Toile La La Book - Part Two.

Windblown.

From that library...I was transported...

...the Pierrot - with its black-rimmed eyes and red lips...

What fragrance would a plaid flower create...p.48 80s Fashion Design Book 1: Drawn, Toile La La

Now, even the sound of the word bling seems too flashy.

Dancers, acrobats, and aerialists modelling clothes would be sublime.

Occasionally, unexpected drawings...mysterious creations - just materialized for no apparent reason.

Sometimes the drawings are like ghosts...

apparitions, shadows, or reflections...

poets, artists, flappers.

Part one is here, at Toile La La.

Magritte: Norine Fashion Illustrations.

Looking for other-things-Magritte today, I serendipitously discovered Magritte's 1925 fashion illustrations for Belgian fashion house Norine. With great Art Deco elements such as spotlight rays and colliding geometrics, Magritte's Norine sketches share the great avant garde look and colors of contemporary Sonia Delaunay - and even hint at things-to-come from the Italian futurists. Arlequinade, Nuit sans Fin, Belle Inconnue, La Festa, La Robe Musette, Lord Lister, and Adieu New York... these are the names of the garments Magritte depicted for Norine. Read more about Magritte's Norine illustrations and his work in advertising graphics here, or about the fashion house Norine - here and here.

Too, search for Magritte's advertising sketch for "strange perfume" Soir d'Orage by Mem. As a fan of fragrance oddities, this really piqued my sniffing curiosity. I like the idea of the scent of a stormy evening. Location, of course, would matter. Was Mem's stormy evening near the sea, a city, a fruit grove, or a forest - I wonder. I like to imagine scent molecules preserved from this particular evening contain the essence of rich, rain-soaked dark forest earth imbued with the bark and needles of evergreen trees, the fiber of hardwoods, and the fruit of apple and pear trees - with a flashing whiff of moss zapped by lightning.

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.