Claire Kennedy Design

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.

Another post on Style and Shape

Fitting for a shape other than a post-apocalyptic waif (I need to abbreviate that, my spelling head is esplodin' - PAW!!!), takes on some challenges, but they are not insurmountable, no matter what society and media tell us.  We are all shaped differently and that's just the way of the world.  For heavens sakes, the sun doesn't even rise or set in the same place every day - you think our bodies might change a little - ya think?!

OK, enuf of that, back to our shapes and what we can do with them.  I loved Juliet's link from the last blog and that Judi Dench bought a lot of her clothes from the store she linked to.  Below is an example of one of their things.

And although I don't like to dis period, I like to emphasize the positive, this is not positive.  This is the sort of thing that I try work against.   And I know a lot of people out there feel this is all that's available to them.

But it's not. 

For one thing, what the garment is trying to do is cover a large area one place while drooping over a smaller area.  With fitting techniques, and some very basic ones, a garment can be fitted for this shape.

It has always been confusing to me why men could find clothes in their sizes, like these, but somehow women can't or they just aren't available.

If a suit can be designed to fit Michael Oher......and....

if one can be design to fit Gianfranco Ferre?.....then why not women?

Well, it can.  It does take some learning of techniques, but it can be done. 

Most of all that "cover it all" or "cover up" look really doesn't do anything other than just accentuate an already large area. 

 

There were some things that Dame Judi was wearing that did have draping to it and did have some style and line to it.  Those were the things I just adored.  They were close to her body.  They were either tapered or slightly gathered or were not waving about.  For a figure like Dame Judi's you have to be careful of the side. 

 

See now we can see her sides?...well, maybe we can't see all of them but see how her side comes in under her elbow there?  That's enough to give the hint of a figure...a shape...that's what we're looking for.  The contrasting scarf also adds length.

OK - I worked with this a little and see the difference.  I took that scarf thing on her left side that was hanging straight down off, and believe me, I gave her a generous waist and even at that, she looks so much better.  See how just at the midriff (above the waist) area, it's contained.  It's non-cluttered;  it's clean - no gathers, no draping, no extra fabric.  That's what does it.  On the right is the original and even though there's not a lot of gathers, it's that scarf thing hanging down that makes her look way bigger than she is.

That's why I'm not a fan of those big, cover-it-all, coverups that are gather-y around an area that we need to keep clean and contained.  Basically I'm talking about a full-chested/busted area, with smaller shoulders.

 And I'm certainly not talking about when you're at home and want to be comfy - be comfy or if you're out running a quick errand.  But if you want to look nice, professional, together, official, and all that, keep that midriff contained - it does wonders.

And what's my favorite method of doing that - the side bust dart!  It's magical.

 

Designing for the no waist figure

Continuing on a theme - how to dress for different figure types....and my rant crusade for acceptance of sane body shapes, here's the latest - about the waist.

 

For my star du jour this blog, I've chosen Dame Judith Dench. An English lady who we all probably first saw on "As Time Goes By" on PBS late at night - or at least that's where I saw here, and after that she seemed to pop up everywhere - "M" on 007 series (she's so fabulous there),  Most of these are from the red carpet, so they are clothes that either she picked out or were for her - not costumes from movies.

This is just OK - nothing special.  When a star walks out on the red carpet she should look great, and there are people to help her.  She's not going to the local market to pick up a liter of milk and caught off-guard by the paparazzi, she's dressed to the nines....just to show you that even people in the public make mistakes.

.

This expression looks like she was caught by the papparizi, and she looks a lot better...Dame Judi looks fabulous in pants as we'll see.  They lengthen her. She must have legs to her bust or something because it works time and time again.

.

I know light colors are fun to wear, but with no shape and the way light projects, it's just real dangerous and here's the reason why.  No shape, she looks like she's wearing a sequined gunny sack, and there are so many more things she can wear (and does) that really look smart.

.

She must be smiling cause she looks so good. See what pants do for her.  But there's something else working here.  It's the tunic.  She has it open and a low-cut camisole under it.  The long lines of the tunic open and particularly how it hits her decolletage is very lengthening which helps her look much slimmer.  Also black recedes, white projects...she's not anything but a wall flower here - she looks stunning.

One of the many things I like about what she wears, is the detail.  All of her clothes seem to have great attention to details and detail ornamentation or effects.  Shows great care in her selection of clothes.

.

Again with the long scarf, long tunic and pants...there's no Ms. Frumpy here...very smart looking, even though I wouldn't have picked green for her, she looks very smart and well put together.  Another feature of what makes this work is her rolled up sleeves.  She will frequently wear 3/4 length or rolled up sleeves.  This keeps the tunic (which is large to start with) from looking frumpy or over-bearing.

Try this sometime...you have a large jacket, tunic, top or whatever, and it's long-sleeved.  Now pull up the sleeves to just below the elbow or a little lower and you will be amazed at how much more sophisticated you'll look.  OK - so it's 12" of snow outside, obviously this won't work.  But when weather permitting, try it.  I will often get a couple of rubber bands to put at the cuff area and push my sleeves where I want them and the rubber bands are lost in the folds of the sleeve and keep the sleeve right where I want it.

