Thedissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 resulted in the creation of fifteen nation-states including Ukraine and Estonia, while 1993 saw the end of communist rule in Czechoslovakia, becoming the Czech Republic and Slovakia. These nations are featured here in my second-to-last fashion plate post with costumes honoring easier days of traditional ethnic dress.
Leo Tolstoy could be argued as the conscience of Russian peasants by his fictional writing in the classic Anna Karenina.Tolstoy was in fact a nobleman and landowner yet he adorned himself in smocks and meager dress, fashioning humility as he wrote of earthly indulgences and subtle sermons on the wickedness of the human condition.
The dress of laborers is also honored in a 1936 Soviet Union publication on a revered textile workerinMiss USSR where a young woman’s 10-hour days and record-breaking statistics on factory looms are lauded as joyful. Her uniform is a black silk blouse and skirt and her profile is documented as “slim” and “little.”
Yet, as with the earliest civilizations there is a place for costume, for adornment that celebrates more than the work of our hands or size of our bodies, whether a farmer’s, a writer’s, or a weaver’s; we yearn for the occasion allowing ornamentation that arouses our senses and inflames our imaginations.
My first fashion plate is titled the USSR Plume Dress, perhaps interpreted by some as a peacock’s egoism; the second plate may be favored by fan-followers of Egon Schiele, while the last crowns brawn and might.
Here is a listing of sources from the UWM Special Collections and the UWM American Geographical Society Library that I have augmented with digital color and outline to emphasize particular details of my inspiration:
1, 8) Wood-engravings by Nikolas Piskariov as featured in Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina; published in the USSR in 1933 and printed by the Limited Editions Club, respectively titled Anna’s Fall and Head-Piece to Part the Fifth.
2-4) My contemporary designs of the USSR Plume Dress, Estonian Edith Dress, and Czech Crown Dress based on maps from the collection of the UWM American Geographical Society Library that show iconic costumes, respectively titled Russian Empire 1757, published in Augsburg, GE by Augustae Vindel in 1757; Folklore Map of Czechoslovakia, published in Czechoslovakia by the Ministerstvo Informaci in 1948; Parishes of Estonia 2010, published by the AS Regio in 2010.
3) Black and white drawing of Czechoslovakian dress by Belle Northrup in A Short Description of Historic Fashionpublished by Columbia University’s Teachers College in 1925.
5) Photograph of Dusya Vinogradovo a 21-year old woman dubbed Miss USSR: The Story of a Girl Stakhanovite, the Soviet Union’s leader in weaving production and noted to be every young person’s friend as she was “free and happy”; published in New York by International Publishers in 1936.
6, 7) Illustrations by Noel L. Nisbet from the collection of Russian Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales, published in London by George G. Harrap & CO in 1916, respectively titled They Came to the Place Where He Had Left Her and His Wife Caressed and Wheedled Him.
The Renaissance period is often synonymous with the greats of Michelangelo, Da Vinci, and young Raphael. These master painters poised “imitation” as preeminent beauty, art as poetry—ut pictura poesis—with Michelangelo arguably harnessing the peculiarities of the human spirit most adeptly in his abstract sprawl of figures, elongating their unseen beauty.
A Renaissance essay on Michelangelo by the nineteenth century art critic Walter Horatio Pater investigates the imagination of the master, calling attention to the artist’s wayward loves-at-first-sight and their contradictions with the sculptor’s mantra of la dove io t'amai prima, or,where I loved you before. Pater argues that it is precisely this paradox that comprises harmony: the delight between the sweet and the strange.
Pater repudiated his own time of the Victorian era, acclaiming the decadence of the Renaissance period as the seizing of life, or more aptly in his own words on living:
…to grasp at any exquisite passion… or any stirring of the senses, strange dyes, strange colours, and curious odours, or the work of the artist’s hands, or the face one’s friend.
It is in his words that we can embrace the unnatural grace of the late Renaissance, the period adorned with the Mannerist style of bold outlines, objects at-play with nature, and form with fantastical animal-humans. This unique style of the Renaissance is attributed to Michelangelo’s successors who desperately tried to imitate his alien elegance.
