Piroska and the Wolf

Australia Day dress

2012-02-02T11:30:00.000+11:00

Here's a pic of a dress I just finished for myself. I wore it to an Australia Day BBQ, so I dressed it up with yellow accessories for the good ol' Aussie green and gold look.

This is the pattern. On the back it says "An entirely British production"! It's a pretty basic dress with two waist darts at the front and back, and tucks on the front shoulders. The skirt is rather full dirndl, with a flat panel at the front with two tucks on either side. The same on the back of the skirt. The dress has a side zip. I must admit that I didn't use the bodice pattern, but used a sloper that I've been drafting, and moved the underarm dart to the shoulder.

Here's a crappy photo of the back of the pattern envelope. The instructions were very minimal - things like "now put in the side zip". The only things I changed were to lower the neckline a smidge so it sat under my collar bone, and to shorten the skirt from tea length to knee length.

Would I make it again? Well, I made it out of cheap cotton homespun, which creases really easily and because it's a plain fabric, it shows up every mistake or bit of uneven sewing. So if I did make it, I'd probably choose a patterned fabric with a bit more body, maybe a polished cotton. Secondly, the instructions said to face the neckline and armholes with bias strips. I HATE cutting bias strips, so I made up my own facings, but I think I should have used bought bias binding on the armholes. Thirdly, I don't know how flattering a high neckline is on me. May change it to a scooped one.

This is the brooch that I wore with it, it has matching screw-on earrings. It's probably from the 50s or 60s, and says Made in West Germany on the back.

Hot Rods

2012-01-29T03:08:00.000+11:00

I wish this was my car! It's a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air, and I saw it at the 47th Victorian Hot Rod show last weekend at the Exhibition Building in Melbourne.

I've always wanted to go to one of these shows. I know nothing about cars, but I love looking at all those shiny 1950s ones. There were some amazing cars on display.

This is another Chevrolet Bel Air, but this one is from 1960. Love the colour and the swooshing arrow up the side.

Another Bel Air from 1959. Although the coloured cars are great fun, I love classic black. This looks like something Morticia Addams would drive!

This 1955 Cadillac Coupe de Ville was so long we couldn't understand how you could ever park it!

Love the all aqua interior, the steering wheel is pearlised an it even has aqua carpet.

A 1959 Plymouth Belvedere. Look at those fins!

I particularly like this 1961 FK Holden Special, not only because it was in my favourite colour outside

AND inside,

But because it also came with a matching esky with the Special logo on it, and pinstriping on the lid! Awesome.

There were some amazing paint jobs.

I wish more cars looked like this, how much more interesting would it be?

I actually saw this car driving down High St, Northcote a couple of days before the show, and admired it a lot, so it was rather cool seeing it up close.

The upholstery is a great touch - white leather with Mexican woven fabric in matching blues. Ah, one day I will have a car as nice as this...

Making a Hardback Book from Loose Sheets

2012-01-12T16:47:00.000+11:00

Just before Christmas, I was approached by someone at the University (where I work) who wanted to have some drawings of his daughter's bound up into a little hardback book. Would I be interested? I'd never bound loose sheets before, so I said I'd have a go. Here are step-by-step instructions on making a small hardback book with loose leaf pages.

First assembled the following supplies:

white A4 paper (for making the hinges between pages)
cutting mat
stanley knife (or any disposable blade knife)
metal ruler
PVA glue and a flat brush
bone folder
linen thread and bookbinding needle
strips of buckram (for tapes)
A2 sheet of coloured paper (for endpapers)
sheet of box board
buckram (coated fabric used in bookbinding)

The first 16 pages of drawings were on single sheets of paper about A5 size. The final 8 pages were on 4 sheets of A4 paper, folded to make a little booklet. In order to bind all the pages, I needed all the pages to be in little booklets (or signatures). To do this I had to join each pair of the A5 sheets together down the spine, so they would make an A4 sheet, which would then be folded in half and become the left and right pages of a book.