.

She does so well, and then boom - back to frumpy dress.  The shawl is just too much, where's her waist?...where's her beautiful, long legs?  Gone.

 

Oh yikes....no more light colored dresses.  Love the detail...it's beautiful...imagine how much better this would look 3/4 sleeve length, and if the tunic was shorter, and a little more shaped to her body.  She really doesn't have to look this shapeless.

.

See - with her right color - trademark scarf, long tunic, and great pants and killer shoes...she's off.  Very well done.  Good color - lavender and it makes her look glowing.

.

I just love her as "M" who you do NOT say noo to her - EVER - even with double 0's!

.

Wow!  This has everything...starting from the top - the great feature around her neck and face to take away from the no-waist bod.  She's got sort of a lace trimmed tunic with a collar on it, and the whole effect around her neckline is terrific.

Then she's got on either large balloon type pants or a to-the-body skirt and this works on her.  It's probably chiffon and just falls straight which works.  Anything too full, and she's toast.

.

But my favorite no-waist person is my far Princess Diana.  She was totally beautiful and she was NOT fat.  She worked out compulsively, but genetically she had no waist.  That's why this dress, even though it flows like a dream and I'm sure that's what she loved about it, looks really thick through the waist.  This would work great on Marilyn Monroe, but Diana just doesn't have the waist to do this.

.

I think that Diana went through a "princess" phase soon after her marriage, and she wanted to try all those full and exotic gowns and thank heavens she got them out of her hair, but in the meantime, it was really hard to watch.

.

And then she got it right.  She has no accentuation of the waist...accentuation is on her thin hips and tall, tall legs and she looks wow!!

 

For people who are dressing for a large bust or shoulders and no waist, the biggest thing to stay away from is that under arm droop.  Do not think that you have to get a size 142 to fit your bust or chest....it's your shoulder you want to fit, and then add that front bust dart...that front bust dart is the space you need not through the shoulder. 

Then keep your jacket, top, blouse uncluttered in the midriff area - that's around the waist and just above...don't let that get too full or too tight...shape it to your body and give yourself a little nip of a waist, but remember fit is NOT skin tight or the buttons popping off.

Consider too, doing a 3/4 length on the sleeve or push your sleeves up holding them with rubber bands or elastic in the cuff.  This is very effective and can go a long way toward adding to your length...it keeps the jacket  or top from looking too frumpy and just too much fabric on top.

A longer tunic with pants is a classic way to look long in length.  A floor length skirt works too, but it has to be close to the body, like chiffon or something with a very loose drape.

Dame Dench is queen of the scarves and things around her neck, and hopefully you can see how a contrasting color long scarf can really add length...and this can be something as simple as a piece of nice fabric that has been edged nicely and then wrapped around your neck...it isn't hard to make one of these things.

 

OK - hopefully that gives you lots of ideas for lengthening and stretching out a "no-waist" body style.

 

Too much going on!

As many of you know...I'm in the middle of a jacket class - with some great results...coming shortly, and then lots of other things going on...must be a little respite in the weather that's caused everyone to get out and to be active!

However I got lots of comments on the 'pink prom dress" and why red heads shouldn't wear pink.

First the color - the pink I refer to is usually more of a blue-ish pink, not really a true "light red" with more of a warmer tone in it.  So the pink I refer to is more of a light candy pink.

In praise of the home sewists

This probably won't be the last of this topic, but it's something I feel very passionate about and it gets very little, if any play - at least not as much as it's worth.

Catching up on my blog reading, it's just plain fun to see all the different details, techniques and methods that home sewists use today.  What's even more fun is to realize that these techniques and details are hardly ever found in RTW. 

So what's new about that?

Well, the very fact that home sewists are creating such beautifully detailed and styled garments that would cost far more, if they could be found in department stores of today. 

I was altering a client's dress and the seams were all detailed with pick-stitching.

The very detail of this was so unusual to me particularly on a print.  I'm used to seeing this all the time on solids and a nice detail on exclusive men's clothing, but not on RTW print dresses, until I got a  look at the price tag.

This is the bottom line (no pun meant) on these types of garments.  And here in lies the detail that we, as home sewists, often add to our garments that make them just a notch (or even more) above RTW. This raises the hair on any RTW fan, but the truth is that as a home sewist and sewing enthusiast, we often have the time to add these special details to our garments that really make them beautiful and look very pricey!

So what's all the purpose of this rattling?  It's just that I think too often we compare our efforts to RTW and more particularly RTW pricing, when this is like comparing apples and oranges, or more pertinently apples and diamonds.

More often than not our home sewist garments are much better made, better fitting and more detailed than RTW, so to compare these with RTW, and particularly the pricing, is not in the same ball park  just not pertinent.

It's probably more appropriate to compare these beautifully made garments with couture and couture pricing.  Go out and price some couture dresses  and ensembles.  After you pick yourself up off the floor, give yourself a pat on the back!