Hidden in the figures of Michelangelo are these languid features, satyrs in repose, where solemnity and “faces charged with dreams” dictate, as described by Pater. Darting poetic thoughts give us a glimpse of the bittersweet temperament of Michelangelo’s genius. He wrote of his torments in the pagan frivolities of endless quarrelling and his anger at the Gods for loving him so that he reached an age of eighty-eight years.
In all of his years, Michelangelo claimed his figures to be common, austere persons, yet his hand rendered an inherent surprise and energy that future imitators would exploit in quirky forest gods and lovely monsters.
Ergo, my first fashion plate is titled “DRAGON EWER Dress,” odd, but not as eccentric as the last two designs; perhaps you can trace the growth of the outlandish creature in each iteration.
Here is a listing of sources from the UWM Special Collections which I have augmented with digital color and outline to emphasize particular details of my inspiration:
2-4) My interpretation and contemporary design of the DRAGON EWER Dress, SNAIL CUP Dress and DAVID TANKARD Dress based on Renaissance period vessels between 1540 to 1590 as published in the Virtuoso Goldsmiths and the Triumph of Mannerism, published by Rizzoli International, in 1976.
5, 6) French Renaissance plates of frieze borders in Rouen prayer books from 1508; and painted enamel work of Limoges under Italian faience between 1520 and 1540 as published in theDas polychrome Ornament: Hundert Tafeln, by P. Neff in 1880.
7) Walter Pater included an image of Michelangelo’s The Holy Family, or, Doni Madonna, at the Uffizi in Florence, Italy in his aethesticism manifesto, The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry, published by the Limited Editions Club, Stamperia Valdonega in 1976.
8) Costume of the early sixteenth century often in velvets (red is common) and embellished with fewels, gold, lace, fur and feathers as illustrated by Belle Northrup in A Short Description of Historic Fashionpublished by the Teachers College at in 1925.
10) A drawing or possible woodcut of indentured lions as published in Thomas Wood Stevens’Book of Words: A Pageant of the Italian Renaissance, published by the Alderbrink Press at the Art Institute Chicago in 1909 for the Antiquarian Society.
For my fashion inspiration this week, I turned to ancient Pompeii, an urban land that succumbed to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE, located on the western coast of Italy, southeast of Naples. The ruins of the city laid buried under ash and earth until 1748 when murals and bodies posed as action figures frozen in time were revealed. While much has been excavatied, today, there are still over 50 acres of land yet to be explored, with growing access to the public as the archeology digexpands.
The allure of Pompeii lies in the catastrophic and immediate deaths of so many who failed to escape, becoming concrete mummies in situ. Recent discoveries in a nearby villa have shown scholars that life in Pompeii was not to be envied, with slavery paramount and social welfare nonexistent.
In spite of the tough Pompeii society, the urban streets were very multi-cultural where theatre was performed in Greek. Street vendors and food stalls provided Roman urbanites with stews of sheep, snail, and fish. Graffiti was found everywhere. Inside one food stall is the mural of a chained dog, with graffiti scrawled on the mural’s painted frame, blaspheming a snack bar owner.
Carnal proclivities were not uncommon in ancient Pompeii. For instance, an excavated fresco of the Spartan queen Leda hints at the everyday homage to the eroticism of mythology. In this story, Leda is seduced and raped by Zeus in swan-form bearing heirs whose power continued the deity tradition of wickedness.
Fortunately, today’s leaders of the Great Pompeii Project are using $137 million of EU funds to reach a vast audience, including Instagram and Twitter followers. Prior to this joint effort, the ruins of Pompeii suffered from environmental overexposure, looting, and Italian red-tape while being nestled in a region of organized crime. In fact, packs of stray Pompeiian dogs are now available for adoption as the archeological site leads modern conservationism efforts by abating tourism blight and corruption traps.
My first fashion plate is titled “Dog Paws Dress,” highlighting the round velvet foot-pads of our furry friends. The remaining designs are similarly inspired; can you spot these single inspirations?
Here is a listing of sources from the UWM Special Collections and the New York Times, which I have augmented with digital color and outline to emphasize particular details of my inspiration:
1, 3, 4, 8). Photographs of ancient Pompeii frescoes and two Roman bodies, published by The New York Times, written by Elisabetta Povoledo, 2018 - 2020. Images 3 an 4 inspired my own designs for the Swan Wrap Dress and the Curly Rooster Dress.
