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Not So Sexy - The Health Risks of Secret Chemicals in Fragrance
The Environmental Working Group and the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics have released a report about fragrances containing chemicals that can trigger allergic reactions or disrupt hormones. What follows are excerpts from the releases associated with the report:
In 1973 Congress passed the federal Fair Packaging and Labeling Act. The law, which requires companies to list cosmetics ingredients on the product labels, specifically exempts fragrances. Since then, the vague word "fragrance" is all you'll find on the label. If there's anything to be grateful for in this, "fragrance" is a recognizable word that is easily avoided by label readers.
The FDA has not assessed the vast majority of these secret fragrance chemicals for safety when used in spray-on personal care products such as fragrances. Most have not even been evaluated by the safety review panel of the International Fragrance Association (IFRA) or any other publicly accountable institution.
A rose may be a rose. But that rose-like fragrance in your perfume may be something else entirely, concocted from any number of the fragrance industry’s 3,100 stock chemical ingredients, the blend of which is almost always kept hidden from the consumer.
Makers of popular perfumes, colognes and body sprays market their scents with terms like “floral,” “exotic,” or “musky,” but they don’t disclose that many scents are actually a complex cocktail of natural essences and synthetic chemicals — often petrochemicals. Laboratory tests commissioned by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and analyzed by Environmental Working Group revealed 38 secret chemicals in 17 name brand fragrance products, topped by American Eagle Seventy Seven with 24, Chanel Coco with 18, and Britney Spears Curious and Giorgio Armani Acqua Di Gio with 17.
Walk This Way Exhibit; Shoes include a Manolo, a pair of slap-sole shoes and a pair worn by Marilyn Monroe
In 2007, Boston's Museum of Fine Arts held an exhibit in which "visitors might find a pair of Venetian chopines next to a painting of the city by Canaletto, a woman's shoe from the late 1790s embroidered with neoclassical scrolling grape vines exhibited with an ancient statue of the Greek god Dionysus, or a pair of contemporary wedges with rococo carved heels from MIU MIU's most recent collection alongside eighteenth-century carved and gilt furniture."
"Famously difficult to find, Manolo Blahnik's Mary Janes were declared an 'urban shoe myth' by Carrie Bradshaw in an episode of Sex and the City. (She found a pair hiding in a closet at Vogue magazine.) The episode captured perfectly how shoes are powerful objects of desire. Shoes' relative affordability compared to fine clothing, as well as their luxurious materials and evocative shapes, have made owning the right pair not only an obsession, but a sensual pleasure."
Man's shoe possibly Italian, 1650–60, Italy (possibly); Overall: 15 x 8.5 x 22 cm (5 7/8 x 3 3/8 x 8 11/16 in.), Other (heel): 8cm (3 1/8in.), Leather, silk cord and tassels. Classification: Costumes, Accession number: 44.554, The Elizabeth Day McCormick Collection
"Men and women wore the same shoe styles for much of the seventeenth century. The square-toed shoes that peek out from the bottom of Margaret Gibbs' apron, as seen in a portrait in the MFA's collection, were probably close in style to the man's shoe shown here. Made of leather that was treated with alum to produce a white surface, this shoe features fashionable red heels and soles, and elongated, forked toes. The overhang of the toes can be seen in the Gibbs portrait as well. The latchets would typically have been tied with a silk ribbon or fancy rosettes. This shoe is slightly earlier than the one in the portrait, for, despite Margaret's visible affluence, fashions in the Colonies lagged behind those in Europe."
A pair of women's "slap-sole" shoes ; Accession number: 44.521a-b: "White leather upper, toe and instep covered with salmon silk embroidered with silver yarns, wires and spangles in conventional motif; narrow lappets with white and salmon silk ties with tassels cross behind and tie through pointed tongue; silver bobbin lace across instep, at top, lappets; butted side, back seams; salmon silk stitching on quarters, heel. Square toe. White leather covered wood Louis heel. Brown leather sole. Attached clog with brown leather top, white leather sides; felt at front, heel. Brown leather insole, white leather lining." 44.521a-b, Provenance/Ownership History: Former Coll. Simonetti (Rome)
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The Big Cover-Up
Rose Mula writes: Gone from my closet are all those adorable sleeveless shirts and tank tops that I loved, and soon to follow will be all my short-sleeved tees. Recently I’ve been buying only blouses and sweaters with elbow-length sleeves. As for the creases that have suddenly furrowed my face, other than plastic surgery (which I’d be afraid to try even if I could afford it), my only recourse would be a combover — one long enough to reach from my temples to my chin. Read More...
Edit... Health, Fitness and Style, Style and Fashion, Senior Women Web,Articles, Rose Mula, Authors
V&A's Costume Cleaning Conundrum, Manchu 'Horse-Hoof' Shoes and The Invisibles
"In preparation for the V&A's autumn 2007 exhibition, The Golden Age of Couture, an extremely rare costume by Christian Dior was brought into the Textile Conservation Studio for treatment. It was amongst over one hundred costumes, underwear, hats, shoes and other items requiring conservation and mounting before display."
