Well, Hello Again... Some Correspondence for You.

Toile La La letter, p.l.

Toile La La letter, p.2.

My letter for you has two pages and a tear-sheet from Martha Stewart's Living, February 2013... and a photograph of my Redbud tree (Cercis Canadensis), which attracts so many honeybees and bumblebees that it seems to emanate a resounding, buzzing, humming, magnificent  "Om"... and a photo of Simon Doonan's Eccentric Glamour - bookmarked with Number One Good Luck Employee Cat's walking leash... and a photo of Black Beauty's keys.  The whole letter arrives for you in an envelope collaged with a photo-bit - which is Hadley-ish in style.  I would, of course, choose a bizarre assortment of stamps and seals to see your letter through the mail - perhaps a Lunar New Year stamp with Chinese firecrackers - along with a Calendula stamp... then fixed with a red wax seal stamped with a griffin.  And for quirkier correspondence ideas, I'm enjoying reading Good Mail Day... but all of this you can read about in the letter above.  Happy reading!

Brenner, her hen, and her Echium Wildpretii in Martha's February 2013 Living.

my buzzing bee Redbud tree (with two bumblebees in this photo...)

Simon Doonan's aerobicizing and QE2 in-a-rickshaw tales have me hooting with laughter.

Black Beauty's calm (almost centenarian) keyboard - sans exclamation point.

A collage-bit for the envelope, sans stamps and seals and addresses.

Revolutionary Prom Idea: The New Prom Date.

Prom - Please now Imagine the word Prom spoken by Tim Curry - perhaps after he's eaten too many wonderful, sticky, gooey, yicky candies and is offered yet one more.

Prom spoken by Tim Curry using his A Series of Unfortunate Events reading-voice.

Prom with its scurrying and hurrying flurry of excitement about who will be seen with whom and the plight and the doom thereafter.

Prom with its too tight too shiny too too too-ness whizzing by in a stretch limousine woofers-thumping hot-tubness.

Prom with its unfortunate accidents of excess indulgence.

Now Please Imagine the New and Improved Prom Date: A Stack of Books.  No worries of the cummerbund or tie or boutonniere matching your dress and corsage.

The books won't vomit on you after too many post-prom liquor-infused melon-balls.

The books won't grope you as the lights dim, or sneak a feel as they pin your corsage... they have no hands with which to do these things.  Books are full of page after page of goodness and knowledge.  Books don't look at you - with disappointment because you don't want to do what they want you to do and they do not frown when you don't look like they want you to look.  A book is a book and you are in charge of choosing it wisely and can very easily drop it in the library's book-drop if you don't like it.  Can you do that with any other prom date?  I think not... although, it might be nice.

For a start, if you'd like a prom date who does all the talking - look for any of Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events audiobooks - some are narrated by Tim Curry.

Here is an imaginary prom photo - imagined by Toile La La... maybe it is Toile La La - in another time, or dimension... all the details are not quite there... the scene (typical of imagined time) is hazy.

Books:  The New Prom Date - illustrated by Toile La La at Art Fashion Creation, February 2013.

A large park - somewhere in France, not in the hustle and bustle... but somewhere discreet.  The early morning is crisp with fog - with droplets of moisture in the atmosphere.  It's chilly enough for the complexion to produce a natural blush and glow. The sky: grey-white with puffs of dove-blue clouds - rain is in the forecast, but still hours away.

Someone has thoughtfully canopied a grove of trees. Lush, green nature provides the prom scenery. Scattered among verdant leaves and fragrant flora are elegant sofas.

Birdsong and the sound of fountains decorate the air.

The Look Here:
Hair - Marie Antoinette piled-high with powder. Embellished with pink velvet flowers and silver leaves.
Maquillage - Silver eye-gloss, silver lip-creme... nothing else.
Scent - peppermint, spearmint, clove.
Sofa - Porcelain-pink high gloss scrollwork, linen vintage toile print.
Dress - Bisque white taffeta with pale tulle overlays, black velvet ruched waist - accented with dove-blue velvet rose and black tulle flourish.
Gloves - Porcelain pink soft, brushed cloth.

The Footwear and The Books are concepts with potential, still being imagined. 

This imagined foot attire is - in concept - like boxer's fist-bindings, but the fit is comfortable and secure... "mummy boots" is a name that comes to mind.  Mummy Boots are soft and suede-like with visible wrappings, zip-on or slip-on:  a dancer's best friend.  Dance in them for hours, then get back to your books.

Why don't you create your own date?  Write some books or fill them with sketches or make fake books from trompe l'oeil-ed packages or papier mache.

Stay tuned for DIY prom-formal fashion ideas in an upcoming Art Fashion Creation post. 

(And here they are - all 25!  Ideas for creating your own look from head to toe... you don't even have to sew.)

And now... a poem:

PROM... it

rhymes with

VOM... IT.

But not with a stack of books for a prom date.

French Fashion Dolls in Washington and New York.

To learn the exquisitely-dressed fashion dolls of the Theatre de la Mode exist here in the United States was thrilling to me. (Although I have still only seen them in books and online.)

The Theatre de la Mode fashion dolls live at Maryhill Museum of Art in Goldendale, Washington.  I have older post links with in-depth history and details, which you'll see in a link below.  But, to continue - after reading about the creation of Theatre de la Mode, I coincidentally (without looking for it) found a book called Two Centuries of French Fashion, created and published by the Brooklyn Museum.

Astonishingly, the dolls in Two Centuries of French Fashion, seemed to be the same "ladies" from Theatre de la Mode (but in different attire).  I wrote a post about Two Centuries of French Fashion, which you can see there at the link.

"1900 Doll" from the Gratitude Train of 1947. High Style, Metropolitan Museum of Art, p.225.

Recently, I pulled another book from the library shelf - High Style: Masterworks from the Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art - and discovered the same French fashion mannequins again.  Reading High Style, the mystery became solved.

In summary, the Theatre de la Mode was a travelling exhibit created by many talented people chosen from fashion, textile, art, and theater industries under the supervision of the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne.  The purpose of the exhibit was to promote French fashion, but that is not what makes Theatre de la Mode so impressive - its significance lies in the WWII conditions under which it was produced and in the beauty and precision that are evident in the display, despite the hardship its creators endured.

The fashion dolls acquired by Brooklyn Museum (and now housed at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York) were created as gifts of appreciation from the people of France to the United States for its relief efforts following WWII.  In 1947, these fashion dolls arrived on a "Gratitude Train", full of gifts.  At that time, the Brooklyn Museum had opened a new Design Lab for fashion, so in 1949 the Chambre Syndicale deemed it the proper home for the Gratitude Train fashion dolls.  It seems The Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired the Gratitude or Merci dolls in 2009.

According to the book High Style, (Jan Glier Reeder, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2010, p.222), the Gratitude Train fashion dolls were based on the design of those created for Theatre de la Mode - so both groups of dolls were created by French illustrator Eliane Bonabel and Spanish sculptor Joan Rebull.

Learn more about both exhibits at the blue Two Centuries of French Fashion link above.  The Gratitude Train fashion mannequins may be viewed at this Metropolitan Museum of Art link.