2, 8). My interpretation and contemporary design of the Dog Paws Dress inspired by David Hawcock’s pop-up book, The Pompeii Pop-Up, published by Universe Publishing in 2007.
5) Costume illustration of Roman warriors with animal predator as hooded cloak, in Geschichte des Kostums, published by E. Weyhe in 1923.
6) Woodcut prints by the illustrator Kurt Craemer as published in The Last Days of Pompeii by the Limited Editions Club in 1956.
9) Jewelry of the Roman civilization with several animal motifs in Alexander Speltz’s plate collection, The Coloured Ornament of All Historical Styles, Part I: Antiquity, published by Baumgärtner in 1915.
MFA graduate student Christine Westrich spent the spring 2022 semester conducting an independent study in UWM Special Collections researching historical costume styles as a basis for creating her own contemporary fashion designs. Her diligent work in identifying and reviewing our resources resulted in dozens of original designs, which she blogged about on our Tumblr site every week. Her official study has now concluded, and she made her final post about her work last week.
Christine was a joy to work with, and we are delighted to have had the opportunity to help facilitate and guide her research. Now it is time for actual costumes to be made manifest from her designs, and Christine is beginning that process. Her first dress was made not only from her original design but also from patterned fabric of her design. It was completed, or is near completion under her fashion label, CHCH. The dress is shown here against all the patterns she completed this semester, along with details of the finishes. This CHCH dress bears a likeness to the Egyptian Necklace Dress she designed earlier this semester (also shown here). The main differences are sleeveless rather than fluttering sleeves, center slit rather than side slit, and waist & necktie rather than jewels. Her original fabric pattern is called “Gorgeous,” and its colorful grid pattern required making these modifications.
Christine also conducted a parallel independent study this semester with Senior Lecturer in Costume Design Kathleen Donnelly in the UWM Theatre Department. Also shown here is an embroidered design Christine produced for an apron used in the spring UWM production of Stephen Sondheim‘s musical Into the Woods.
Congratulations Christine on an engaging and productive spring semester!
You might have thought that the Oscars would have been peak astrofashion, maybe that’s because you didn’t know there was a SPACE PROM (I didn’t!), aka the Goddard Memorial Dinner. Fabulously attired attendees flaunted not one, not two, but three Tadashi Shoji pieces!
But wait, there’s still more, because as Kellie shared on her Instagram (and I awkwardly screenshot), she owns not just both capes, but also the Callisto, Neptune, and a third dress we will showcase shortly…
As it turns out, these celestial dresses(andthis one) were only the beginning of the startorial supernova created by Tadashi Shoji recently. Summer and I have completed our observing campaign, and we are ready to share the results with you today - watch this space for a very special #FridayFashion!
Who said you can’t wear prints for date night? Our main aim when getting dressed for a night out with boo/bae/honey/husband/boyfriend (you get the drift) is to keep it classy but still show that we have put in some effort. I suggest you go for a cute dress that speaks to your personality. Heels are also recommended (depending on the location) but if you are not a heel wearing gal, lucky for you - one of the biggest trends this year is mid - low heel sandals, so you are covered! I also think that a simple makeup look with neutral/ nude lips will do the trick; check out my latest tutorial for there here
Again, this post serves as a guide and I am not one to dictate your clothing choices! Above all, make sure you are wearing something that you feel comfortable and confident in!
It is always best to have a few outfits ready to go in your closet. I highly recommend the Vlisco Pret-A-Couture tailoring service mainly because it is so easy and affordable. All you need to do is go to Accra Mall any day from Tuesday to Saturday between 10am and 6pm. Once you get there, you will be asked to look through the rack of sample clothes (which you can also try on) and choose the style and then the fabric you would like. You are free to mix and match prints and styles as you please. After that, the tailors will take your measurements, even if you already have your measurements from your old tailor. This is to make sure that they get the right cut and fit for your body type. Your contact details will be taken and the tailors will let you know when you can come back for a fitting / pick up your outfit (usually within 14 days). I personally think this service is a great idea mainly because their tailors are true specialists in print placement, a skill not every tailor has. I think the way in which a print is used defines the design and so you don’t want to take your fabric to any old tailor who you cannot be assured of.