"The greatest challenge this costume presented was its appearance; it was heavily soiled, distorted and visually unappealing. The question was — could it be cleaned and reshaped?"
London's Victoria & Albert Museum presented in its online Conservation Journal,Spring 2008 Number 56, the article Costume Cleaning Conundrums by Frances Hartog:
"The condition of the costume at the time of purchase was startling. The hem of the skirt was black inside and out. All parts were soiled. There was extensive water-borne staining throughout; the proper left sleeve of the jacket and front of the skirt both had large stains down their entire length that had hardened to the consistency of cardboard. The whole ensemble was very heavily creased and misshapen. The waist of the skirt had been taken apart and cobbled together again in haphazard gathers. As one of my colleagues succinctly put it — it was a mess!"
"After consultation with Claire Wilcox, the decision was made to wash the jacket, bodice and skirt, in the knowledge there could be colour loss and not knowing what level of soil release would be achieved. This necessitated the removal of the secondary lining in the jacket and the removal of the skirt from its yoke to release the uneven gathers. The primary lining of fine silk found in all parts of the costume was structurally integral and could not be removed; it was accepted there would be probable colour change. To maximise cleaning efficiency, the chelating agent tri-ammonium citrate was added to all wash baths, raising the pH from 5.6 to between 6.3-6.6. Due to the complexity of the jacket's structure and scale of the skirt, logistics dictated that all parts be washed separately, introducing the further risk of inconsistent results. The bodice was washed first; being the smallest item it was felt to be the most controllable. The results were pleasing, a noticeable reduction in soiling but the creasing remained. The jacket (the skirt of which was lined with three different fabrics) was then washed with enhanced results ; all the water staining was removed and the appearance was much improved. Finally, the skirt was washed, again with impressive results. Though some of the water staining remains, the fabric became soft and malleable, and the lustre of the satin was greatly enhanced."
Go to the V&A site to view the outfit.
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Are Those Two Senior Women Models We Spy?
We forget (uh,oh) exactly how we arrived at England's The Guardian today, but nevertheless, it's a favored publication. After reading an article on why older women are paying more for car insurance because of a higher number of claims, we migrated to thoughts of making a soufflé and then this:
Fashion for all ages: The one must-have item for all occasions
No apologies for those two older women, no explanations as to why they were part of the content and even more important, no pats on the back for including them ... such as a special AGE issue that reluctantly includes a few very glamorous models and super-successful women in pricey outfits. Or a special section of the old dames, segregated in the ghetto of 'oh well, guess we have to include some over-the-hill (fashionwise) women.'
Or, if older women are part of editorial fashion content, they're usually on the cusp of old age and heaven forbid, if they were ever referred to as ... gasp!... elderly. We like that they're fashionably dressed from top to high-heeled toe or smart flats, with attractive jackets. They look as smart as the younger women they're surrounded by. Perhaps, US fashion editors might take a tip from their British counterparts.
Images of Fashion from the Court of Louis XIV; Fashion Illustration in the Eighteenth Century
"Under the reign of Louis XIV, fashion, in particular the manner of dress, follows the court. The French change style every day. Foreigners follow French fashion with the exception of the Spanish, who never change their style."
— French scholar Antoine Furetière (1619–1688) in his Dictionnaire Universel
Fashion Illustration at Court in the 17th Century is part of Images of Fashion from the Court of Louis XIV, an exhibition online from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art:
"Information about the lifestyle at Versailles was disseminated by visitors, through letters and journals, and most commonly through single-sheet engravings of fashionably dressed courtiers, widely distributed with the encouragement of the crown. One hundred ninety of these engravings are collected in Recueil des modes de la cour de France (Collection of fashions from the court of France), the centerpiece of this exhibition. Such images from the late 1600s are generally accepted as the genesis of our modern concept of fashion and fashion illustration. They featured the latest apparel, worn with elegance by French courtiers, who were the celebrity trendsetters of their time."
"To remain fashionable required a continual investment of time and resources in one’s personal dress and environment. Through engraved illustrations, news about all aspects of fashionable dress at the court of Louis XIV was avidly followed in courts and capitals throughout Europe, and French style was widely adopted."
Also on view at LACMA is the Dress of the Year: Collection of Watercolor Drawings, The Doris Stein Research Center for Costume and Textiles. The last quarter of the eighteenth century, journals such as Heideloff’s Gallery of Fashion were issued monthly, enabling a broad-based feminine readership to stay abreast of the ever-changing fashion."
Using such journals as her resource, Ann Frankland Lewis selected one gown each year from 1774 to 1807 and made a watercolor rendering that she titled 'Dress of the Year.' This personal collection of watercolor sketches provides an important historical document of late 18th to early 19th century fashion."
