What I Actually Wore #0056

Serial #: 0056
Date: 31/12/2010
Weather: hot
Time Allowed: 3 minutes

I was having a lazy New Year’s Eve: just a couple of girlfriends round for dinner and a viewing of the midnight fireworks planned. I had recently added a new shiny vintage item to my wardrobe: a knit thickly sequinned in fuchsia and seashell pink in a classic fish scale pattern.

When I bought it, the salesgirl asked me if it was for a special occasion. Does one need a special occasion to buy something that glitters so joyfully, I wondered? “No,” I told her, “but I might wear it on New Year’s Eve.”

I paired it with pink taffeta shorts from Kinki Gerlinki, and added a touch of green with the jade in my earrings and the green chrysoprase faceted stone ring. (I love green and pink together.) Although I do have more than one pair of pink shoes, I deliberately wore red wedges to clash. Monotone dressing can be fun – especially when it is all pink bursting on the unsuspecting public awareness – but sometimes I love to clash my colours.

As usual before a dinner party, I leave dressing to the last possible minute, and leapt into my outfit literally moments before my guests arrived. It was an enjoyable night albeit low key – even if my outfit was not!

Items:

Top: vintage, from Smith Street Bazaar
Shorts: Kinki Gerlinki
Earrings: my own make
Ring: from Dittoday
Shoes: Bata

NB I am very behind with this series: this outfit is actually from NYE 2010! I am so far behind that the BOM’s daily weather observations from 2010 through to Feb 2011 are no longer listed in the online archives. So hence this evening was merely ‘hot’.

Chantilly Lace Had a Pretty Face

Karen Millen top, vintage headpiece and veilIntricate, delicate; originally hand-made from linen, silk and later cotton; expensive due to the many laborious hours of painstaking work involved, lace is an exquisite form of textile craft. It is defined as an openwork fabric, with open holes forming a pattern. Sometimes lace is cut from a woven fabric, but more often than not this airy textile forms around the negative space.

True lace, differentiated from cutwork in which thread is removed, is created when thread is looped, twisted or braided to other threads independently from a backing fabric. It was not made until the late 15th or early 16th centuries, when it became popular for use in table linen and clothing. A cottage industry quickly developed and spread throughout Europe.

Bobbin lace is made on a complicated arrangement of pins on a pillow bolster. The placement of pins is determined by a pattern, and thread is attached to wooden bobbins for easy management.In fact, lacemaking even has its own patron saint – probably because making it would try the patience of a saint! St. John Francis Regis nobly saved country girls from the grime and wickedness of the city, by establishing them in the lacemaking and embroidery trades. It probably wasn’t good for their eyesight though.

Then, lace was worn only by royalty and the very rich. Thousands of hours and many months of work could go into a few square inches of lace, and made lacework extremely expensive.

… lacemaking even has its own patron saint – probably because making it would try the patience of a saint!

Today, couture quality lace is still only worn by royalty or the very rich, for few young women are taught exquisite needlework in the schoolroom: they race to the bright lights of the city instead. For them, there is machine-made lace – not that there’s anything wrong with that, as long as it is well-made from high-quality materials (synthetic lace that pills is dreadful). And if they still hanker for the exquisite workmanship of centuries past, vintage may be a more affordable option.

In or out of fashion, lace is always beautiful – a timeless investment for your wardrobe. 

This lace-like scarf, hand-embroidered in Vietnam, is needlework rather than a true lace

Types of Lace

Needle laceNeedle lace – originating in Armenia, this lace is made using a needle, thread and scissors. It is built thread by thread onto a stiff support such as heavy paper, which is cut away upon completion. Very durable, this lace will not unravel if one or more loops are broken.

Cutwork – constructed by removing threads from a woven background; the remaining threads are wrapped, filled with embroidery or pieces of needle lace. Examples are broderie anglaise, battenberg and whitework.

Bobbin lace – threads are wound on bobbins for ease of management, and are held in place with pins on a bolster or pillow. Pins are placed according to a pattern Chantilly lace shawl, 1860spinned to the pillow, and the thread is braided and twisted to create this lace. Chantilly (French, mostly black silk, and consequently used for mourning attire), Mechlin (a fine, transparent Flemish floral) and Valenciennes (French, net-like background) are all types of bobbin lace.

Crochet lace – includes Irish crochet and filet crochet. The former is an important part of Irish needlework tradition, through which women could support their families, especially during and after the great potato famine of the 1840s. Made with a crochet hook and fine cotton or linen thread, based on an outline of the pattern on a piece of cloth. Each motif is crocheted separately, using cotton cord for volume and shaping; basted onto a cloth in a pattern, and joined using chains and picots. The backing cloth is removed on completion. Filet lace is a form of knotted netting, with a decorative pattern filled in with linen stitch.

Crochet lace, 1912

Guipure lace dress with (in centre panel) filet lace, 1912Guipure – also called Venise lace, point de Venise, ‘chemical’ lace or ‘burned-out’ lace – is a heavy, stiff open fabric, with a weightiness similar to crocheted lace. The design stands in relief, and there is no background or net: the motifs are joined by threads known as bridges. Guipure was originally made using foundation material that would dissolve in a lye bath (hence the alternative names), but today is usually made from cotton by machines.

Lace can also be knitted, and knotted in the form of macramé and tatting. Tape lace is formed using textile strips that are shaped into a design and embellished with needle or bobbin lace.

The Cat in the Hat

The Cat in the Rain Hat :: Watts // Big Up // No flashThis clear plastic rain hat with ears from Sportsgirl was irresistible (as was the headline of this story). Rapunzel pulled it off a hook to show it to me and I immediately tried it on. “Am I a bit old for this?” I asked her doubtfully.

“You’re never too old for hats with ears,” she assured me.

I took her at her word. And it sure beats mum’s emergency plastic bag on head idea!

An Easter Message

Happy Easter! A time of year synonymous with Christ’s resurrection, rebirth, and the new life of spring is also the perfect time for some healthy introspection and reflection; a time to put aside the past and look to the future.

Inspired by the work of Alphonse Mucha – with its profusion of florals, decorative swirls, flowing velvet draperies and cheerful polka dots – this Easter picture celebrates this hope of new life in shades of pink, rosy like spring flowers and the dawn. Pink ostrich feathers give a cheeky nod to that other important personage, the Easter Bunny.

In Melbourne it is actually autumn, the time the earth prepares to rest for winter. For myself, it has been a sad time mourning the loss of my beloved little pussycat Hero.

Funnily, I’ve been comforted by the presence of two turtledoves that seemed to have adopted me. Hero was their declared enemy, but this morning I was pleased to watch them cuddling on my front steps, tail feathers overlapping, as though they were guarding my door (after gobbling up all the birdseed of course). No phoenix rising from the ashes, but comforting nonetheless. Where there’s life, there’s hope.

Indian Summer

I suspect that today really is the last of the Indian summer. The phrase has an interesting etymology, but these days of course refers to those last glorious summery days that autumn is blessed with. The wind blows a heatwave ahead of it, and autumn leaves follow in a golden shower.

Dressed up like a chieftain’s daughter, here I wear a feather headdress (heroically hand sewn by me) on mauve satin ribbon and sequinned trim, a suede fringe necklace and a vintage white leather vest. All I’m missing is a palomino by my side. And maybe a bow and some arrows.