Claire Kennedy Design

Liz and her fashion

It's always hard to loose an icon, particularly a fashion icon.

Elizabeth Taylor brought so much to fashion....in A Place in The Sun, she wore a "daisy dress"....

Every gal in high school at the time wanted this dress...it was a rage.  Granted the dress was beautiful, but it was Liz who made it an icon.

I was fortunate enough to have dinner in the private home that inspired Suddenly, Last Summer and it was really fun...it was the home Tennessee Williams stayed in while working at Tulane.  It was sort of fun to sit in the garden room and think about Tennessee Williams's imagination going berserk or at least wandering!

 

And who could compare with Paul Newman's sexiness....

No one but Liz...and she made him look really good - course he made her look good too.  This movie reeks of raw sex - maybe it was Tennessee Williams, but it was fantastic.  One of my favs.  Who wouldn't want a full slip after this movie! (Now you realize that slip was fitted to her - it wasn't lycra or knit or slinky, it was fitted to her!)

And there will never be another Cleopatra like Liz....

Her entrance into Rome in the movie was spell-binding.

Liz was a huge part of my growing up - on and off the screen.  She and "Richard"  were the epitome of the jet set, albeit something we all watched from afar and read about weekly in the rag magazines under the hair dryer at the local beauty shop.

She had an astounding beauty, and pretty much knew what to do with it.

She left a huge mark on society and fashion, which is saying a lot in the burgeoning world of media-awareness.

She will be missed.

To fashion or not to fashion

Steph over at 3 Hours Past the End of the World, has had a interesting blog on fashion and in particular how a youthful rebel comes to terms with working (and dressing) in the real world.  This may not make it easier, but as we grow older, the need to rebel seems less important as much as it does to be respected and taken seriously in our world - whether that's business, motherhood, volunteer or any other field.

I found this interview on Wall Street Journal very interesting talking about how mothers addressing certain fashion trends and decisions of their daughters.

  

And while this may not solve the eternal dilemma - to rebel or not to rebel - it at least tries to address it even if it's just to talk about the subject a little.

For me and my clients, albeit it's always on the formal side of life, it's all about looking pretty, and although I'm sensitive to each girl's desire to be different if not rebel, I'm as sensitive to the mom's desire to remain appropriate for a formal and usually conservative event.  This always seems to be on the side of gaining the maximum amount of attention by being pretty rather than rebeling.

As an unspoken rule from me, I will always veer from the Emperor and his new clothes - fashion for the sake of fashion has never been my style and the wonderful classic style that brought Vera Wang all her attention and fame.  That style is still grand today - Audrey Hepburn, Coco Chanel, Vera Wang, all had that classic style.

Today, when I dress for my day it usually has to do with what is on my calendar. 

• If I have to talk to professionals and conduct business, I'm in a suit with my high heels and totally knocked out.  I don't want to have to repeat myself or get nasty in the meeting and walking in dressed like Alexis Carrington does all of that for me. 
• If I'm haunting country flea markets look for vintage this or that, I'm dressed just this side of the vagabond  - well kept, but very low key. 
• If I'm dressing for jury duty downtown, I'm dressed to the nines and ready for business - I treat our local law enforcement and judicial system with the respect they deserve. 
• If I'm on my way to Home Depot to look for this thingamajig that I could have sworn I got enough but didn't and not sure where it is, I'll dress up a little - I get better service. 
• If I want to browse Home Depot, I'll be low-key so I'll be left alone!

It works every time.  If I'm dressed up - I get all the service I want, if not, I'm left alone.  When I got to a large metro area store to scoop out clothing, I'm nicely dressed, but not knocked-out and I'm left alone. 

We can sit around and rail against it, complain about it, rebel against, it, but the truth is: dress up and get attention one way, and dress down, and get it another.  We may not like it, but it is the way of the world.

So clothes do make the man(woman), naked people have little or no influence on society.

Treasure Hunt revealed

The buttons from the last post were a real treasure, and I suspect they were from my grandmother, Mimi!

This was in and amongst her files.  I imagine that she was doing a quick change from business to party as she was a fabulous businesswoman AND a great partier!!!  Her husband died when she was 49 and she had 5 kids to educate and set off on their lives.  She learned ranching and banking and tried to take up where her husband left off, but got involved with politics and became great friends with Truman.  When he came through OK on his "Give 'em Hell Harry" train stop, it was Mimi and the current gov of OK, Roy Turner, who raised funding to get the train all the way to the West Coast. 

Here she is with her two daughters, Patricia on the left and Blake on the right, both of whom cast giant shadows of their own.  Fashion note:  notice the gloves, hats purses...a woman in 1952 was not without all of these and of course Mimi's beautiful corsage.  The other thing I love about this picture (sorry can't help myself) is how well the suits all fit and what great tailoring they were.  Blake's jacket had a turned-up notched lapel look, while Patricia's had beautiful arrow-pointed besom pockets and Mimi's was a great notched lapel with a high stance - a mainstay for any business woman.  And the shoulder pads and those extended shoulders!  Joan Crawford - eat your heart out!!!