Art and Museums, Style and Fashion, Senior Women Web
The Shape of Fashion and Its Underpinnings, 1870 - 1960
The Museum of the Rockies, Montana University, has organized an online exhibit, The Shape of Fashion and Its Underpinnings, 1870 - 1960. Here are a few paragraphs from the exhibit:
"The study of costume — fabrics, style, construction and cut — informs us of both a fashion and social history, and provides a refreshing and enlightening look at human history. The costume collection at the Museum of the Rockies spans from the 1860s to the 1960s and marks the earliest settlement in the Gallatin Valley."
"Underpinnings are the foundation upon which the shape of fashion is built, and similarly reflect the swing of the fashion pendulum. Perhaps more fascinating than the costume itself, these foundations for The Shape of Fashion reflect more earnestly the essence of the feminine realm. From a tight corset and layer upon layer of undergarments to a simple brassiere, the transition in women's foundations tells the story of their journey toward liberation.
"Hoop skirts of the early bustle period were trimmed down considerably from the absurd diameters of the 1860s. A tight bodice and corset, contrasted with a bustled skirt, characterized the silhouette of this period. The fashions of this era reflected the notion that costume was an indication of personal success, and that corseting was a healthy means of controlling the shape of the body."
"Women's activity levels were limited due to multiple layers of clothing: most dresses required at least two petticoats, along with drawers, a chemise and a corset cover. In addition to the corset, a woman endured up to 25 pounds of dress and accessories. The advent of new technologies — particularly the sewing machine (patented in American in 1848) and paper patterns (Butterick, c. 1860) — and the emergence of the department store contributed to mass production and increased availability of fashionable clothing."
"Fashion in England, France and America was strongly influenced by the extravagant taste of King Edward VII. Lavish dinner parties and balls demanded that fashionable women own a vast array of gowns, coats, suits, blouses, hats, furs, feather boas, parasols, fans and gloves. The complexities of society required a complex wardrobe; one had to have a dress for every social occasion and every sporting event. The advent of the automobile required an outfit for driving as well."
"Young women started to enter the workforce, gaining employment as secretaries, switchboard operators, librarians and shop girls. Although tailor-made suits for women first appeared in the 1890s, the suit of shirtwaist (blouse), dark skirt and jacket rose to prominence as a practical yet beautiful addition to any woman¹s wardrobe. The Edwardian silhouette featured a full bosom, fictitious curves and fluff just above the feet. Underwear was more luxurious than ever, made from fine cottons with excessive trims. The bust bodice, an early brassiere, emerged to support the bust as the corset lowers over the hips."
Explore the rest of the exhibit, The Shape of Fashion and Its Underpinnings, 1870 — 1960.
Madeleine Albright's Pins on Exhibit
Back in 1997, Alain Sanders, a colleague at Time Magazine, suggested Notebook item for the magazine on Madeleine Albright's jewelry. Unfortunately, we don't have access to the pins used as illustration for the following paragraphs, but wanted to acknowledge Alain's early noting of her jewelry and their meanings when worn:
BROOCHING THE SUBJECT DIPLOMATICALLY
By Alain L. Sanders Monday, Mar. 24, 1997
"Like haiku or hieroglyphics, diplomatic language often requires interpretation. But the new Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, has taken the semiotics of diplomacy to a new level. She literally wears her feelings on her lapel, but she makes her point subtly, with brooches. "Everyone will just have to read my pins," she says. Below, a selection from the Albright collection, with accompanying interpretation."
"Albright likes to wear the eagle and top hat on her trips abroad as symbols of American power and glory. She most recently wore both when she met Russian President Boris Yeltsin in Moscow in February. The goat is the gift of an admiral at Annapolis, who sent it to her after he read accounts that the brutal Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic had apparently named one of his goats after the then U.N. ambassador. In 1994, when reports circulated in the Iraqi press calling Albright a serpent, she decided to wear the snake pin — in lieu of a name tag — when meeting with Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz. Albright says the bumblebee reminds her of Muhammad Ali's motto, "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee," which could well be her slogan too. Look for the balloon when the Secretary is feeling up, and for the Capitol when she is trying to be at her bipartisan best. Other brooches, like the spider web, she simply finds alluring."
Now the Museum for Arts and Design is displaying a number of her pins as an exhibit, Read My Pins: The Madeleine Albright Collection.
Article
Julia Sneden, Short-Circuited: My only problem with Mrs. Obama’s shorts is envy. Having been born with what my other grandmother referred to as a “fatal shortness of thigh,” it’s hard not to feel a jealous twinge when I see those beautiful, long legs
Hidden Treasures
This year I bought a small desk diary from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London as my 2009 calendar. The subject is a 'celebration of jewels, gems and glamour and, like the jewellery gallery, focuses on the last 1000 years of Western jewellery.'
The illustrations are based on the new jewellery gallery based on the contributions of William and Judith Bollinger.
