christmas tree etc.

Just some pictures of the christmas tree I decorated (note how much I resemble such a tree in that 50's dress :P)

Paris: Madame Grès at the Musée Bourdelle

Last week I went on a fashion-exhibition trip to Paris with a good friend. We've visited two exhibits in Paris itself one more at the Grand Trianon (Versailles) and on our way back another one in Antwerp. The first day came with pouring rain and wet feet, but that did not stop us from seeing two exhibitions. One of them was an exhibition dedicated to the works of Madame Grès(née Germaine Krebs, aka Alix).This exhibition was held in a small and not so well known Parisian museum for sculpture: the Bourdelle. Although this might seem a somewhat strange combination it is actually a logic choice. The Galliera, the fashion museum of Paris, being closed for renovations other locations had to be found to indulge the public with exhibits of their collections. Madame Grès was known for her love of sculpture. She always wanted to be one and she eventually became a sculptor. Not in stone but in softly draped fabric. The craft of her designs is amazing, the sculptural elements are obvious.

The technique used by Grès creates reliefs in fabric.

This effect is enhanced by the location of the exhibition. By showing her designs alongside the stone sculpture of the Bourdelle the influence of sculpture and the comaparison between Grès'sculptures and those of more conventional materials is actually 'shown'. The visual effects thus created were stunning, clever, and pleasing to the eye.






The first room, of immense proportions and a churchlike design, housed grand monumental sculpture. On entering one typical godess dress was visible in the middle. On the background photo's of antoher dress were visible in the 'apse' of the room.




The next room was much smaller and showed non-white designs and black and white fashion photography. Throughout te exbibition dresses were grouped and placed on stools, these varied in height so every dress could be admired even in more limmited spaces.

This fashion photograph clearly showes the marriage of sculpture and dress, the essence of Grès' work.

Quite the religious reference I´d say.

The sculptors 'atelier' and living room (standard rooms in the Bourdelle) were also used, this created even more interesting images. In these rooms glass cabinets were used that sometimes had darker glass on the side of the windows. Probably a very handsome way to shield dresses from the luxes of daylight streaming in and still maintaining naturally day-lit rooms.

Proof that I´ve actually been there.



The overall design of this exhibiton was clean and simple, but very effective. The location was so special less else was needed to create a strong exhibition that overwhelemed not only by its beauty but also by it sheer size.

Dresses in the foreground and sculpture to lead you towards a vanishing point.

The way the dresses were presented not only made it possible to see them all but also created a dynamic image.

I expected to see a few rooms with but the exhib seemed to go on and on, about 80 dresses were on show. For a big part they came from the Galliera museum collections but also from private collections. Not all were in perfect state, some mended some discoulored, some even appeared a little moth eaten. The public was able to see this dammage because one could come so very close to the dresses one could (but should not) touch or even smell them. It was remakable how many of the (mostly French) visitors did take a closer look to admire the technique and the materials used.









The grand finale was formed by a row of countless dresses against a wall hung with grey reliefs. The photo shows the dramatic effect of the huge statue that looks like it is ginving the frocks its blessing.






All in all I too feel blessed to have seen this exhibition, it made my rainy day. The approach of mixing traditional sculpture with the jersey sculptures of Grès proved a very exiting one. So very different form the usual 'white cube, no context' and the 'period room, time-line' ways of showing fashion and art in general. Refreshing.

First on me now in a museum :)

Orange silk dress, ca. 1955-63

During the last months I've been bussy putting together an exhibition about women's fashion forn the 20's through early 60's for a local museum. It is called 'Kleren maken de Vrouw': van charleston tot Petticoat (clothes maketh the woman, from charleston to petticoat). Most dresses were either from the museum's collection of borrowed from other musea and people. Some dresses that are shown are mine. Below are pics of some of those dresses in the museum and a me wearing the same dress. In a following post I 'll write a little more about the actual exhib.

Pink rayon crepe dress with black beads and black hat with pink silk flower, ca.1940-1950





Muslin Hungarian inspired peasant style dress, ca. 1922-1930

Edwardian Easter

For easter I want to wear one of my oldest wearable dresses. It is a dress that is probably from the late teens maybe the very early twenties. It still has that Edwardian teagown style, but is not floor length or tiny waisted.
I took the pictures quite long ago, it was for a project. The idea was to create pictures that looked like they were taken in another era. I tried to mimic the look of old-fashioned postcards :P.



I won't be wearing the dress quite like I did in the pictures. I'll give it a quick update with a little belt a blue underdress and a more understated hairstyle than the corckscrew curls in the picture. I'm thinking about wearing it with wedges.



The teagown style white with lace dress seems to be everywhere this summer so I might even end up looking 'hip' in a 90 year old dress.

1939 fashion plates

Summer ensemble with floral embroidery.

Here are some high quality french fashion plates I bought this weekend. They are from a 1939set of designs. Most of the pictures from this period are from magazines or cataloguesoften printed on thin paper. These ones are quite differentthey feel similar to the victorian type though not as delicately hand colored. They were probably shown to women to choose from at dressmakers shops. There's no text to acompany them, maybe there would have been a short intro at the beginning of a series but that probably would have been all.


Blue evening dress

I know this because a while ago I saw a several of these series in complete form in a museum where I did some research to find material for an exhibition I'm working on for another museum. Ofcourse I could not post immages of those plates on the internet since they belong to the museum and are not on display. I was amazed by them. Especially the use of color. Even the ones that were issued during the war were in bright lemon greens, shocking pinks and sky blue hues and printed on durable paper. Alltogether very different from most magazine pictures.


Autunm/winter dress


The pictures in this post strongly remember me of the series from the museum. I will be able to dispay those at the coming exhibition. Can't wait to show these hidden treasures to a public.


More subdued hues for a winter coat.

Spring!

Today was the first day the temperature allowed me to go out in a summer dress without stockings or anything with long sleeves. Perfect for wearing a summer dress I bought a somewhere in february. Ever since I bought this pastel ckeckered one along with another cotton nautical style dress I've been longing for temperatures above 20 degrees celsius!






Also a perfect day to take pictures between seas of spring flowers.

Arsenic & an old lace dress

This 40's dress is made out of the most wonderfull lace. Blue with pink flowers. It is trimmed with deep blue velvet ribbons. Very much a dress for february I'd say. The flowers are very springy. But let me just tell a little story:



Once upon a time there was a girl madly in love with an old lace dress. One afternoon she wore the dress, as she often did, when paying a visit to her neighbours who lived in a big delapidated house.
The family consited out of two parents and two children. There had been a grandma but noone had seen her for at least ten years. This aternoon the girl found the house in absolute silence, the door however was open so she walked in.........



On a table there was tea in a teacup waiting for her. She turned on the light because it was rather dark in the big lonely house.



She picked up the teacup and took a sip.



As she finished het tea she was surprized to find there was still some sugar residu left in het cup.



Then she heard a funny noise. She looked up but there was nothing to see.



After this all went black.......... What the girl had not knwon was that the dress had belonged to the old grann who was alive and kicking. Next to a profound love for her old dress granny was locked up by her family after several attempts to poison people she envied.




The day before granny had escaped and killed her ungratefull family. When she found out who owned her favorite dress she decided to kill the girl. From her window she had watched the girl come to tea at a particular afternoon every week for years. With a little bit arsenic she succeeded and the old lace dress was hers again.

Ok this was a little sick, but the story does have a happy ending doesn't it