’m thrilled to be making one of her dresses. Lily actually did have more than one but I think the one most people remember best is the one she’s wearing in this picture:

I have to admit, although I’m not without sewing experience, I’ve never made a dress. I’m just going to keep my fingers crossed that this turns out well. Today was a good day to go shopping for everything, JoAnn’s had several good sales and I had coupons. Even so, this is going to be an expensive Halloween costume, I haven’t figured it up yet but the fabric alone was about $50.

I’m using the light grey for the main part of the dress and the darker for her “batwing” sleeves which are going to be detachable, it won’t be exactly like Lily’s but it’s what my friend wanted and I think it will look really good (if I manage to do it right!).

I’d originally planned to use the B4571 Floor Length Dress from Butterick as I’d seen a blog post where the lady had made a Lily Munster dress from it and her version was lovely. But JoAnn’s didn’t have the pattern in the right size so I ended up with this:

The red dress is the pattern I’ll go by, I actually think it looks closer to Lily’s dress anyway.

Alright! Those are my plans, please wish me luck! I feel like I’m going to need it.