" 'Your peacock is finished" wrote C.R. Ashbee, the architect and designer, to his wife Janet in 1900. He is at the present moment pinned on my coat and is preening his tail.' " ... "A pendant enclosing a miniature by Nicholas Hilliard was given by Elizabeth I to her Vice-Chamberlain, Thomas Heneage. A gold box by Ricart with a cameo by Garelli was given by Napoleon to his sister, Caroline, Queen of Naples. Researcher in Russia has shown that a group of 46 diamond dress ornaments was commissioned by Catherine the Great from Leopold Pfisterer in 1764. Later they were worn by Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich, killed like his brother, Nicholas II, in 1918."
"Sometimes names are lacking, but the purpose of the jewel is clear. A woman in Ancient Egypt wore a pendant of the hippopotamus goddess Taweret to give her good fortune in childbirth. A love in about 1400 gave a heart brooch with the engraved declaration 'ourselves and all things at your desire'. A woman in the sixteenth century wore a pendant with hessonite garnet and peridot to protect her through the properties of the stones and the invocations inscribed on the reverse."
Be sure to click on the direction to LEARN MORE for a more detailed explanation of the objects. For example, the prophylactic pendant (made of enamelled gold, hessonite garnet, peridot and sapphire drop) is inscribed at the back 'Annanisapta + Dei' (against epilepsy), and is made about 1540 - 60. The explanation goes on to say that "the backs of the gemstones are left open, rather than closed as was usual in this period. This was to allow the medicinal or magical properties of the gems to be transmitted to the skin of the wearer. Magical inscriptions on the reverse added to their power."
The Heneage or Armada jewel cited above was created about 1595 of gold with enamel, rock crystal, table-cut diamonds and Burmese rubies with an enamelled Tudor Rose inscribed in Latin: "Alas that so much virtue suffused with beauty should not last forever inviolate."
The objects in the gallery can be viewed in html or in flash (View Hidden Treasures (Flash version) - You will need Adobe Flash Player 7 or above to view this version. Download Flash free here )
Wedding Traditions From Victoria to Diana
An exhibit from Ohio State University's Historic Costume and Textiles Collection centers on the wedding dress. The exhibit is divided into seven sections, covering what women (and men) wore beginning with the Early Victorian period and ending with the late 1990s:
- The Traditional White Wedding Dress
- Early Victorian 1837-1867
- Late Victorian 1868-1901
- Early 20th Century 1901-1935
- Mid 20th Century, 1936-1965
- Late 20th Century, 1966-1998
- Cultural Wedding Traditions
"Lt. Matt Luoma sent his wife Lillian a nylon parachute from France during WWII. In April 1945, Lillian entered the Fifth National Sewing contest sponsored by the Cleveland Press, and won first prize in the Victory Group for this negligee and gown made for a belated honeymoon. The design incorporates the original parachute seaming in the skirt of the negligee."
"In several Asian countries, wedding ceremonies share a common Confucian tradition, and common traditions regarding color. Many traditional wedding costumes incorporate the color red, since it is an auspicious and happy color. White, on the other hand, is the traditional color of death and mourning. In the past, Japanese brides would wear a white kimono on the first day of the marriage ceremony to symbolize their separation or 'death' from their birth family."
"Lady Diana Spencer's wedding to Prince Charles in 1982 brought a rebirth of fantasy to wedding ceremonies. The real-life princess wore a Victorian style dress befitting a fairy-tale princess. The large-sleeved, fitted bodice, full-skirted silhouettes of Victorian revival style gowns are the epitome of the traditional white wedding dress."
Read the rest of the fascinating text that accompanies the Ohio State Wedding Traditions exhibit. A current exhibit is The Sewer's Art: Quality, Fashion, and Economy featuring " 49 beautifully constructed garments that reflect the creative and artistic talents of four fashion and style-conscious women from the beginning to the end of the 20th century who sewed for economical reasons and/or for self expression, to create high quality fashionable clothing."
Chic Chicago
Now that Michelle Obama has revealed an acute fashion sense that has been displayed regularly, it might be worth looking at the hometown that has fostered it. Chic Chicago: Couture Treasures from the Chicago History Museum is currently an exhibit and from it came a fashion design competition highlighting Chicago area designers. Each participating designer created a couture garment inspired by one of five selected pieces from the exhibition.
"FashioNext was a ground-breaking fashion design competition that featured established Chicago area designers Jermikko Shoshanna (Jermikko), Melissa Serpico Kamhout (Serpico), Lauren Lein (Lauren Lein Ltd.), Paul Sisti, and William Thomas Walton and Roger Price (Price Walton)."
"In February 2009, three finalists were selected to create couture garments inspired by one of five pieces from the exhibition Chic Chicago: Couture Treasures from the Chicago History Museum. The winning garment was announced at the April 17 FashioNext Finale. The gown is now part of the Museum's permanent costume collection and on display in Chic Chicago for the remainder of the exhibition run."
Carvers and Collectors
The J. Paul Getty Museum hosted an exhibit, The Lasting Allure of Ancient Gems. Most of us have either tried, purchased or been given at one point in our lives, a cameo or intaglio. The housekeeper my parents employed to take care of me when they worked in New York City, sent one home before he was killed on the beaches of Normandy during World War II.
