What I Actually Wore #0039

Serial #: 0039
Date: 16/03/2010
Weather: forecast 32°, stifling hot
Time Allowed: 5 minutes

This cute little vintage print dress has been butchered. Not by me: by one of its previous owners. They hacked down the hem and created two splits by ripping open the side seams (and creating a hole on one side). Still, I was enamoured of the lace pattern and bought it anyway. I call it my tablecloth dress.

It was promised to be a stinking hot day the morning I chose to wear it to school (I was doing a short business course for a couple of months earlier this year). The dress is made from a lovely, cool, slippery rayon that is quite thin. As it is also feels rather skimpy on its own (not quite right for business school), I decided to wear a cute vintage slip under it.

Just look at those sweet little hearts on the lace trim of the slip. The matching belt was long gone, so I added my own blue satin ribbon. The whole effect is a little Alice in Wonderland.

It was still hot that evening when I went on a date – sans the slip this time – and my date was quite appreciative of the dress’ skimpiness!

Today the dress is finally being taken to a seamstress friend to be mended.

Items:

Dress: vintage
Half-slip: vintage
Earrings: vintage
Ring: NGV Gallery
Shoes: Diana Ferrari

Summer School

Click image for larger version

Aussie-boy

On beautiful sunny days like this in Melbourne, you can wander down to the beachfront and find your typical Aussie male specimen sporting about. On the hottest days he is most often seen in casual attire: a tank top, knee-length shorts and casual walking shoes (most often Havaiana thongs; occasionally runners). He is particularly noted for his laidback attitude towards life and liberal notions on the proper quantity of beer to be consumed on summer days. Very often he is to be found with his wrist attached to a surf- or body-board. When water sports pall, he amuses himself with a leisurely game of cricket on the beach. If heat or weariness overwhelms him, he may retire to his towel to sunbathe, during which time he will also enjoy the gentlemanly sport of birdwatching.

Eurogigolo

The Eurogigolo, on the other hand, is extremely concerned with image: firstly, his own; and secondly of any female who is lucky enough to be the object of his attention. It is of the utmost importance that his garments are eye-catching (like the plumage of the male peacock), his jewellery flashy, his hair rigorously under control and not subject to the waywardness of the wind, and his tan so dark thus ensuring by simple contrast his teeth are startling in their blinding whiteness. His native habitat is the Riviera, or the Greek Islands, where he likes to float in the shallows whilst he watches scantily clad young women saunter past. He does not play sport.

On very rare occasions, both personas may be embodied in a single man. Above, you will see an illustrated example with key identifiers that will help you ascertain the exact nature of the male under observation. Good luck!

Twice thanks to Volodya!

A Good Yarn

A patch that just passes muster … from a distance. Don’t look at it up close!

Needlework used to be thought a fit occupation for a young lady to keep her occupied during those moments when she was not busy trying to captivate an eligible bachelor.

Nowadays few young ladies are fit for mending, let alone sewing. I remember once purchasing a skirt from an expensive designer boutique that had a loose button at the waistband. As I said I would take it as is, rather than wait to have the store mend it, the salesgirl gave me a needle and thread to take home! Obviously I didn’t look the sort to own a mending kit.

This hole is about an inch in diameter! Sob!Darning however is not something I was ever taught in textiles at school. Who has the time or inclination these days to darn holey garments?

I never did, until my favourite cashmere cardigan developed an enormous hole in the elbow – I don’t know how, but I suspect that old proverb, ‘a stitch in time prevents nine’ applied here.

This time I was determined to rescue my cardigan from charity shop doom, and purchased some Italian merino yarn. Researching darning online somewhat sketchily (I looked at a few diagrams), I learned that I should recreate the weave, and set to with gusto. I read afterwards that some darners unravel their yarn to get a finer thread and a more subtle result, but that would have unravelled my sanity I think.

Okay, look at it up close. Sure to make a professional darner shudder, but I got the weave happening, and it's less tawdry than a hole.I did without the wooden darning egg and started with the two tiny holes in each underarm as practice. By the time I was ready to tackle the giant hole, I felt more confident. It was fiddly work, and my eyes were sore from squinting, but I think I acquitted myself not too badly for a beginner! Fortunately the colour of the new yarn matches the cardigan so well it’s less noticeable.

