Fashion means modern?.. Fashion means old!

We know that fashion has circles, and old-fashioned trends return onto the stage in a new mood, new trendy colours, and usually with a slight changes in form, though recognisable.  Stylists don't recommend to keep your old clothes because it might become fashionable again - it won't. It will be different, it will be made in new fabrics and tones, in a finer and lighter silhouette.

Alonso Sánchez Coello (1532–1588)
Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia at age 13
(1579, Museo del Prado)

It is so exciting to discover something medieval in a modern dress! Or a tricky facet dating back to the time of French Revolution...  It can be easy with the garments which are very similar to their historic prototypes, such as Roman sandals, tunics, Greek style dresses etc. I tried to find just a few hints which show that modern designers take their inspiration in the past. This is much more interesting to research!

Zac Posen 2014 Pre-Fall

I love this dress! It has extremely exciting pattern - with lots of convex lines to suit the model. Designer achieved accurate fitting due to precise drawing, not because of elastic fibres. Main thing that these two dresses  have in common - they suit the ideal figure of their time. In Holland of the 16th century opulent clothes fitted the girdle on the torso with flattened bust and belly and bell-shaped skirt, which was considered to be the perfect feminine figure.

Australian winter... makes us dressed our best!

In St.-Petersburg in Russia where I came from we used to say: "summer was hot and dry. It's a pity I was working that day". Here in Brisbane we can say: "winter was really nasty, and it took the whole weekend!"

Australian winter allows us to dress our best, to take out suits, jackets, even boots and coats... sometimes. And I think this is really great.

Not bad look, I think. What we have here:
-flowery top from H&M, $20
-pants from Cotton On, $15 (special)
-booties from Ecco, $100 (approx., I don't remember)
-JACKET made by myself

This is not a regular jacket. I made it when I studied Haute Couture sewing techniques  It was a Chanel-type jacket course and it was taught by a New York fashion designer Yana Brink (Yana Brink).

Soft fall of the fabric is the main idea
of hand sewing 

Fabric is an Italian mixed one, wool + silk, and it is absolutely gorgeous to touch.
Pattern has been draped on a mannequin.
A lot of hand sewing, it is Haute Couture! 
Buttonholes were made by hand, of course.
The main idea of hand sewing is softness, tenderness, free falling of the fabric.

Whatever you do, wear your silk often...

Whatever you do, wear your silk often, and don't be afraid to wear it out.

                                                                                                Kelly Doust
                                                                                            Life In Frocks

100% silk sateen. This is my first made wedding dress.

Silks have been considered the most luxurious fibre since ancient times and nowadays, thinking about an evening gown or just nice frock for everyday life we look at silk fabrics.
Silks come to out life in wedding gowns and different exquisite garments. They make perfect lining for lace dresses.

This lace dress has 100% silk lining.
It was a wedding dress as well. 

The main thing with silks is: they are different in terms of quality, density and durability. There is very slight difference in sewing some silks and cotton fabrics, but others are unbelievably capricious.

Blouse is always something special...

"She wore the pale blue summer blouse which he had brought her home as a present one Saturday.
When he brought the blouse home Annie kissed him and said it was very pretty and stylish; but when she heard the price she threw the blouse on the table and said it was a regular swindle to charge ten and elevenpence for it. At first she wanted to take it back but when she tried it on she was delighted with it, especially with the make of the sleeves, and kissed him and said he was very good to think of her."
                                                                                  A Little Cloud (The Dubliners) 
                                                                                          James Joyce

It doesn't have to be tied on the waist,
it is just big for the mannequin.

I finished this luxurious blouse recently, and it took me about 36 hours of work. In one of the articles about tutu skirts (Tutu Skirts. Part II) I wrote that real-ballet Chopin kind skirt takes about 35 hours from a skilled master. As regards this blouse it took me so much time mostly because of the tricky fabric.

New hair - new image - new life

My friend Olga is a great doll player. She is a very serious and respectful lady, a doctor, and her apartment in St-Petersburg is full of beautiful dolls. Momoko, Tonner, collectible Barbies, special editions of different brands...

From her I learned a lot about dolls and how to play with them.  Enchanted by amazing doll world ladies spend time not only sewing new outfits and making photos of their dolls in graceful poses, they even reroot their hair, change their make up and tone of the body.

Thanks to her my two small helpers came to me. They are Tonner girls, 16" height, which is a little bit smaller than 1/4 human body. Particularly 1/4 was important for me because when I studied dressmaking and clothes constructing I was taught to make and to use test constructions 1/4 original size. So my dolls work as a small mannequins and exquisitely beautiful models for me. I even made a 'human' pattern for them. It is a great pleasure to dress them up.

DIY - small alterations. Part 2.

Let us talk about a small touches that change the impression of the whole garment or accessory. 

Here is my jacket. I bought it and at home only I saw these disgusting tucks on the front pockets. The jacket fits me very good, it makes my waist, it's hue belongs to my colour group, and finally it is rather trendy. I didn't want to return it, so there is something to be done with the tucks.

DIY - school shoes for sensitive feet

Has anybody found it difficult to find plain black school shoes, textile and pretty open not to overheat small feet over summer? As for me I could not find a proper pair. There are lots of shoes but mostly they are made of thick and stiff leather. For sensitive or sore skin it can be a real trouble.