Carvers
"The exhibition includes gems by several ancient master carvers, including Epimenes, Solon, Dioskourides, and Gnaios. These carvers sometimes signed their works, but the majority of classical gems are unsigned. With careful examination, anonymous intaglios and cameos can be attributed to known masters based on characteristics they share with signed gems."
Gem Catalogues
"Sumptuous engraved catalogues of gem collections were published in the days before photography. Like the gems they illustrated, these volumes functioned as luxury objects. The engravings in these books sometimes improve upon the already excellent carving of the gems themselves."
Gem Cabinets
For those who could not afford gems, or for collectors who wanted to keep track of other collections, compilations of impressions were quite popular. Casts were shelved in large wooden cabinets or in cases formed as hollow books, which either opened to display their contents or were fitted with drawers. Such assemblages often combined impressions taken from modern gems with those of ancient ones.
The techniques that the carvers learned and used are also on display: http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/gems/techniques.html
Articles
Liz Flaherty, More Than Meets the Eye: Piercings, Tattoos, Comb-Overs, Droopy Pants: There are a host of things I don’t mind. Skimpy tops with body parts hanging out — although I must confess to jealousy here; I’d give my earring collection to have the kind of body that looks good in those tops
Diane Girard, Keep Those Paws Off My Pajamas: There are pajamas I will not wear. I no longer buy the ones with critters on them. I have tried — but the animals disturbed me. I do not want to wear pink frilly nightwear either because then I feel silly, as if I’m stuck in a time warp at a pajama party
Article
Joan L. Cannon, Wishing for "A Modest Proposal." I thought of Swift's ability to flay human folly and wished I could convey in the way he would have the combination of fury and incredulity that assailed me
Ask Teri
The Wall Street Journal has instituted a column, Ask Teri, that answers readers' questions about fashion. Reporter Teri Agins has covered fashion for most of her sojourn at the WSJ. Recent columns have included Remodeling Long Gowns, Getting a Handbag Refurbished and Stylish Ways to Tote Eyeglasses. Email askteri@wsj.comAfrican Textiles Two venues in New York City are holding exhibits focusing on the textile traditions of Africa.The Metropolitan Museum of Art entitles their display as The Essential Art of African Textiles: Design Without End. "Dazzling textile traditions have constituted an important form of aesthetic expression throughout Africa’s history and cultural landscape. Textiles have long been a focal point of the vast continental trading networks that carried material culture and technological innovations across regional centers and linked Africa to the outside world. Leading contemporary artists reflecting on Africa’s distinctive cultural heritage and its relationship to the world at large have drawn upon the imagery of textiles in sculpture, painting, photography.""The Myriad distinctive regional traditions represented in this exhibition include the expansive monumental wool and cotton strip-woven architectural elements created in Mali and Niger; a rich range of deep blue indigo, resist-dyed textile genres produced in Senegal, Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria, and Cameroon; textile panels composed and woven by Igbo women and Yoruba men in Nigeria, to be wrapped around the body as apparel; and a series of the impressive voluminous robes and tunics that have been designed from regional fabrics from Algeria to Nigeria."The images from the Met's show includes a detail from an Adire Cloth: Olokun (detail), and a prestige gown from the Grassfields section of Cameroon. "Immense ndop cloths typically were unfurled as backdrops against which public ceremonial gatherings were enacted. In an allusion to that tradition, two of the major motifs on this gown are the leopard, an insignia of chiefly power, depicted on either sleeve and the abstract interlocking filaments that denote a hunting net emanating from the center section of the garment." By the way, examples of African textiles can be viewed at the British Museum (who collaborated with the Met for this exhibit) site, including a tent doorway hanging. And, after viewing their holdings, there's an opportunity to design your own tent doorway.Downtown from the Met is the Grey Gallery of New York University, showing The Poetics of Cloth: African Textiles: "The Poetics of Cloth focuses on key West African textile traditions including: Ghanaian kente and adinkra, Malian hunter’s tunics, factory-produced “fancy' and 'Dutch wax' prints, indigo-dyed fabrics, and Nigerian Igbo wrappers borrowed from the Met, the Fowler Museum at UCLA, and private collections."A Rakish History of Men's Wear
This 2007 New York Public Library exhibit is appealing, especially with a subtitle of The Story of Men's Fashion Told Through Its Rebels and Rakes, from tight hose and doublets to codpieces and the wasp-waisted frock coat that preceded the modern suit.
"Included in the exhibition are gorgeous hand-colored etchings by Raphael Jacquemin (1821-1881) and chromolithographs by Auguste Racinet (1825-1893), fashion illustrators and historians who worked during the golden age of 19th-century fashion design publishing. Also included are several simple, yet elegant, colored posters by Edward Penfield (1866-1925), a master illustrator known for his cover art for Harper's. More contemporary men's fashions are demonstrated by advertisements for brands such as Ralph Lauren, Versace, Giorgio Armani, Comme des Garçons, and Vivienne Westwood."
