iO-Robe, a Toile La La fiction re-post

This post originally appeared here 6.17.13... and perhaps you recently noticed on a popular TV talent show a garment very similar to the one described here.
Read the original post here.

Trashy Bass and Bowie's Blue Suit.

There was Bowie - with his captivating peepers and covetable powder-blue suit - a man of the future. 

Searching for what I call "trashy bass" - a broken-sounding reverberating fog-horn bass - I found Bowie, looking futuristic, singing from the past "Life on Mars".

And I did find the trashy bass too - on Bowie's Fame and around 1:39 Marty Robbins Don't Worry, not quite twang - a bit static-fuzz - but it's sticking with me... that fat dapper tie, the striped shirt, the suit of baby-blue.

November: "No Butterflies, No Bees".

November always brings to mind Art of Noise... ahead of their time.  Find their Opus 4 - for a futurepast moment, courtesy of Thomas Hood - 1844.  

There are a few more futurepast moments to be had.  Merely select the futurepast link within the Labels cloud and prepare for a bit of time travel.  You might also try the paper time travel link.

iO-robe: A Short Fashion Forward Fiction.

Intelligent Optic Robing, iO-robe, or just iO - solved so many sartorial conundrums regarding travel, parties, fitting in... . A bit of programming, then - the magic transformation. A digital fairy godmother. It came to mean the birth of ideas, the generation of life itself... iO... a small cursive letter i encircled / enrobed by a fat, round O.

You know, in the 60s - there was Mars and the paper dresses. Mars - the company, not the planet... and the paper dress was just another way to express freedom and being "with it" - fashionably and sexually. 

The digital dress was of the same ilk - another way to be "with it"... hip, chic, cutting edge - you name it - always the same thing, but a different name.

The Techie-Chics and the Techie-Geeks dreamed the entire scene. T-Chics wanted the style, T-Geeks wanted the notoriety... the challenge.

To the middlemen it was a surprise... no need for malls, no sweat shops, no child labor, no fighting for parking spaces - everything changed. Was it better? It was different.

Of course, there was the buffout... of 2020. Like a blackout or brownout - all to do with power / electricity, but so many people were left standing around with so few little wires and buttons dangling - it wasn't that big an embarrassment.

That outage though - created in the modest among us - a momentary return to the paper dress - which made for a better canvas, a smoother silhouette... like the vast screens at the retro drive-in cinemas.  

Then there was, once again, the move to fabric... aside from the digital gadgetry - that's all anyone needed - just a few solid-color dresses or coveralls of fabric - depending upon the "in" feel... soft, crisp, silky, plush, crackly... upon which the iO (robe or suit) was projected.

Eventually, digitally enhanced optics - DEO - also eliminated even plastic surgery - with all appearances hiding the possibility of illusion or facade.

Anymore, what was real?

If you like this story, let me know - with some comments.  Will this be the path of fashion in the future... who can say, but imagining the scenario produced the fiction you just read.  There's another quick fashion-y time travel fiction here.

November Vogue 2012 - Items of Interest.

In his Vogue essay Bidding Farewell relating a lifelong fondness for objects (and the journey through refining the collection) Hamish Bowles offers this example:  "I feel that I can confidently say that I may well have been the only nine-year-old in the country who knew what a calash was - let alone possessed one." (p.112.)

The calash is a good example of a phenomenon which occurs sometimes in fashion - that what we wear may mimic or borrow characteristics of other objects around us.  For example, the fifteenth century hennin - with its towering conical shape - mirrored the spires seen in architecture of the time.

In the case of the calash, or caleche, the ribbed bonnet that was worn to protect the elaborate and large hairstyles of the eighteenth century mimicked the collapsible canopies of carriages of that age, and also shared characteristics of the hoop or crinoline.

Coincidentally, the November 2012 Vogue also offers a very pretty Chanel ad featuring a model wearing a bonnet that quite resembles a calash.

Chanel advertisement with model wearing a calash-like bonnet.  November 2012 Vogue.

Grace Notes, the excerpt from Grace Coddington's memoir - is fun to read - recounting the Vogue Creative Director's genesis of a modeling career, at age eighteen.

Coddington's fashion anecdotes are sometimes humorous, sometimes poignant, and easy to relate to... as she reveals her innocence, creativity, and even self-consciousness adjusting to the world of modeling, travel, and dating.

For the record, we owe the mod look of drawn-on babydoll lashes to Coddington, who tells us models were responsible for styling themselves and providing an entire arsenal of cosmetics, wigs, falsies, and other props in the mid-twentieth century.

Thought this beautiful 1971 Norman Parkinson spread was great.  Thanks to its inclusion in the Grace Notes article, I was able to enjoy it. 

According to the caption the shot was styled by Coddington on location in the Seychelles.  It reminds me of the word "murmuration" - which is used to refer to a flock of starlings, although these birds seem to be gulls.

Norman Parkinson / Grace Coddington fashion photograph accompanying November Vogue 2012 Grace Coddington memoir excerpt Grace Notes.

And now - time for input from two of my favorite Toile La La employees, Fleur and Number One Good Luck Employee Cat - who have cast their vote for the best fashions in the November 2012 Vogue.

Fleur is my small-scale toile model who has appeared on the Art Fashion Creation header.

Fleur in her dotted pantdress / scooter suit toile. 

These Oscar de la Renta (left) and Celine (right) ensembles really suited her fancy.

Toile La La Fleur's Favorites of November Vogue 2012.  Oscar de la Renta at left, Celine at right.  From What to Wear Where:  Night Moves, photographed by Craig McDean, fashion editor - Alex White. Page 281.

Toile La La's Number One Good Luck Employee Cat.  Art Fashion Creation.

Number One's favorite fashion in the November Vogue is that of Marc Jacobs, photographed by Juergen Teller in this advertisement.  I'm pretty sure her selection was based on the fur hats and the full-body tabby-speckled look.

Marc Jacobs fur hats and tabby-pattern dresses in November Vogue 2012.

Marc Jacobs fur hats and tabby-pattern dresses in November Vogue 2012.

And in response to the International Fur Trade Federation's "We Are Fur" advertisement campaign, appearing in the first third of the magazine, Number One Good Luck Employee Cat responds:  "I am a pre-furred fur aficionado."

Hime Lolita Marie Antoinette: Chanel at Versailles.

Imagine Marie Antoinette, healthy and unscathed, frolicking into an eighteenth century time portal and landing upright in 2013. Unbiased by any sensibilities but her own, she might immediately gravitate toward Lolita fashion. Of the various Lolita styles, the Hime or Princess Lolita, the Sweet Lolita, or the Country Lolita would align with her tastes.

Without having to search farther, Marie Antoinette could slip right into one of Karl Lagerfeld's Chanel Cruise 2013 ensembles and carry on with life - this time in some pink trainers, to quickly run from danger.

Chanel Cruise/Resort 2013 at Versailles. Image Vogue.com runway collections.

Interested in Lolita styles, read more here. For more Chanel Cruise 2013 see this Vogue link with Sarah Mower collection review.

Marie Antoinette, artist unknown. Museum of Fine Arts Boston collection.

Looking for other Lolita/Chanel Cruise 2013 references, I noticed the blog Hello Tailor had also made the connection and provided a youtube link for the actual fashion show. It's especially grand to see Karl Lagerfeld appear at show's-end - waving, blowing a kiss, assessing his admirers and regally strutting to the beat. Here's the youtube link.