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.

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.

Toile La La Automne Hiver 2014 2015 Highlights.

Inspiration:  A half-moon in a charged atmosphere, glowing golden hours, twilight silhouettes, primordial nature, cloud formations like ship sails and smoke, the silver and gold of winking stars... the equality of shadows... all the good and Romantic Souls.  Toile La La details here.

From the Toile La La A/H F/W 2014-2015 Romantic Souls Collection:

Fleur - Toile La La Romantic Souls A/H 2014-2015 Collection.

ZiZi - Toile La La Romantic Souls A/H 2014-2015 Collection.

Fleur - Toile La La Romantic Souls A/H 2014-2015 Collection.

Model - Bat, wearing Toile La La rooster-hen toile - A/H 2014-2015.

ZiZi - Toile La La Romantic Souls A/H 2014-2015 Collection.

A/H 2014-2015 cross-body mail satchel in grey, with brass-gold fittings.  Toile La La.

Twilight Silhouette toile wrap-skirt, Romantic Souls A/H 2014-2015.  Toile La La.

Bat, wearing peach candy-floss wig and pin accessory.  A/H 2014-2015 Toile La La.

Shoe-boots, Fleur's own.  A/H 2014-2015, Toile La La.

Vintage Gold Dancing Slippers, ZiZi's own.  A/H 2014-2015, Toile La La.

Romantic Souls A/H 2014-2015 inspiration, glowing golden hours - July 2013.

Excercise Visualization, Description, Imagination.

My daughter tells me about ASMR - autonomous sensory meridian response... she thinks it sounds like me... so I decided to make the most of it with this exercise:

ASMR, synaesthesia, senses which happily interact... call it what you will - I like description.

Environmentally Dressed.

With the onset of the twentieth century, artists and thinkers began to discuss concepts of attire... ideas of blending-in versus standing-out.  One belief was that everyone should dress alike socially - relegating self-expression to the home environment.  Taking that thought further, there were also experiments in having attire match decorative motifs within the home.

I like the concept of matching attire and home furnishings... which seems - harmonious and consistent.  This would require a clearly-established and committed sense of self, I think - to align oneself with a particular style and stick to it.

Now returning to the concept of dressing uniformly within a group - we see this quite often... teams dress alike, people dress rather regionally, and to some extent - even people asserting their sense of self-expression sometimes achieve similar end-results.  Dressing for formal occasions, men - more often than women - tend to have a unified appearance. 

From a hotel window my husband and I recently observed an odd example of uniform dress... herds of young women in towering heels and tiny bandage-tight dresses teetering, trotting, and stumbling along the sidewalk on their way to and from the clubs.

But today - because it's a wintry fall day - chilly, rainy - grey and green... and there's more of the rain and cold and grey to come... I decided to try this:  when the weather is dull and overcast, I plan to wear one little cheerfully bright accent - a sunny yellow scarf or hot pink lipstick or red socks... just for the happy effect it might produce in other people.  Then, when it's sunny and bright - perhaps the rest of the crowd needs to see a bit of cool blue, or might benefit from a minty fragrance passing by.

The Head-In-the-Clouds Wig.

Bebe Bouton wearing the head-in-the-clouds wig.  Toile La La.

Raveling threads from the sewing room are the origin of this fetching wig worn by Bebe Bouton.  Most of the head-in-the-clouds wig comes from a dove blue-grey duvet cover sewn over the weekend.  Bebe - and Bat, another Toile La La model - appear in a candy-floss petal/peach wig in the Romantic Souls F/W 2014 fashion show here.