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

A dress that smells of lavender

And it is January again. I don't like that period just after the holidays. Luckily there are plenty of dresses (and my birthday) to cheer me up, thought I always feel like dressing less sumptuous after the 1st of January. Subdued hues close to black and cool blues.



This is late 30's dress made out of a very dark purple artificial silk that fits very nicely to my current mood. Like a kind party of dress you'd wear when in mourning.



I love the design. The huge puffy sleeves are decorated with strips of the same fabric just like the skirt that is very wide (almost a circle) but it looks quite sleek.



When I bought this dress I thought it smelled like something from my grandmothers closet (that is positive). It was a little like lavender with something else. The smell came from the sous brasses, there was lavender sewn into them still producing a subtle smell after over 70 years.

X-mas red&white combo

So it is nearly Christmas. I've already decorated my room and my parents house(hope to post some pics in a few days). The only thing that needs decorating now is me!



On Christmas I'll be wearing more dressy outfits but during the week leading up to Christmas I'm getting in the mood with warm red& white (just like Santa).



This 30's/40's rayon dress is perfect (also perfect for my rusty-red coat). It already has a white collar. Warm tights and a beret finish the look (white gloves for going out, and since there's an unusual amount of snow in the Netherlands: boots).

Variations on my dress part 5: Gold&black velvet

The very last variation. This time the simple dress is made fit to wear during the holidays. I'm wearing the dress with a black velvet belt with a gold-coloured buckle and velvet/gold wedges. The hat and the purse are also made of velvet. I actually wore the dress like this last old years eve(with more robust shoes because I had to walk through the snow quite a bit).



Now that might look like an understated outfit for such a big night but is was very very cold (and slippery) and this dress is very warm and not itchy.



Anyway I like velvet and it is a perfect party fabric, it also tones down the fake gold. I plan to wear lots of velvet coming holidays, but more about that in a while.

My 'new' red wintercoat

This is my new wintercoat. It is from the late 30's or 40's but it looks like new. There was a price tag still in it stating it had once cost 75 Reichsmark(the Reichsmark was replaced for the Deutschemark in 1948).



The fur collar does not belong to the coat but I think it looks amazing with it. I was also lucky to find a beret in the same shade of red at H&M.



There is also a piece of extra fabric sewn into the coat, in case reparations were needed. But there were no reparations needed since it has never been worn. And now after more than 60 years I'm the first to wear it.I'm going to be very careful not to wear it out.



The white beret is also made of fur I'd like another collar to match it
some day. For now the scarf will have to do.



Photo's were taken by my dad in last weeks winter wonder land, unfortunately the world it all green brown and grey again now.



The blue scarf is from Russia, bought it there this summer (tried it on when it was 35 c.). Looks very lovely with the red too.

Magic realist painting & Variations on my dress 4:blue symphony

Today I went, through the extreme cold (shiver shiver), to a museum to see a painting I have to give a small presentation about in two weeks. It is a picture of a woman in electric blue painted by Carel Willink in 1932. The painting is in a style called magic realism (more or less related to surrealism). The somewhat uncanny atmosphere in this painting is like the world in a dream, the elements are real (since you've seen them during the day) but they are deformed.

To me the sky is like thunder and lightning are about to start,like silence before a storm, this kind of sky is in many of this painters pictures.
The exact building in the backgrount actually exists,it stands near the painters studio in Amsterdam. The woman (Wilma) was to mary the painter in 1933 and she's in many pictures.

Now since this blog is essentially about clothing and dresses especially: the electric blue dress.....
I can't stop wondering wether this dress was actually that blue. The style was probably copied correctly. There's another portrait where Wilma is wearing a checkered jacked. there's also a photo of her posing in that same jacket.




The dress is pictured with enourmous^eye for detail, even the ending of the (blind) hem is visible. But I just can't help but wonder if someone in Holland would dare to wear a color like that. Futhermore there's also a painting of Wilma in a black dress of a very similar style (couldn't find a pic).

Anyway loooove the blue dress, very fashionable for that time. I was totally inspired and therefore the forth variation on my dress is a blue (although not an electric blue) color symphony, with some surrealist sculputral elements invading the image :P. My gaze is not as icy as Wilma's (really she suited today's sub-zero temperatures just fine).



The blue dress is paired up with a blue cardigan with puffy sleeves, blue dotted stockings and a blue beret with blue dotted veil.





Just one last 30's picture, from 1934. This time Willink pictured himself with Wilma (now his wife). The surrealist influences are more visible in this picture. It reminds me of a Magritte painting where the artist painted an artist painting a nude in the air. In this picture almost looks like the painter just painted his wife, not as literally as in the Magritte though.