"Sumptuary laws (which restricted certain fashions to men of specific social status), chivalric codes, spiritual and martial values, dandyism, and the growth of a bourgeois middle class radically altered the nature of men's wear. By the 19th century, a male preference for subdued black garments took hold. Later in the century, men's clothing took a back seat to the vagaries of women's fashion. Yet the contemporary taste for street chic in suits and casual clothes shows that men still possess a style-consciousness with deep roots in the past."
"The exhibition's second section explores man's historical penchant for clothes that identified his social rank and occupation. Not surprisingly, popes, emperors, kings, and nobles dressed with a luxuriousness that was unavailable to the common man. The loose silk robes of the Emperor of China, from Edward Hargraves's A Collection of the Dresses of Different Nations, Ancient and Modern, contrasts greatly with the robes worn by Arab nobility; nonetheless both costumes confer great authority on the wearer. Magnificent garments were expected of those in the highest echelons of society, such as those in the papal court, as seen in a curious fold-out book from the 19th century, Corte e milizie pontificie."
"No occupation has influenced men's fashion, both ancient and modern, more than the military. Knights, such as those depicted in A Critical Inquiry into Ancient Armour by Samuel Rush Meyrick (1783-1848), dressed with special attention to their importance in society and were frequently innovators of new fashions. Doublets and trousers went from being specialized military garments to fashionable dress for everyday civilians. Linen armorers, those who fitted soldiers with padded garments to wear under their armor, developed sewing techniques that gave rise to the art of tailoring. In the 20th century, advances in technology accelerated, and innovations in clothing fabrics, fasteners, and metallic components were adopted for civilian wear."
Preposterous Hairstyles
Yale's Library retains online the 2003 exhibit, Preposterous Headdresses and Feathered Ladies: Hair, Wigs, Barbers, and Hairdressers:
"In the second half of the eighteenth century the hair of the fashionable world in England soared to new heights. From the Lewis Walpole Library’s collection here is a selection of prints focused on hair and wigs, and on the hairdressers and barbers who created and tended them.
"These images of 'preposterous' hairstyles give evidence of the increased economic prosperity that made possible such extreme fashions as well as the luxury goods necessary to them. At the time of publication, the prints also served to communicate and disseminate the latest styles to a broader public.
"English women borrowed fashionable hairstyles from France, particularly Marie Antoinette’s fanciful headdresses, and English men returning from the Grand Tour brought back fashions as well as objets d’art. From the beginning there was ambivalence among the English about extravagant fashion, and the extreme style adopted by the young gentlemen back from their European travels, dubbed 'Macaronies,' was usually portrayed as ridiculous and sometimes even as unnatural. In 1764 Horace Walpole mentioned 'The Maccaroni Club (which is composed of all the travelled young men who wear long curls and spying-glasses),' and a writer in the Oxford Magazine had this to say in 1770: 'There is indeed a kind of animal, neither male nor female, a thing of the neuter gender, lately started up amongst us. It is called Macaroni. It talks without meaning, it smiles without pleasantry, it eats without appetite, it rides without exercise, it wenches without passion.' "
"In addition to reflecting an English distrust of Continental (specifically French and Italian) excess in dress and manner, some of the prints also point up the confusion and sense of disorder caused by attempts at upward mobility. Satiric images abound of men and women putting on the clothes, and trying for the manners and hairstyles, of the upper classes."
Here are a couple of examples of the exhibit's text:
The Preposterous Head Dress, or the Featherd Lady: "Both the lady and her maid sport the inverted heart-shaped pyramid all the rage in 1776 and 1777. The Duchess of Devonshire was said to have begun the fashion for ostrich feathers, seen here decorating the headdress along with fruit and carrots. Late in her life Lady Louisa Stuart wrote about the opposition to ostrich feathers as part of a headdress: 'This fashion was not attacked as fantastic or unbecoming or inconvenient or expensive, but as seriously wrong or immoral. The unfortunate feathers were insulted mobbed burned almost pelted.' "
Lady All-Top: "Shown here is another magnificent heart-shaped pyramid of hair adorned with ostrich feathers, beads, and flowers, of the sort made fashionable by the Duchess of Devonshire in 1776. These hairstyles were labor-intensive and required cushions and wool, pomatum and powder, and an array of decorations. They were uncomfortable, they attracted insects and mice, and they could be fire hazards."
Renoir at the Theatre: Looking at La Loge
London's Courtauld Gallery is showing La Loge, a painting by Renoir which not only examines painterly techniques, but the style of the women portrayed.
Renoir at the Theatre is a film introducing the exhibition by curator Dr Barnaby Wright: Watch the movie [5:03 min]
Looking in detail at Renoir’s La Loge with Professor John House. Watch the movie [3:10 min]
Caricatures and Fashion Plates is a close look at the exhibition’s displays of nineteenth-century fashion magazines and caricature journals with curator Dr Barnaby Wright. Watch the movie [3:52 min]
From another perspective, the Courtauld draws attention to individual elements in the painting:
Jewelry: Diamond earrings, a pearl necklace and a gold bracelet were luxury accessories completing the composition. The rose on Nini's dress draws our eyes towards a fashionably enticing décolletage, which was afforded by new developments in the manufacture of corsetry.