The idea was to make two little booklets of the 16 loose sheets. Firstly, I divided these pages in half. So one group was pages 1-8, and the other group was 9-16. I took the first group, and matched up the pages: 1-8, 2-7, 3-6, 4-5. This is so when they are are folded along the hinge (or spine) and then placed one inside the other, they will retain the original page order (I did a little drawing in case that helps you to understand).

Cut the hinges - 8 strips of A4 paper, 1cm wide, and about 1cm longer than the pages are tall.

Glue one side of the paper strip with a light coating of PVA glue.

Put the first two pages together (here pages 1 and 8) and stick the strip of paper down the middle of the two pages. Only 0.5cm of each page is covered by the paper, so it won't really show that much once it is bound.

Trim the top and bottom where the hinge is a bit longer than the pages.

Now fold each double page in half, and arrange them into a signature (ie. page 1-8 is on the outside, 2-7 is within that, 3-6 within that, and 5-6 is in the middle).

I repeated the above steps with pages 9-16, and along with the final 8 pages, I now have three signatures. Time to stitch them! Arrange the signatures in the order they will be in the finished book. Cut two pieces of buckram, about 1cm wide and 10cm long. These will be the tapes.

If you look closely, you can see where I have marked the sewing holes on the fold of the signatures. Mark them in pencil. First mark a point 1.5cm from the top of the spine, and another the same distance from the bottom of the spine. Space the two tapes evenly between these two marks, and mark on either side of the tapes. You should end up with 6 marks on the fold of each signature.

I like to punch the holes before I sew them. Using an awl or just the needle you are going to sew with, open each signature up, and poke through all four (or however many) layers at each pencil mark.

This is the thread I use for bookbinding. It's made by Barbour, and is a tightly spun and plied Irish linen thread which is unbleached, undyed, and unwaxed. I get it from Leffler, which is a leather supply place in West Melbourne, but you can buy it from most bookbinding suppliers. The needle is a bookbinding needle, which is quite long and sharp, with a large eye.

Thread up your needle with about 1m of thread (any more and it will get tangled). Start with the bottom signature in the stack (the last one in the book) and thread the needle through the first hole on the left. Pull thread through, leaving a couple of inches hanging out.

The basic rule when sewing is "in, out, in, out". So because I went "in" on the first hole, I now come "out" again on the second hole (next to the tape) and "in" on the other side of the tape, trapping the tape against the signature. Repeat on the other tape, and then come out the end hole.

Pull the thread so it is tight (but not too tight), and then put the next signature on top of the first one. Repeat the "in,out, in, out" steps back the other way.

When you get to the end of the second signature, tie the two ends of thread together tightly with a knot.

Put the third signature on to of the other two, and stitch across in the same manner.

Now, to connect the end of the second and third signature, you need to do a kettle stitch. Follow the example above, and pull tight. If your book has more signatures, you just keep adding them on, sewing across, and kettle stitching at the end of signature.

So there is my (very tiny) book block, all sewn up.

Put the book block on the edge of a table, so it's just hanging over about 0.5cm, and squash it down with a heavy book (I used The Passage by Justin Cronin, which is about all it's good for, and a 3kg hand weight for good measure). Paint PVA glue all along the spine, making sure it gets into the cracks between the signatures. Leave it to dry for at least half and hour, a couple of hours is better. When it is dry, you can trim the pages if you like. Use a metal ruler and a very sharp knife, and don't trim too much off.

While that is drying, you can get on with the endpapers. For this we need two endpapers, each twice the size of the bookblock paper, folded in half. The grain on the endpapers should run vertically, so you generally can't use actual A4 paper, as the grain runs along the longest side, and thus will be horizontal when the paper is folded in half. You will need to get a larger piece of paper (for example A3 or A2) and cut the endpapers from that. Here is a good article on how to find the grain direction of a piece of paper or board.

Cut out two covers from your box board. They should be the size of the bookblock, plus 3-4mm on the top two sides and one of the longer sides (the non-spine one).

Cut a piece of buckram a bit bigger than the two boards laid out next to each other, remembering to leave space for the spine between them.

