Note Found on Desk.

Currently tending Etsy shop, favorite loving, and curating spectacular Treasuries. Do visit...convo!  TLL

Futurepast, Perspective - Advance F/W 15/16.

With last summer's Romantic Souls A/H F/W 14/15 advance collection setting precedent, Toile La La now releases L'Oeil Creatif a L'Avance A/H F/W 15/16 fashion collection.  Whereas the Romantic Souls collection was inspired by "atmospheric conditions, clouds, twilight silhouettes, colors of shifting sky, large pastoral toiles, all the romantic souls - including the geisha and pierrot, and the equality of shadows" the Creative Eye collection is based on the concepts of "futurepast" and perspective.  

Toile La La explains, "Creatively, in the blink of an eye, visual concepts merge to appear timeless - neither future or past... or even something of the future which would be viewed as from the past.  It is all based upon perspective and perception.  Things of the past have potential to be timely again.  I even like the idea of "per" as a root... meaning "for each" and "by" - how this relates to personal point of view."

Toile La La predicts for A/H F/W 15/16: the bateau dolman-sleeved pullover, a Dior New Look-length A-line skirt, magnified tartan or plaid, the shawl-collar blouse, a chic striped toboggan, and a short A-line skirt atop a hi-lo skirt. The hi-lo skirt brings to mind a Poiret-style silk harem skirt and breezily follows the wearer - emphasizing the art of motion.

Colors are rainy day primaries - of a limited palette, says Toile La La - who has in the past tired of "anonymous city-black-and-grey", but has now returned to "an admiration for a mascara-black or lamp-soot-black paired with an oatmeal-sort of neutral and a rainy/foggy-sky blue as backdrops for these toned-down Cezanne colors".

A/H F/W RTW 15/16 Cezanne Palette - Toile La La fashion collection at Art Fashion Creation.

A/H F/W 15/16 RTW: Tartan, Fleur, Apple.

A/H F/W 15/16 RTW Preview, Toile La La.

Fashion, Styling, Photography - Toile La La.

Fleur wears a repurposed vintage 70s quarter-scale Erika Elias Charlie's Girls apple sweater upcycled as part of the Toile La La L'Oeil Creatif a L'Avance collection.

A/H F/W 15/16 Spotlight on the Aesthete.

Art student/aesthete-fashion model Bat wears an ensemble she inspired as she visits her favorite libraries, museums, and Gothic architecture:

A/H F/W 15/16 Toile La La ensemble, model Bat.

A/H F/W 15/16 Toile La La ensemble, model Bat.

Behind the scenes story here at this Toile La La post.
Travel and Scenery provided by:

• French Cathedrals - Martin Hurlimann, Jean Bony
• Cezanne - John Rewald
• Libraries - Candida Hofer

Genetic Fashion Memory.

You've heard of the collective unconscious and ancestral memory: Is there a genetic fashion memory - because if so, I think I have one.  Some styles of the past seem so familiar, I feel myself wearing them.  This fashion+memory+feeling occurred - yet again - while reading the Stella Blum-edited Everyday Fashions of the Thirties.  Actually, "observing/absorbing" are more accurate words than "reading" - as the book is very visual - brimming with photographs and illustrations gleaned from Sears Roebuck and Co. catalogues. 

These Semi-Made fashions did not tickle my fashion memory, however the construction technique seemed particularly clever and prompted a blog-post idea.  As usual, I conducted an online search to see if anyone else has blogged the topic... I don't want to be redundant.  Yes, someone had - but as is often the case, the blogger and I share similar interests - which leads me to another topic of conversation.  

This like-minded thinking/blogging phenomenon once prompted me to start the questionably-named and short-lived blog "Comment Cultivator".  After noticing time and again that some titles, names, and phrases I was so ecstatic to imagine had also been amazingly thought-of by someone else - I just decided to go-with-the-flow and leave nice comments on blogs of like-minded thinkers, considering the occasion a special one of connection.

Here are the intriguing images Stella Blum discovered in the old Sears catalogues and added to Everyday Fashions of the Thirties (p.7).  They are "Semi-Made Modern Apparel styles" - mostly manufactured, which the customer then finishes herself or takes to the local seamstress for final adjustments... so smart!

Sears Semi-Made Modern Apparel styles of the 30s, "Everyday Fashions...", editor Stella Blum.

Sears Semi-Made Modern Apparel styles of the 30s, "Everyday Fashions...", editor Stella Blum.

Sears Semi-Made Modern Apparel styles of the 30s, "Everyday Fashions...", editor Stella Blum.

Now, read more about these garments and Everyday Fashions of the Thirties, edited by Stella Blum - at this SeamstressErin Ph.D. post and then, if you are as impressed as I am with Erin's posts and creations, read this Oh My! Handmade interview.

Observation of Fashion Parallels.

New Wave, sampling, Hip Hop, graffiti, world music, MTV... these are some of the catalysts which yielded such interesting avant garde and asymmetrical fashions of the 80s.  If you take a close look around you - on the catwalk, in magazines - many of those 80s trends appeal still today.   Particularly via blazers and wingtip/brogue/oxford shoes, menswear for women has enjoyed a resurgence for a good while now.  Also stemming from the 80s are still-percolating vintage, goth, and steampunk trends.

These are things I discuss in my 80s Fashion Design Book 1: Drawn - available at Etsy.  An excerpt:

Toile La La collage featuring late 80s magazine tearsheet. 80s Fashion Design Book 1: Drawn.

This image appears on page 34 of the 77-page zine, and on page 23 of the 120-page book.  The book includes much more commentary via endnotes - as well as inspiration lists, whereas the zine leans toward the visual - with larger images and much less text.

"Pre-Vintage:  Before widespread enthusiasm for vintage... this was an image - marked Tim Jenkins - cut from a magazine and glued into my small, black late 80s/early 90s sketch/scrapbook.  For me, it signals the advent or cusp of America's fascination with vintage finds.  The ensemble seems simultaneously goth and flapper-esque, not quite steampunk.  Her backpack/purse is the touch of youth and modernity.  I like how she is running about in her fringe and hat and long, knotted strand of beads on a muddy, blustery, grey day. 

Thrift or vintage dressing... didn't really catch on until the late 80s.  Vintage and recycled clothing became popular, trendy, closer to the 90s.... .

The ideas behind many of the clothes we wore in the 80s were not new - but the clothes were.  Here though, the vintage look seems authentic, giving this image an uncommon quality or sense of otherness.  It's a thought-out, not thrown-on, ensemble... the dark bits from history with a speck-of-color bow."

 

Sleep Travel.

Reading of science and alchemy, he began to doze - I suppose - and to his ear, the air rang with splashes of laughter.  Through a window in the woods, he realized - to his surprise - he was not where or when he was.

Nicholas Hilliard - Henry Percy, 1590-1595.

Charles Codman - Bathing Pool, 1830.

A Soul in the Palm of the Hand.

Reading about the art of the limner and of miniature portraiture - which might be considered a very early predecessor of social networking... much like the posting and sharing of "selfies" today. 

Henry Fitzroy, Lucas Horenbout 1534.

Elizabeth I by Levina Teerlinc 1565.

Francis Charles Black, Charles Fraser 1832.

Photography, wondrous as it is, replaced the popularity of the hand-painted miniature portrait.  Daguerreotypes were the new fad.

In my opinion, the time spent with a sitter infused the handpainted portrait with more life... personality.  It was this glint of emotion which contributed to the appeal of the miniature, which was small enough to tuck into a breast pocket, slide into a locket suspended by ribbon, send to a loved one far away, or pack for a voyage.

My hand opens - for in the palm, may I peer into your soul.