The Fabric is a Brown & Blue Stripe From Gorgeous Fabrics

Placket and Inside Collar Stand is a Blue Shirt Fabric Also From Gorgeous Fabrics. These are Remnants From [...]]]> Not much to add here, the fitting/construction details are in the prior post, so just some photos.  The buttons are Black Cafe-Caramel from Fashion Sewing Supply.

The Fabric is a Brown & Blue Stripe From Gorgeous Fabrics

Placket and Inside Collar Stand is a Blue Shirt Fabric Also From Gorgeous Fabrics. These are Remnants From Blue Shirt No.1

Added A French Cuff With A Rounded Corner

Burgundy Buttonholes, Here I used Machine Embroidery Thread

- Alexander McQueen, Harper’s Bazaar, September 2008

“I never conform to any sort of fashion ideal. My ideal was to always show reality, even though I started at Savile Row and ended up a Givenchy in Paris, to depict the times I live in”

- Alexander McQueen, Harper’s Bazaar, September 2008

VOSS collection, spring/summer 2001

The death of Alexander McQueen in February 2010 at age 40 rocked the fashion world and elevated his too-brief 15 year career to mythic status. Savage Beauty is the book published in conjunction with the 2011 Metropolitan Museum of Art’s retrospective of his work and it’s a fine addition to a sewers library as a visual chronicle of the most unique couturier ever to work commercially in the modern fashion industry.

This book is all about his work, don‘t expect much insight into Lee Alexander McQueen as a person. Unlike Andy Warhol or Yves St. Laurent, both of whom had very public artistic careers that spanned decades, McQueen was clearly an artist who spoke through his work and for the most part eschewed the glitz of the fashion industry. The book recounts that instead of hanging around after his shows to speak with the media and press the flesh more often he would duck into a car and speed off, leaving his work to speak for itself. There is some biographical content but no new information or analysis of his tragic suicide other than to note that he ended his life just 9 days after his mother died from cancer. Like most fashion books the preface is several pages of bloviating fashion writing and the most interesting content is at the end, where Sarah Burton, who took over as creative director after his death, offers fascinating insights into the creative process behind his work.

And his work speaks volumes.

Carved elm wood. No 13. collection, spring/summer 1999

Aimee Mullins ensemble

“Art is a man’s name” is a quote from Andy Warhol. Those 5 words, so simple, dismissive, ironic and astute, pretty much sums up our modern world were Art with a capital “A” has no real influence or meaning in the lives of most people. After Western fine art freed itself once and for all from the constraints of the church and cultural censorship by the end of the 20^th century it had all been said, done and put out there and really for those of us alive today what is left of Art with a capital “A” that is transcendent and yet accessible? Well we still have fashion and fortunately someone like McQueen to show us what can be produced from the convergence of history, culture, painting, sculpture, performance, couture, technology and metaphor. Add to that mix a good dose of mystery and a willingness to embrace taboo like Diane Arbus or Robert Mapplethorpe and the end result is the most potent, provocative, frightening and beautiful fashion of the recent past. And just like Arbus and Mapplethorpe he was one of those rare and brave artists who had no persona in his work: what you saw was really him and he put it out there for the world to see without apology.

Savage Beauty does a good job of explaining the more obvious and easy to understand aspects of McQueen’s work and the book’s large format and numerous full length photos enable a reader (and especially a sewer) to linger over his astonishing technical skill in not only couture dressmaking but also bespoke tailoring. His facility with color and texture is amazing; there are gowns made from the shells of razor clams and mussels, gowns with animal skulls, horns and taxidermy birds rising from the shoulders. There are close ups of digitally printed fabrics that are milled in such a way that the pattern pieces must have been printed at the same time as the motifs and then the garment was hand draped before being sewn. In these same prints the motifs continue flawlessly from woven fabric still with its selvage fringe (I’m guessing) to a knit mesh with no interruption in the motifs. He worked in every conceivable type of fabric and material with equal skill whether it was wool, silk, lace, metal, leather, rubber, wood, hair, fur or boning. He also used just about every embellishment technique known to man, everything from beading to historical types of embroidery such as Stumpwork, used on the piece that is my absolute favorite in the book, a jacket made from grey and pink silk Birdseye. Stumpwork is three dimensional embroidery done with padding and wire; notice how the bird’s wings stand away from the surface. The Amaranthus in the hat look almost totally 3-D. Notice also the sleeves cross over the body like those of a strait jacket. I’m still trying to figure out what that means.

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As with any art book the format is large and the binding is very nice. The paper is matte finished so every detail can be seen at once, and my only small complaint is that some the photos are heavily retouched in the details and this is especially notable in accessories like shoes. The front cover has one of those flat plastic lenticular lenses that we all know from childhood where the image changes depending on the angle you view it; a melting skull transforms into McQueen’s face. It makes me think of that Frances Bacon painting that interprets a Diego Velazquez painting of Pope Innocent X. The two seen together sum up, for me the approach that McQueen used. And the very last piece in the book is what his art is about in metaphor: it’s a wooden boot that is actually one piece from a pair of prosthetic legs carved from elm wood that legless athlete Aimee Mullins wore in his 1999 show with a knee length skirt made from lace and a leather corset. So many emotions come together in that one silent but fascinating object: craft, fashion, disability, norms, beauty and perception. Evidently fashion editors still request it for shoots thinking it’s merely a pair of boots.