Dress: For the sitters of La Loge, Renoir chose his brother Edmund and Nini Lopez, a model from Montmartre known as ‘Fish-Face’.
Edmund wears formal attire, consisting of a gilet, white shirt, starched cravat, black trousers and gold cufflinks, and is typical of an evening dress worn for the elite theatres. The sobriety of male dress eschewed class divisions, celebrating the growing social and political legitimacy of the middle classes. It also served to draw attention to the exuberant styles of their female companions.
Nini models a fashionable tenue de premiere, which was a dress to be worn for the opening night of a performance. This demi-toilette was known as the polonaise and consisted of an over-gown, which was looped up at the sides and back to create softly draped layers of fabric and is typical of the fashionable revival of eighteenth century styles.
Fashion was vital to the economy and came to form an icon of French national identity. With the aid of Hassmann's revolutionary changes to the urban physique, the number of couturiers rocketed and new inventions such as the sewing machine allowed the mass production of more intricate and elaborate forms of dress.
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Rose Mula, Do You Believe That Outfit?!: At least our clothing today is more democratic. We all have the right to look slutty and cheap, regardless of our social standing. And, of course, the fewer clothes we wear, the easier our laundry. (Wouldn’t you have hated to be Elizabeth I’s personal maid?)
Discarded to Divine
Recently my husband remarked on the number of vintage clothing stores that had sprung up since we last walked the streets of a little town nearby.
Most women have taken note of the vintage clothing phenomenon for the last quarter century and have taken advantage of the beautifully made older clothes that can add to a wardrobe, particularly for dressier events. We chose Victorian beaded pieces for party events and a beaded 20s flapper dress from Sophia's Great Dames in Greenwich, CT served as a wedding dress for one of our daughters.
Discarded to Divine is a further step adding to that appreciation for older clothing. The San Francisco St. Vincent de Paul Society has been inviting aspiring and professional designers as well as dedicated volunteers since 2005 to reuse the clothing donated to the venerably charity. A fashion show and fundraiser highlighting these imaginative and fashionable recyclables is being held for a third year.
2008 creations are available on Flickr, as well as those from previous years. It certainly makes one rethink those clothes you might be thinking of donating if you're handy with a pair of shears and a sewing needle.
The Exploratorium, also in San Francisco, is debuting an exhibit called Second Skin: Imaginative Designs in Digital and Analog Clothing.
A press release explains the offerings: "Don't miss demonstrations of the latest trends in heated clothes, electroluminescent wire, soft circuitry, green innovations and new materials. A selection of artists will be using recycled materials such as soda cans and ping pong balls. You'll see Karen Wilkinson's jackets and hats made of layers of plastic bags and danger tape, or Anna Rochester's Snickers wrappers dress, and dresses made of old-fashioned filmstrips.
"We'll also have a demo about soft circuitry, which includes metal thread that conducts electricity. You'll see how to fashion snaps and zippers into electronic parts. A live demonstration called Cool Neon Crochet will be all about EL wire (electroluminescent wire). In a free workshop called Bling, explore LEDs, conductive thread and simple circuits, and build blinking baubles and bodily adornments of all kinds."
Walk This Way
Boston's Museum of Fine Arts is hosting an exhibit of footwear entitled aptly enough, Walk This Way:
While shoes serve a practical function by protecting our soles from the elements and hazards underfoot, they have also become highly ornamented objects of obsession. Whatever the materials or the cost, however, shoes always reflect the time and place in which they were made and worn and the culture that produced them. Walk This Way, unlike any footwear exhibition in the past, places shoes — from ancient Egyptian and Nubian sandals to new acquisitions representing the best in contemporary design — throughout the MFA's galleries to illustrate their relationship to other works of art. These provocative juxtapositions provide insights into the history, ornamentation, and cultural importance of footwear. In this treasure hunt of an exhibition, visitors might find a pair of Venetian chopines next to a painting of the city by Canaletto, a woman's shoe from the late 1790s embroidered with neoclassical scrolling grape vines exhibited with an ancient statue of the Greek god Dionysus, or a pair of contemporary wedges with rococo carved heels from MIU MIU's most recent collection alongside eighteenth-century carved and gilt furniture."
View all the images from Walk This Way
One example of men's slippers:
Shoes with upturned toes have been worn in northern Iran and Anatolia since at least the second millennium B.C. Evidence of their early popularity survives in shoe-shaped vessels that were often buried with the dead. The fashion for the upturned toe has survived until the present day. It is especially popular in India, where it was introduced at the fifteenth-century Mughal court of Jahangir — a time of great Persian influence in South Asia. Mojaris, like those shown here, are still worn in northwestern India at special festive occasions like weddings.