I’ll be darned if I don’t wear my badge of honour with pride!

Click here and visit Colette Patterns for some vintage instructions on darning. (And such a cute illustration on the cover!)

René Gruau: A Glamorous Legacy

‘Le Rouge Baiser’ Lipstick, 1949

Unfortunately no longer in print, this coffee-table book features over 100 drawings.Another favourite fashion illustrator of mine is René Gruau (1909–2004), who became renowned throughout the haute couture world in the 1940s and 50s, working with a number of prestigious magazines, including Marie-Claire, Femina, Elle, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Flair, L’Officiel and Madame Figaro. Major designers of the era hired him to bring life to their creations: Balmain, Dior, Fath, Balenciaga, Schiaparelli, Rochas, Lanvin, Givenchy and more. By the age of 18 he was published internationally, in Italy, France and the US, and his career spanned four decades.

What an eye he had! His work is bold, graphic; his unerring brushwork fluid and unhesitating, suggesting a vivid character that is larger than life – full of joie de vivre in fact. 

This was his viewpoint that exploded into the dullness of post-war life: full of glamour and flamboyant colour, and sophisticated women wearing large hats and long gloves, casting coy glances. This woman he worshipped, and ‘nowhere did she appear more magnificent than in his works – not on the catwalk, not in fashion photos, and certainly not on the sidewalk.’1

It is so easy for us in the twenty-first century to look back on these decades through a rose-coloured fashion filter, and forget how difficult life must have been. René Gruau in fact chose to ignore daily reality. Instead he portrayed an otherworldly beauty that harked back to his even earlier aristocratic past, his drawing becoming a ‘sumptuous farewell present at the final gala of the old glamour world’2.

Here are some of these women, snapped from this beautiful and oversize monograph on him. 

Click on thumbnails for larger versions.
1, 2: Essay by Ulf Poschardt, from 'Gruau', te Neues Publishing Company,
New York 1999

Gruau in his Paris Studio; Maison & Garden, Dec 1960.René Gruau drawing a dress by Pierre Balmain in his Paris home, 1995. Photo Thierry Chomel/Vogue.

Yves Saint Laurent hat; Madame Figaro, Mar 1986

(Left) Jean Dessès; (right) Jacques Fath; both L’Officiel, Summer 1947

(Left) Balenciaga and Jacques Fath, Silhouette, Jan 1948; (right) Christian Dior and Jacques Fath, Silhouette, Fall 1948

(Left) Christian Dior and Jacques Fath, Champs Elysées, Apr 1948; (right) Jean Dessès and Jacques Fath, L’Officiel, Apr 1949

(Left) Madame Grès, L’Officiel 1948; (right) Pierre Balmain, International Textiles, Mar 1953

This woman he worshipped, and ‘nowhere did she appear more magnificent than in his works – not on the catwalk, not in fashion photos, and certainly not on the sidewalk.’

(Left) ‘Le Rouge Baiser’ Lipstick, 1949; (right) ‘Diorama Perfume’, 1950

(Left) ‘Miss Dior’ Perfume, 1952-53; (right) Christian Dior Stockings, 1960/85

(Left) International Textiles, cover, Jun 1954; (right) ‘Jolie Madame’ by Pierre Balmain, L’Officiel, Sep 1952

Untitled, 1997; oil on canvas

Madame Figaro, 1984

Reverse Panama

The Vintage Hat Series: genuine Panama hat, handwoven from straw in Ecuador.The most classic and famous of men’s summer hats, the Panama, is understated and distinguished in its white and black simplicity. It’s as sharp as the man (and sometimes woman) who wears it.

What I love most about this hat I am wearing is that it couldn't be further from that concept: wide-brimmed, black, swathed in white chiffon and adorned with an enormous bunch of creamy roses. And it is still a genuine Panama hat made in Ecuador.

I am not sure of its vintage (I found it in a charity shop), but it has an elegant Thirties air about it. I feel that I should be wearing a tea-gown and sauntering through an orchard at sunset, carrying a basket of flowers. Perhaps I can try to fulfil that little fantasy sometime this summer…