Glue the right hand board (the one which will be the back of the book) into place with PVA. You have to work fairly quickly and use a large brush, as the board absorbs the glue.

To place the second board correctly, put the book block on top of the first board. Glue up the second board and place it carefully on top of the book block (glue side up of course!) in the correct place, then wrap the buckram over and smooth down. You should end up with a perfectly sized gap for the spine inbetween the two boards.

Line the spine with a strip of stiff paper (the paper you used for the endpapers is fine, it won't be seen). Cut the corners on an angle to within 2mm of the board, and leave enough on each edge so that you can turn it over the boards.

Glue the top strip of buckram and fold it down neatly and tightly over the boards, pressing it firmly into the spine. Repeat for the bottom strip.

You now have to turn each corner. It's very difficult to explain, basically you have to just do what I'm doing in the picture, use either your thumbnail or the pointy end of the bone folder to tuck the corner in.

Glue and fold over the two remaining edges, doing that tucking thing on each corner. Smooth them down with a bone folder to make them nice and neat.

Your cover should look something like this now.

Now to attach the endpapers. This is called "tipping in". Put a piece of waste paper on top of the book block so that just 2mm of the left side is visible. Glue that exposed bit. Remove the waste paper and attach one of the endpapers. Do the same thing on the back of the book block.

This is called casing in: Spread glue on the back of the book block (on the last sheet of the endpaper). You will probably need to insert a sheet of waste paper below that sheet so glue doesn't go on the rest of the book. Remove the waste paper, and very carefully place the book block down on the cover. Remember to leave the 3-4mm around the outside edges!

Now glue up the front endpaper, and (again, very carefully and accurately) fold the cover over to meet the glue. Yay! Hopefully you have glued the whole thing together without making a horrible mistake. DON'T open the book up fully yet! Let it dry first. Press the book between two smooth hardback books (or pieces of box board) and stack a whole lot of books and weights on the top. Leave overnight.

The next day, you should have a lovely book to look at! If you are interested in bookbinding, there are heaps of tutorials out there on the interwebs, or you can do what I did, and do a class. I highly recommend the Introduction to Bookbinding short course available at RMIT.

Dita Watch

2012-01-10T17:11:00.000+11:00

Everybody's favourite ~~stripper~~ burlesque artist, has been very busy since last time I posted about her outfits in July 2011. She even managed to squeeze in a trip to Australia!

Let's see what she's been wearing...

Dita at LAX International Airport on 8 July. As usual, Dita keeps it simple at the airport with a stunning black bead-trimmed coat.

Her bag is a Goyard Saigon, personalised with her initials, DVT. For those of us plebs who don't keep up with luxury brands, Goyard is a French luggage manufacturer, established in 1853. Their symbol is the Goyard chevron, seen here on the canvas of the Saigon bag.

Dita is an ambassador for Cointreau, and they've even named another cocktail after her, the Cointreau MargaDita. She was in Dallas, Texas at the Rosewood Mansion to celebrate the launch of the drink, wearing a stunning vintage dress, paired with a Louboutin feathered clutch.

Cointreau MargaDita Recipe

1oz Cointreau

1oz Silver Tequila

1oz fresh lime juice

bar spoon (0.5oz) Monin Rose Syrup

1 pinch Chipotle spice (optional)

Mix all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake vigorously and pour into a chilled coup glass. Garnish with yellow rose petals. For added kick, add a pinch of Chipotle, and salt rim.

In August, Dita went to lunch with a friend, wearing a 50s-style floral print dress with a square neck and wrap-style skirt. Interesting lime-green shoes too.

The next day, she was snapped leaving a pilates class. She is wearing a wonderful vintage circle skirt that I have seen before a few times on the internet! It has a print of a letter, and inkwell with a quill feather, and some roses, which is repeated around the skirt.

Here is the skirt in a different colourway - pale pink and brown.

And a photo from Flickr of the exact same skirt, here worn by Denisebrain. I soooo want one!!

On 8 September she wore an Elie Saab cocktail dress to the premier of God Save My Shoes in New York, which has a rather 1940s look to it, but without the dramatic shoulder pads.