Leather uppers embroidered with green and pink silk and yellow metallic yarns; triple gilded leather bands at red leather binding. Upturned pointed toes; copper wire-bound points at vamp throats; green leather piece at quarter points. Two layer leather sole. Red silk insoles embroidered with gilt-copper yarns.
Exoticism
The Fashion Insitute of Technology Museum is hosting an exhibit on Exoticism.
FIT introduces their online exhibit in this fashion:
"Fashion and textile designers often take their inspiration from 'exotic' styles originating in 'foreign' cultures. But for whom is something exotic and foreign? During the centuries of European expansion, exoticism encompassed most of the non-Western world. Historically, this meant that European designers, such as Paul Poiret and Yves Saint Laurent, appropriated design elements from places as diverse as Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. But this exhibition demonstrates that exoticism in fashion has changed profoundly as we have moved from the Eurocentrism of the past to the hybridity of today’s 'global village.' "
"The concept of the exotic has many positive connotations — unlike related words such as 'strange' and 'alien.' Exoticism has typically been suffused with romance, sexuality, and novelty. Just as spices and silk traveled along trade routes, so too have fantasies and stereotypes of the exotic, mysterious “other.' This romantic conception of the exotic crystallized in the 19th century during the heyday of Western colonial expansion."
[The late] "Edward Said famously argued in his book, Orientalism, that exoticism patronizes and misrepresents other cultures. Yet other scholars have suggested that 'the presentation of one culture for consumption by another' can also promote cultural dialogue. As the anthropologist Clifford Geertz notes, 'To see ourselves as others is eye opening.' "
"As a result of globalization and multiculturalism, exoticism is becoming much more relativistic. Japanese designers such as Kenzo launched hybrid East-West styles as early as the 1970s. Today, designers from Brazil, Turkey, and Korea show their collections in Paris and New York. India and China also are becoming major fashion players. Although Western brands still dominate the fashion scene, emerging markets and the Internet are giving rise to a wealth of local fashion centers and there are many young designers with new perspectives on what constitutes exoticism."
Continue with the exhibit at FIT's Museum by clicking the next button at the top of the page.
Contents of Pockets
Again the wonderful V&A provides an online exhibit, this time Contents of Pockets:
"Many pockets held objects essential to personal grooming, such as a mirror, scent bottle, snuffbox and comb.
"In the Female Spectator of 1745, the editor Eliza Haywood advises on the use of snuff and scent:
'The snuffbox and smelling-bottle are pretty trinkets in a lady's pocket, and are frequently necessary to supply a pause in conversation, and on some other occasions. But whatever virtues they are possessed of, they are all lost by a too constant and familiar use. And nothing can be more pernicious to the Brain, or render one more ridiculous in Company, than to have either of them perpetually in one's hand.'
"One of Jack the Ripper's victims, Annie Chapman, was found wearing a pocket that had contained a small-tooth comb and a pocket comb in a paper case (Philip Sugden, The Complete History of Jack the Ripper, 1994).
"James Henry Leigh Hunt wrote a collection of essays in 1812 which included a description of an 'old lady' and the contents of her pockets,
'In one is her handkerchief, and any heavier matter that is not likely to come out with it, such as the change of sixpence. In the other is a miscellaneous assortment, consisting of a pocket-book, a bunch of keys, a needle-case, a spectacle-case, crumbs of biscuit, a nutmeg and grater, a smelling-bottle, and, according to the season, an orange or apple, which after many days she draws out, warm and glossy, to give to some little child that has well behaved itself.'
Buying and Losing Pockets details:
"Many pockets were handmade and they were often given as gifts. Some were made to match a petticoat or waistcoat. Some were made over from old clothes or textiles. Pockets could also be bought 'ready made'. On the tradecard shown, the haberdasher (seller of dress accessories) advertises both pockets and fabrics to make pockets.
"Grandmama's Pockets, written in 1849, is a story about the contents of a little girl's grandmother's pockets,
'Annie had often longed to peep into them, but was afraid. She knew their contents were numerous, and very tempting. Amongst them was a large silver bon-bon box, with a puzzle top to it — and a cup and ball, which she was permitted to play with when she was very good.'
In addition you might want to read Pockets Go Out of Fashion:
In the 1790s women's fashions changed very dramatically. Wide hoops and full petticoats went out of style. Instead, dresses had a high waistline and skirts that fell close to the body and legs.
Where would you tie your pockets? At your waist, or at the waist of the dress? Wouldn't all those hankies and nutmeg graters and scissors and spectacles and apples in your pocket ruin the line of the dress?
As a solution, women began to use reticules, decorative bags designed be carried over the arm in the manner of our contemporary handbag. However, reticules are very small. There was barely enough room for a hankie and a coin, never mind the mirror, watch, keys, needlecase and oranges that a pocket usually contained.
Theresa Tidy, Eighteen Maxims of Neatness and Order, 1819:
'Never sally forth from your own room in the morning without that old-fashioned article of dress — a pocket. Discard forever that modern invention called a ridicule (properly reticule).'