This photo is in 1952,  when she was sworn in as Asst. Treasurer of US under Truman.  She was about 65 y/o with gobs of energy.  We're not sure how old she was as this was really before lots of records, and she was born in rural Missouri AND she varied her age from time to time. 

One time when she was filling out a visa to travel abroad, my Dad was helping her and asked her age (even though he knew it, he knew it was also a "flexible figure"), and she gave him a figure, which he responded, "Well, that's great Mabe (that's what he called her), but that's younger than your youngest daughter so you might want to re-think that figure just a tad!!!" 

Hey, worth trying!

Some of the Mimisms I grew up with were: 

• "Women under 50 don't need much to look pretty, it's only when you're over 50 that you need big jewelery and long furs!!!" 
• Another was on taking a lot of luggage on a trip, "Doesn't do any good at home in the closet!"  She loved wearing lots of jewelry and it didn't have to be real, and the buttons just scream "Mimi!"

 She's my model - what great example to have in the family.

 

 

 

Can you say.....

TREASURE HUNT?!!!!!

I had to clean out my garage, so I got on my best hazmat suit and tackled the spring spiders and garbage in the garage...boxes and boxes of files and other stuff that was just excellent for bugs and spiders and other paper eating insects.....eeeeeeuuuuuwwww!

But in the middle, was a blouse (what member of my family is filing blouses in the files?  I can't imagine), and on the blouse were something heavy...like buttons...antique buttons!!!!

 

The funny thing is that I have a great idea about who wore these....but I got them now!  Lucky me!!!

 

 

More fun with that Knipmode pattern...

from February

After finishing the first effort on this top, I was intrigued enough that I wanted to do this again, with another piece of hand-painted fabric from the same source.

So how this all started (there's always a story)...was I got the latest issue of Vogue Patterns Magazine and there was a great article on zippers...including a "lace" zipper from Ghee's. So one click online and I have one in my very hands (OK a little longer than that, but still pretty quickly).

The black zip in my hand of course it needed a light background to show off the lace, and I knew I had this piece of gorgeous Bamboo and with black accent would be great. 

So this became an exercise in adaptability which is often what happens when you're using something new and incorporating it into a pattern.  Just know that don't be surprised if you have to do a little tweaking here and there and be prepared for it. 

Here's the zipper from Ghee's - really nice and very creative.

So I'm playing with this and thinking that this needs to be applied on the surface - not under, or even with the teeth showing.  I'm thinking that I might have to do a little hand tacking  to keep the lace down, but basically I put this in opposite the way I would put in an invisible zipper.

Where the invisible zip would have the tape on the inside, this has the tape on the outside, so that the under side looks like this:

So that the back fabric is pressed to the inside, and only the zipper teeth show on the inside.  This makes for a nice clean look on the inside, which is nice, but more importantly, the teeth do not get caught up in any flap or underflap to catch or stop the zip from operating.  The later is the main reason I used this technique.

But don't let this dissuade you, cause this was really an easy application, once I perfected it. 

There were two other minor problems - one was the top.  The zipper had metal (shiny white/silver) as the stop on the top - ick with the black. Really this is just me being extraordinarily picky, but since I was going to all this effort....

I just zig-zag-ed over the stops with black thread.  Paint would just wear off or chip off, and I really, really didn't like the silver showing through.  The fun of this is the black on the celery green (Yeah, I know didn't do a good job of capturing the delicate color of this fabric).

See - this looks so much better.

One last problem....

You can imagine if I didn't like the zipper stop at the top showing, that I wasn't going to like the bottom showing so had to invent something to cover this....but this is a separating zip, and didn't want anything permanent that would cause me to have to do an over-the-head into the top.  Again, being picky.

A gap at the bottom (the zipper wasn't long enough) for the full length of the top, but no matter, it was long enough...it goes from about the waist to the top of the neck, which is fine for me.  So a detailed button flap at the bottom is enough detail to make this a nice closure and professional enough looking so that I now like the zip and it works perfectly.

But there's a surprise....the back!

And before you think I've turned into some feral animal...well, I sorta hafta admit that I do love the wolves in Yellowstone a bunch, and Walt is always giving me grief about it.

So this was a natural for me!!!  Lace and wolves - on bamboo fabric - yep, that sounds like me!!!

 

 

Designers and their art

Sometimes designers (the clothing kind) can get a little out there and sometimes (like a lot of the time) they need some translations....

I had fun going through Christopher Kane's pieces for Spring, 2011, cause they are a great study in line and it's affect on different body shapes.

This first one is a great study to start with.  Remember these models are bone thin, and look at how these lines accentuate her bust line...also look and see how wide she seems at the hip - especially compared with some of the later styles.  Mr. Kane did a good job though placing the lower point of the diamond design at her lower waist (about belly button which is traditionally where a basque waist should be).  But our eyes want to flow out from that line or point at the bottom of the diamond which makes her hips looks larger.

Now often designers will do this on purpose.  This is a great design and worth a look.