She is holding a Lulu Guiness 'Lips' clutch, and wearing Louboutins (when is she not?).

Leaving a pilates class. God I love the way she still manages to look polished even after exercising!

Out and about in LA with a friend, Dita wore a summery Maxime Simoens Spring 2011 dress and paired it with nude pumps.

Dita's bag is a Dolce & Gabbana Miss Sicily, but I can't seem to find the exact model. You can see in the picture that it has lace detail and a clear panel, but on the flap, not the body of the bag. This is the closest one to it.

Wearing Elie Saab again at the L'Officiel magazine's 90th anniversary celebration at Maxim's in Paris.

In October, Dita was photographed at Paris Fashion Week, attending the Alexis Mabille show, wearing (of course) Alexis Mabille. This striped satin dress is from the Spring 2011 Ready to Wear collection.

I think I like it better on the flat-chested model, I think Dita's maybe a little too busty for this kind of babydoll look, but the stripes look lovely on her.

Next up, Dita jetted off to Madrid to launch the Cointreau Mini Bar.

I adore the shoes she is wearing - the're Louboutins of course - but look at the backs. Those shoes are at least a size too big for her. How she walks in them I don't know.

The mini bar Dita was launching, is actually known as My Cointreau Travel Essentials. The coffret (that's French for 'casket'), consists of a white leather, hatbox-style box that opens up to reveal a glossy gold interior.

The set includes a limited edition bottle of Cointrea, a silver shaker, a jigger, bar spoon, two glasses, a Cointreau perfume atomiser, and a leather-bound notebook for jotting down innovative recipes. The whole thing retails for $399. Now you can have cocktails wherever you are!

Dita at Radio Deejay studios in Milan.

Launching My Cointreau Travel Essentials in Milan, wearing a Herve L Leroux gown. It's a bit bandage-like for my tastes, but her hair looks fantastic.

The earrings are vintage Schreiner. The Schreiner jewellery company was started by German immigrant Henry Schreiner, who began designing jewelled shoe buckles in the 1920s. Although he died in 1954, his daughter and her husband continued to design costume jewellery under the family name up until 1975. The work was always hand-done and never mass produced, and the large, showy pieces are collectors items today.

Launching her perfume at Soho House in Berlin.

Official picture for the perfume.

"The self titled perfume opens with a head note composed of fresh peonies, bergamot, and slightly spicy Bourbon pepper. The heart of the perfume is a combination of Bulgarian rose, Tahitian Tiaré petals, and fresh jasmine. And in the base note, the mystical and warm scents of patchouli, musk, and smoky Gaiac wood and sandalwood."

Here's a picture of the bottle, very Art Deco.

At the Cointreauversial Cocktail Party in Singapore, wearing a Roland Mouret dress.

Dita wore this Gaultier dress twice in one week (shock horror!), once to the opening of the Gaultier exhibit in Dallas, and then three days later to the Museum of Contemporary Art Gala.

Here is the original dress from Gaultier's 2002 Couture collection.

This image from Dita's book Burlesque and the Art of the Teese/Fetish and the Art of the Teese. She said that this is one of her favourite dresses, which she actually owns, and "when a dress costs as much as a Mercedes, you want to wear it more than once."

Heading to the Pantages Theatre to see the Cure. I like how she's matched her black lace gloves with black lace shoes!

At the launch of the Cointreau Prive pop-up bar at The Pigalle Club in London.

The very glamorous dress is by Tadashi Shoji from his Spring 2012 RTW collection.

On her way to the Playboy Club Christmas Party in London. I like how this dress has a very pale pink satin slip under the black lace.

Out and about in Paris just before Christmas. What a cunning little hat!

I couldn't resist leaving you with this picture, tweeted by Miss Von Teese herself, of her wearing a glorious turn-of-the-century silk velvet dressing gown.

Illustration Friday - "Highlight"

2012-01-04T17:50:00.000+11:00

This week's was a tricky one - all I could think of was hair highlights. And who has better highlights than the Bride of Frankenstein? Here she is getting her hair done by none other than the lovely Morticia Addams. Click to make it bigger.