I failed to find soft textile shoes, plain black, with flexible sole,  size 11 (for some reason they start from size 12 or 13), so I did them myself.

I took these Emerson shoes you can find in every Target or BigW for $5 (sometimes even $3.5 on sale).  They are very soft, and sole is flexible, which is good. But they are really hard for five-year-old to put on due to wide elastic inserts.

Shoes as they were when I bought them. 

 First of all I took off the elastic inserts.

Insole is black and green on some photos - because I made two pairs of shoes, one with green and one with black insoles.  Some photos are of one pair, some of another.

How to wear tutu: rules or myths? Tulle skirts: part 3.

In the previous post tutus - part II we have talked about the history  and secret attraction of tutu skirts. They look gorgeous not only on ballerinas and little girls, high-end fashion designers show them every season.

But there is a danger hidden in tutu as well: one step from beauty and grace to awkward and silly look.

By the way  the word "tutu" came from France. It is a modified slang for "cucul" - so were called buttocks of the dancers streaking on the stage. This is one of the theories of etymology of this word, for more see Wikipedia.

How to wear tutu and look amazing?

Here I gathered really beautiful tutus from world-known masters.

There are five simple rules (or myths?) about tulle skirts.

1. What length to prefer?.. They say that mid-length, just below the knee is  always winning. Skirt looks  very airy, makes your waist thinner and hides hips and heavy bottom.
Well, this is true, but long tutu is fantastic on pretty big ladies, if there are not too many layers and tulle is not stiff. It looks romantic and dreamy, and hides everything you'd like to hide. Everybody knows that tulle skirts consists of layers that flow and ridge, but nobody knows how many layers exactly are in your skirt. This is optic illusion that tricks us: human eye sees full skirt, not full bottom and legs. 

Tutu and other tulle skirts. Part II.

I think that tulle skirts became a part of our everyday wardrobe, because every girl has been dreaming about being a ballerina, at least once. Even those who don't like ballet very much are charmed by magnificent costumes. Ballerina pretends that gravity power does not  apply on her. Well, we all know that it is a result of long and even torturing training, and we admire their grace, beauty of movement and strong character.

But tulle skirts, light and flying, multilayer, decorated with lace and feathers, they really are the symbol of that mysterious and unknown world of ballet, where unbelievable beauty comes from.

Today I am going to speak about Chopin-type ballet skirts, which are very common in contemporary girls and even ladies looks.

Pants Balance

Do you know what balance of the pants is? This is the key concept  and the main reason why custom-made trousers suit you better than bought in the shop ones. 

Balance is normal, actually it is very good!

Every figure has its own individual waistline or the ideal level for pants to rest. Usually it is not horizontal, and not on the real waist as the narrowest point. It can be actually very different on the back, on the sides and on the front.

Each and every figure has its own pelvic tilt. Everybody who tried to draw the human body knows that men have more horizontal, and women have more tilted pelvic.

Clothes designers make all garments including pants for typical shapes, to fit the widest range of consumers. This works well for tops, sleeveless dresses, loose blouses, t-shirts etc. But not for fitted pants.

I remember I shopped for trousers last time, couple of years ago. I spent four hours in the shopping centre! Finally I found a good pair. Well, fabric was not perfect, a bit thinner than I wanted. They fit me well but I felt too tight in the hips and crotch area was too short. Since that time I have always sewn my pants myself. It takes the same time, and I get what I want at the end of the day. And I am much happier.

I'll tell you more abut the advantages of custom-made pants in the further posts, today I was going to write about balance. I've made some photos of my pants with incorrect balance - by pulling them down and pushing up  - so you can easily see what happens.

The more I look the more I fall in love

The details are not the details. They make the design.

                                               Charles James

Charles James is one of the brilliant world-known fashion designer of the previous century. British born, he is known as "America's First Couturier".

He is a true master of cutting and making the details really important. 

  

This photo was published in WMagazine in 2011. 

Details are not the details.

The details are not the details. They make the design.  

                                                         Charles James

        

In this post I'd love to share ideas and thoughts I had working on this orange and daisy dress, which I made for my friend Inessa, beautiful lady and great singer. Russian folk with a modern twist was required according to Inessa's repertoire...

We bought fabrics in The Fabric Store (38 Wandoo Street, Fortitude Valley). We chose orange satin, silk mix, and daisy lace, polyester. We chose lace very carefully. 
                                     
                                                           How to choose lace fabric? 
                         There are few recommendations. 
                                       Lace should be:
                               -Pretty strong. You will see if threads are too thin and weak. Holes won't embellish your dress.
                               -Not clingy to your fingers when you touch it, otherwise it will lose smooth finish very soon. And won't last for long.

Pants Magic - my new logo

Let me introduce my new logo.

It took me a while to create it, but I like how it looks.

The main idea it reflects is as follows: perfect pants make you look like a diamond, sparkle with beauty and be always out of the row.  You'll see this leg in a diamond on photos of my works.

Creating of something like this is an extremely interesting process. Logo should be unique, and introduce the philosophy of your business in graphics.