This book is rich in meaning and one that repays me with with something new every time I open it. For Alexander McQueen “Art” was much more than a man’s name.

]]> http://coudremode.com/book-review-%e2%80%9calexander-mcqueen-savage-beauty%e2%80%9d/feed 3 http://coudremode.com/the-reveal-dresses-for-the-8th-grade-semi-formal http://coudremode.com/the-reveal-dresses-for-the-8th-grade-semi-formal#comments Sat, 11 Jun 2011 00:53:05 +0000 coudremode http://coudremode.com/?p=3970 Click to View Larger

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Got both dresses done in time ………..WOOT!  Abby is rockin’ the 80′s no?  When she saw this pattern  in the  McCall’s catalog she wanted it exactly as they showed it.  The shoulder pads have mesh-covered jewels from M&J Trimming.  There two shapes, a 25 mm round [...]]]>

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Got both dresses done in time ………..WOOT!  Abby is rockin’ the 80′s no?  When she saw this pattern  in the  McCall’s catalog she wanted it exactly as they showed it.  The shoulder pads have mesh-covered jewels from M&J Trimming.  There two shapes, a 25 mm round and 8×24 mm baguette.  The baguettes posed a problem because the mesh is bunched up inside the  setting and I could not get a needle through it to sew them on.  Bridal glue came to the rescue.  My baby knows how to shop: she found a pair of Adrienne Vitadinni silk satin shoes for $30 at DSW!   The fashion fabric is a purple silk charmeuse, the lining is black silk habotai, both from Thai silks.   Now that I have a dress pattern fitted to  her I can make her this style as a Little Black Dress for orchestra (she plays viola.)  Em is wearing a different dress than what she will have for  Nationals in July. When I injured my shoulder last month I realized there was no way I’d get a spiral steel boned corselet and dress made in time for tonight.  Em was very good about the news and found an inexpensive RTW dress at TJ Maxx that I altered by taking off the bra top  and adding Rigilene boning to give her support.   There was zero boning in this strapless dress and there was no way my daughter was going to be hiking up her dress all night like all the other girls in of Thurston Middle School  in RTW.   There was  an interlining layer in the front bodice due to the molded bra cups so I able to fiddle a casing for the Rigilene.    The back of this dress had no interlining and there I just took in the side seams about an inch on each side to make it super tight across her back  and we used Hollywood Tape to keep it up.

I have two teenage daughters and I’m often asked if they have any interest in sewing. Up until now the answer has always been no and this didn’t bother me too much; they have their own lives to live.  It’s more important to John and me that they be [...]]]>

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I have two teenage daughters and I’m often asked if they have any interest in sewing. Up until now the answer has always been no and this didn’t bother me too much; they have their own lives to live.  It’s more important to John and me that they be passionate about something and both of them are incredible dancers and musicians.  Plus, when your Mom has the skills to make everything from 56 dances costumes to a wedding gown why bother to learn yourself?  I don’t make them day clothes anymore because they like to shop, but of course I was been pressed into service to make them dresses for a summer’s worth of  events (8^th Grade Semi-Formal, American Dances Award Nationals Awards, sundry Bar-and-Bat Mitzvahs.  Even in college I did not have such a social life)

Their dress choices are in this blog post. Whipping them up was no problem at all until I pinched a nerve in my C7 cervical vertebrae during the week of Friday the 13^th – HAH –   and lost two weeks of sewing time due to the pain.  They both found alternate dresses for a friend’s Bat Mitzvah but they really wanted something special for Semi and ADA.  Abby gamely asked if she could make her own dress and of course I said yes.    I guess the moral of the story is that even if your children don’t seem to have any interest in sewing right now, you never know when they might decide to give it a try.

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Abby did most of the work on her muslin; we used Susan Khalje’s machine tread trace method and I think this was a good way for her to understand sewing basics.   I was out of muslin and the fabric is silk dupioni left over from her Aunt Patty’s wedding gown.  She did all of the cutting, marking. sewing and she installed the zipper.  The muslin fits her perfectly; the only adjustments were to shorten the back waist (a trait she shares with me)  and there is a tuck to shorten the back length where it gaps at the armsyce.

McCall’s 6201 comes with A-B-C-D bust adjustments built in, which I loved because she needs an FBA but I never do and I’ve never done one.  Saved a lot of time there.  The instructions include directions for determining the cup size; basically you do that first and then decide what size to cut based on the cup size.  The pattern includes full size front pattern pieces for all cup sizes; the back pattern piece is standard for all cup sizes.  Abby is a size 6 C cup in this pattern.  This pattern is well drafted and is a great basic cocktail dress.   A couple of sleeve variations are included.

The fabric for both dresses was ordered this weekend from Thai Silks and she enjoyed making her muslin enough to work on the real dress.  I’m thrilled that she is sewing and I’ll be blogging about her progress!