Books of 2011

2012-01-03T17:16:00.003+11:00

Frangonard - A Young Woman Reading (1776)

I was so close to achieving my annual goal of reading 52 books (one book a week) this year! I managed 51, which is a vast improvement on last year's total of 44. I also read 10 books from the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list, which is not really enough, but better than none.

I keep a notebook of the books I read, with the details of the title and author, a brief description of the book (so I remember what it's about), my comments, and a rating out of five stars. For 2010, these were the five star books:

Under the Skin by Michel Faber (2000)

This was the year I discovered Michel Faber. Under the Skin is on the 1001 Books list, and I knew nothing about it before reading. It's a wonderfully dark tale set in the Scottish highlands about a woman who picks up hitchhikers, particularly strong, male hitchhikers. From there on in, it gets weird in a way you just can't imagine, but the writing is so seductive that you find yourself completely drawn into the plot.

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (2009)

This is what historical fiction should be like! Beautifully written and devoid of the usual romance that plagues so many novels set in this period. Thomas Cromwell, who rose from humble origins to become a clerk to Cardinal Wolsey and later chief advisor to Henry VIII, is a wonderfully rounded character, at once ruthless and charming, a political genius. It's quite a dense, complicated read, and I was glad of my fairly good grasp on Tudor politics and history, but if you read it you will never look at historical fiction the same way again.

The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber (2003)
So continues my love of Michel Faber. This book is incredibly different from Under the Skin, a great romping novel set in Victorian London. William Rackham, a self-important perfume magnate, becomes enamoured with Sugar, a beautiful and educated teenage prostitute, neglecting his fragile wife. The reader is drawn into this dark world of upper-class hypocrisy and sordid secrets. Wonderfully authentic, it's a book you can really immerse yourself in, and which captures the imagination wholly.

Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy (1891)
It took me three months to read this book, partly because it was so heartbreakingly sad, and partly because the writing was so evocative that I had to stop every few pages and just enjoy the glorious sentences. Tess is such a vulnerable character that it was sheer torture watching her wandering towards her certain doom.

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (1966)
Capote is credited with inventing the genre of the "nonfiction novel" with this book. Covering the brutal slaying of the Cutter family by two would-be robbers, Capote manages to keep the reader's interest right up until the end - despite the fact that the facts of the murders are known fairly early on in the novel - by exploring why these men killed as well as how it happened.

The Cook by Wayne Macauley (2011)
Zak is one of several under-privileged teenagers chosen to go to Chef School, a Jamie Oliver-esque institution where they will be taught to be chefs. Zak takes to his studies with single-minded determination, chasing the dream of being a celebrity chef with his own restaurant. When he is employed as the live-in cook for a wealthy family, his quest for the perfect dish takes on a sinister focus as he begins to lose touch with reality. This is a darkly comic novel, a satire on the celebrity cult and food worship. (I do have to admit that I work with Wayne Macauley and he is a very nice person, but I actually did enjoy his book immensely!)

The Group by Mary McCarthy (1963)
A novel about eight young women who graduate together from Vassar in 1933 , and the different courses their lives take between then and the beginning of WWII. The characters are different from each other without being caricatures, and the insight into everyday life in the 30s is fascinating.

Some other books I enjoyed were:

George R R Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series
Somehow I missed reading these when I was a teenager, although it transpires that almost everyone I know read them at some point, including my father and brother. Although set in the fantasy world of Westeros, the series has more in common with Renaissance history, with all it's power-plays and political machinations, that the elves and dwarves world of Tolkien. There's plenty of sex and violence, but the characters are skillfully drawn and the plot is so intriguing that it's impossible not to be drawn in to the story.

They've also made a very faithful television series of the first book which I highly recommend. I read the first four books in the series: A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, and A Feast for Crows. The fifth book just came out this year, and is sitting on my bookshelf waiting to be read.

Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
April and Frank Wheeler are a seemingly happy young couple living a comfortable 1950s suburban life. However, both feel unfulfilled, and believing that they are somewhat superior to their suburban neighbours, they resolve to move to France to pursue their artistic dreams.. As their relationship deteriorates, the trip and their dreams of finding meaning in their lives begins to slip away. An interesting period piece and also a look at suburban malaise and the price of following your dreams.

The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory
Ok, so after reading Wolf Hall, this seems a bit of an easy read, but I do love these lets-take-history-and-show-it-from-a-woman's-point-of-view novels as much as the next romantic history nerd. This one is about Margaret Beaufort, the grandmother of Henry VIII.

The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor
Set in 1920s Ireland, the Gaults must abruptly leave their family home to escape anti-English violence. Their young daughter, Lucy, horrified at the idea of leaving, runs away and cannot be found. The repercussions from this act spread throughout the whole of this incredibly sad and moving story.

Silas Marner by George Eliot
The story of a weaver, who, turned out of his home-town for a crime he did not commit, finds solace in his hoard of gold. When this is stolen, his life seems devoid of meaning until he receives something that becomes more precious than his gold ever was. A charming tale that gently reminds the reader of the value of human companionship without ever being preachy or sentimental.

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
An incredibly powerful story of two generations of Afghani women, and the way their lives are shaped by thirty years of war and patriarchy.

Kraken by China Mieville
A wonderfully complex tale from the master of urban fantasy. The giant kraken from the Darwin Centre goes missing, and curator Billy Harrow is drawn into a world of gods and kraken-worshippers, gunfarmers, Londonmancers and all things occult and mysterious. More of a straightforward thriller that The City and the City, it still has some concepts that will stretch your mind.

Harbour by John Ajvide Lindqvist
Another of my favourite authors, Lindqvist specialises in supernatural horror of a very quiet and disturbing kind, made all the more believable by his ability to write about ordinary events and make them interesting. In Harbour, set around a group of Swedish islands, Anders and his wife take their 6 year-old daughter on a skiing trip where she inexplicably disappears. Two years later, after his marriage has dissolved, Anders returns to the islands to confront the past. Slowly, he begins to believe that the locals know more about his daughter's disappearance than they have let on.

The Forger's Spell: A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century by Edward Dolnick
The title pretty much explains this book, which looks at an art forger who faked Vermeers (badly) and sold them to the Nazis, in the process fooling major Vermeer experts and scholars. Some really interesting stuff about the psychology of a forger, and also the techniques used on the paintings.

Delusions of Gender: The Real Science Behind Sex Differences by Cordelia Fine
An excellent and thoroughly well-researched book on the science of sex difference, and a rebuttal to all that ridiculous 1950s type stuff being published about men and women's brains being inherently different.

Illustration Friday - Separated

2011-12-15T10:57:00.000+11:00

"Dora and Cora were twins - Siamese twins if truth be told, although they had been separated shortly after birth. Despite the physical divide, the two girls remained mentally and spiritually bound to each other, and one girl never strayed more than a yard from the other's side."

My mother is an identical twin, and I've always been intrigued by the special otherness of twins, the way they are separate people but at the same time there's this bond that's different to that of mere siblings. I know the twin process begins so early in the womb that it hardly makes an impact, but there's something magical about the idea that one could be half of someone else, and yet a whole person of one's own.

Paper Cutting

2011-11-29T10:11:00.001+11:00

A friend of mine just showed me this amazing book, Paper Cutting: Contemporary Artists, Timeless Craft, compiled by Laura Heyenga. I thought I'd show you some of my favourite artists from the book, in no particular order.

Fall (2008)

Peter Callesen is a Danish artist who regularly combines large areas of plain white paper with intricately cut and folded paper to create dramatic compositions.

Impenetrable Castle (2005)

He also does quite a lot of pieces on A4 paper, where the you can see how he cuts out the parts and folds them together to make a 3D shape! Quite a lot of them are buildings, and I noticed in his bio that he studied architecture.

Traces in Snow (2005)

Callesen's work is often darkly humorous, such as the above Traces in Snow, where man and bear meet...and only the bear keeps walking.

