Pleated Posies of silk satin and organza await to be stitched to their skirt. Making progress! 🙂
Events
Costume College 2019
It’s official! I’m pleased to announce that I will be once again teaching at Costume College for 2019. Held annually in late July, Costume College is an event devoted to costuming in its many forms, whether historical, fantasy, or somewhere in between. Classes and presentations consist of both lecture and hands-on workshop formats and are all taught by volunteers. For the past several years, I’ve been giving presentations on various aspects of costume to include American Army uniforms of the WWI Era, Paul Poiret, and Couture of the 19th and early 20th Century.
This year I will be reprising my Paul Poiret presentation (revised and expanded) as well as presentations on designers Charles Frederick Worth and Elsa Schiaparelli. When I presented the class on Schiaparelli last year, it was definitely outside our comfort zone but in it was well received and one of the attendees had even recreated Schiaparelli’s iconic Lobster Dress 🙂 :
One of the fundamentals of our design philosophy is that here at Lily Absinthe, we are interested in all eras of fashion and as such, we draw inspiration for all eras when it fits the particular design objective we may have in mind and especially when it comes to designers who came after the Belle Epoch.
Schiaparelli in particular has always been a source of fascination for both Karin and I in that she combined the shocking and outrageous with the practical and down-to-earth ranging from surrealist-inspired shoe-hats and immaculately tailored suits and elegant evening dresses. Moreover, we’re fans of her widespread use of pink- she even has a distinct shade of pink she named “shocking pink.” 🙂
July is a ways away but I’ll be busily preparing my presentations and it promises to be an exciting time. More to follow! 🙂
1883 Harper’s Bazar Day Dress
1883 Harper’s Bazar gown, scaled from an original sheet, extant hat, and four kinds of pleating. Train detaches for walking length… those Victorians designers were geniuses! There’s a bridal version of this on my cutting table to finish, too.
Clockwork Alchemy- The Fashion Show
It’s Tuesday morning and Clockwork Alchemy 2019 is a wrap. Somewhat belated is a brief glimpse of the fashion show itself. Unfortunately, because we were actively working as models, we were unable to obtain any pictures so we’ve had to secure them from other sources. So here’s a brief overview… 🙂
It’s showtime! Yes, it’s on! After a morning or dressing the models, it was finally time to hit the stage, so to say. The set-up was actually a rotating display between a series of stations, an arrangement designed to create a good traffic flow that would avoid bunching up. Since we were directly involved in the proceedings, we were unable to get any pictures so we’re going to have to rely on others… 🙂 Here are just a few:
And finally, here’s a group portrait of all the participants in the fashion (Note: not all of these were our models):
It was a good time and it gave us an opportunity to meet a lot of very talented people and we look forward to doing this in the future.
Clockwork Alchemy, Day 4- Time To Go
Well, it’s been a fun past four days but now it’s time to head south and back to the LA Atelier. It’s a lot of work putting on a fashion show and it couldn’t have been done without the help of a lot of dedicated people and for that we are thankful. Now to start planning for our next adventure… 🙂
Goodbye to Whitechapel…