Both subjects, fashion and architecture, express ideas of personal,social, and cultural identity, reflecting the interests of the targeted audience and the age’s ambition. Fashion and architecture also perceive the change in a city, and show it: one does so by “dressing bodies”, the other by dressing places. A concept expressed in the early Twentieth Century by German philosopher Walter Benjamin, when he wrote that the two subjects belong “in the darkness of the lived moments, to the dream consciousness of the collective.”
Chris Evans attends the MTV Movie & TV Awards on June 5th, 2022 in Los Angeles, California.
Alrighty! As promised to @disturbedbydesign, we are going to be talking about this little menace for Fashion Friday.
Now, I’ll agree when you say: “but K, it’s basic and boring as hell! Nothing innovative or exciting about it!”
But I’ll disagree if you say that it’s a bad look. Is it my favorite? Not by a long shot. But you can definitely tell that this was an outfit that was supposed to offer him comfort. The hat he’s always wearing, a bomber jacket, tennis shoes— all scream “I’m anxious, but thankfully I have you guys on.”
Like a security blanket, a buffer between him and everyone else. Now for that, I’ll be gentle and kind.
Fashion doesn’t have to always be about “the look,” sometimes it has to be about “the feeling.”
8/10
This look was much better on stage tbh. It was too much red with the red carpet and the background but on stage it was giving a fuckboy energy that I was absolutely receiving
During the late 1800s, the Toilet Mask Company marketed their Madame Rowley’s Toilet Mask as a way to beautify and preserve a woman’s complexion. This advertisement advises women to wear the mask at least three times per week while sleeping. It claims that the mask is superior to cosmetics and that it can permanently remove all blemishes. The toilet mask may or may not have worked as advertised, but, the ad includes several unattributed quotes that vouch for its effectiveness.
Images from:Godey’s Lady’s Book, August 1890 Issue
Rayon! Rayon, rayon, everywhere this #FashionFriday!
This photo spread comes courtesy of the June, 1947 issue of DuPont Magazine, a publication first printed by DuPont in 1913 to help publicize the company’s products and progress. This article highlighted, you guessed it, rayon, one of the many synthetic textiles the company manufactured (others included, but were not limited to nylon, Orlon acrylic, Dacron polyester, and Lycra Spandex).
Our digital collection of DuPont Magazine includes all issues published between 1913 and 2003. The issues include articles, product information, and advertisements on topics such as dynamite, quarrying, ammunition, popular plastic products, automobile accessories, contemporary fashion, and other useful items for the home. To view it online now, click here to visit its page in our Digital Archive.
Today’s #FashionFriday post sees us preparing for tomorrow’s Spring Equinox, the beginning of the beginning of astronomical spring in the Northern Hemisphere.
Opened by marketing pioneer John Wanamaker (1838-1922) at 13th and Market Streets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in April, 1876, Wanamaker’s department store was one of America’s first modern department stores. His goal was to revolutionize the experience of shopping, turning a mundane activity into a grand event. Wanamaker’s was well-ventilated, decorated with contemporary art, with large rooms that, after 1911, included a 150-foot-high Grand Court featuring attractions like the world’s second largest organ and a great eagle from the 1903 St. Louis World’s Fair.
The store was the first department store to feature electric lighting (installed in 1878), the first to adopt the telephone (in 1879), and the first to install a pneumatic tube delivery systems for transporting documents and cash deposits throughout the building (installed in 1880). It also relied on innovations in customer service and marketing, including the substitution of of haggling for prices in favor of a set sales price. This decision was partly due to Wanamaker’s desire to make shopping a more pleasurable, less adversarial experience. But it was also informed by Wanamaker’s devout Presbyterian faith, which led him to decide that “if everyone was equal before God, then everyone should be equal before price”.
Wanamaker’s Spring 1924 catalog is one of many in Hagley Library’s published collections. To view it and others that have been digitized for inclusion in our Digital Archive, just click here.
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![Alcove studio that feels like a one bedroom.[88 Greenwich for sale]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/dce2d04fe2668b2d04e345536fbfeba8/tumblr_nmif3sZztD1rnewklo1_500.jpg "Alcove studio that feels like a one bedroom.[88 Greenwich for sale]")