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This one has a much better line and the reason is that the crux or the cross of the "X" hits right at the waist line.  Why is this such a great line?  Because the eye travels on the line of the X...that means it goes out toward the shoulders and in at the waist and out at the hips.  This is that classic cross-over look that makes a figure look more hourglass. 

Now if you have a very hourglass figure (IOW, your waist is so small it's out of proportion to the rest of your body), use that design above...it will accentuate your hips and shoulders more making your waist look more in proportion.

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This is also a good line, but you can see how the vertical waist stops the movement of the line at the hip...it's sort of like abrubuts eye movemtum!!!!  That's not really Latin, just one of Claire's efforts at humor!!!

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This one has a much better line movement on it and right under the bust....what this does is make the bust look larger. Why?  Because Mr. Kane has fitted right below the apex line of the bustline.  When you do this you always accentuate that apex point.  This is for gals who think they have a small bust, but at the same time that X accentuates the waist with line movement.

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Again, the waist line takes away from the hip line movement...and the jacket further takes away from it so that the major eye movement here is up and down.

It's sort of fun and interesting to take these apart and they make a perfect example of how we can use line and movement of line to de-accentuate those parts we don't like, and accentuate those parts we do.

 

Knipmode tryout

I just ordered Knipmode (after reading about Nancy K's mention of them)  and wasn't blown away, but curious about some of their patterns.  They look interesting....particularly this one....

This is my sketch as I can't figure out how to get to the line-sketch of it on their site...more time on their site to get this I'm sure.

Anyway, I liked it cause it was going to provide the perfect palette for a fabric I had...this had two versions, and I liked the open front model (view) with a zipper exposed.

 

My fabric has a metallic-like sheen to it making it look more leathery than fabric, but it is a cotton and the metallic sheen is more of a fiber treatment rather than a metal (does that make sense).

So I had this vision of this being sort of biker-girl-like with this "surprise" on the back...and it turned out just as I wanted.

And I like the way this came out, but I am going to tweak it a little...for one thing, the bust dart, I think, fits just a little low.  It looks a little frumpy and I like to keep that midriff area clean.

Second, I think the shoulders need to come up a little and it's hard to see in the sketch, but there's a seam at the shoulders and easy to take this up.

The other part of this jacket (besides the surprise) is the separating zip...it's a gem from NY Fabric District - just one of those treasures that I found and picked up there. 

So to the surprise....this came from Fabrique in Dallas, and they had an artist who painted beautiful things on fabrics....last time I was there was this gem...a little off-the-mark for me, but what's an artist if she/he doesn't go off-the-mark periodically!

Isn't this just wild?  It's perfect for some great boot-scootin' on a Sat night, especially in a sort of biker-quality/styled top. 

So the front is easy to understand:

And I did this with the exposed zipper

You can see how perfect the color and style is for this.

She deserves a name - like Desirée or Monique (why are French names so scandalous?)...but after all, this is for boot-scootin' so  she needs to be Sharon Jean Mercer or Flora Lou or Trixie or Dixie or something like that...I haven't named her but she so deserves a great name!

So back to Knipmode - first time - successful - a little testy with the Dutch and no translations.  They appear to be sized well, so I like that. 

An Award

It's always pleasant to get recognized, especially from someone you might not have known otherwise.

Ana at Štepalica sent me a wonderful award:

And there are some rules....thank the blogger who bestowed the award, tell 7 random facts about yourself and pass it on, and let each blogger know you're awarding them (post on their blog) - so here goes....

About myself:Yikes 7 random facts....

1. I'm obsessed about sewing and teaching
2. I don't need that much sleep, and have way too much energy for my age. (Sometimes I wish I could/would just sew until I drop and then maybe I could get this out of my system!)
3. I'm an adventuress in an artist's body or the other way around, I'm not sure.
4. I miss my beautiful collatura soprano voice - I have to admire from afar these days.
5. I can not watch horror movies/shows
6. I can not pass very much time (like a couple of hours) before I have to create.
7. I have one secret I can't tell yet, but it's very special and I'll be able to say something in about 30 to 60 days (and NO I'm not pregnant!!!!)

And here are my 15 bloggers - and believe me this was hard.... the first three are not sewing, but as I'm also an underwater photographer (did a lot of diving and photographing with this guy in Indonesia), the second belongs to family and she is so funny and creative I can't pass her up and movies - we all know how much I love fashion and movies.

1. http://oceanrealmimages.com/blog
2. http://www.twoedgetalk.com/
3. http://clothesonfilm.com/
4. http://www.shopthegarmentdistrict.com/
5. http://annsfashionstudio.blogspot.com/
6. http://chaneljacket.blogspot.com/
7. http://nancyksews.blogspot.com/
8. http://www.insideoutstyleblog.com/
9. http://kaythesewinglawyer.blogspot.com/
10. http://off-the-cuff-style.blogspot.com/
11. http://jkaori.blogspot.com/
12. http://thesewingdivas.wordpress.com/
13. http://missceliespants.com/
14. http://bubblegum4breakfast.blogspot.com/
15. http://scpbanks.blogspot.com/