Eros & Thanatos (2007)

Kako Ueda's incredibly fine and detailed papercuts are influenced by her Japanese heritage (she was born in Tokyo but moved to the US when she was fifteen). In Japan, paper stencils are used to decorate kimono fabric.

detail of Eros & Thanatos

On her website, Ueda says she is "interested in organic beings - insects, animals and human bodies - how they are born out of nature but constantly being influenced and modified by culture." I am amazed at the sheer scale of Eros & Thanatos, and the way in which the viewer becomes mesmerised by the detail - tiny spiderwebs, peacock feathers, lizards and insects.

Pandora Opens Box (2009)

I'm sure you've seen Su Blackwell's altered books before, but I had to include them because I find them so enchanting.

The Girl in the Wood (2008)

detail of The Girl in the Wood

Specimen (II) Poppy (2005)

Justine Smith lives in London, and currently her work is "concerned with the concept of money, and how it touches every aspect of our lives." She makes collages and prints, but it is her sculpture that I am interested in, such as her set of floral specimens, displayed under bell jars, and made bank notes.

The poppy is made from Chinese Yuan, but she has made other flowers in the series out of Libyan dinars, Turkmenistan manat, Saudi riyals...

detail from The Calculation of Loss (2009)

...and of course the British pound note.

Influx (2008)

Mia Pearlman makes site-specific cut-paper installations. I am astounded at how she actually constructs these incredible sculptures, a process which is apparently "intuitive, based on spontaneous decisions in the moment."

detail of Influx

Here, Pearlman documents in photographs how she constructed Influx, a fascinating process.

Hina Aoyama, a Japanese artist living in France, has been making paper cuttings since 2000. Her work is incredibly fine and intricate and would be impressive just as black line drawings. Cutting it out seems sheer wizardry.

I was amazed to learn that she apparently uses scissors to do her paper cuttings, and you can see some videos of Aoyama at work on Design:Related (scroll down a bit to find them).

I've been following Elsa Mora's blog for a while now. A Cuban artist, she paints, draws, and works with ceramics and mixed media, but she also makes some wonderful paper sculptures.

Heart

To my mind, there's something a little reminiscent of Frida Kahlo in her work, all the naked women and hearts and leaves, and lots of red.

Fern Eyes

Well, that was a look at some of my favourites. There are 26 artists in Paper Cutting, so it's worth having a look if you can get your hands on a copy.

Mexican Folk Costumes - Jalisco

2011-11-24T13:28:00.001+11:00

Image from Latin Dance History

I'm in love with Mexican folk costumes at the moment, and today I thought I'd share with you the outfits from the Mexican state of Jalisco. Many things thought of as characteristically Mexican, such as tequila, mariachis, sombrero hats, and ranchero music originated in Jalisco.

The style of these dresses was an imitation of Spanish court dress, but make in cotton rather than expensive silks and brocades. The dress grew in popularity during the Mexican Revolution (which began in 1910 and lasted into the 1920s) and was worn by a number of famous female soldiers.

Image from Tuscon Citizen

The dress is actually a skirt and blouse of the same colour. The full skirt is edged with a ruffle, usually about 35cm wide, which is decorated with ten strips of ribbon in contrasting colours to the skirt. The blouse has elbow-length sleeves, and a v-shaped ruffled which starts on the shoulders and descends to the waist at front and back.

Image from Solpersona

These days they are worn by dancers from performing a traditional Mexican dance form called Baile Folklórico. Literally meaning "folkloric dance" in Spanish, the dance is a combination of local folk dances with balletic moves such as pointed toes and exaggerated movements. In Jalisco it is danced to the music of a mariachi band.

Dress from Mariachi Connection

Each region in Mexico is known for its own particular dances, and the dance form is also found in the Southwestern US, and Central American countries. Each region also has its own particular costume, with the most well-known styles coming from Jalisco, Vera Cruz, Sinaloa and Yucatan.

Eye Candy - Housewife Fashions 1950

2011-11-22T12:51:00.001+11:00

Just a little eye candy for your Tuesday afternoon. These Housewife Fashions are from the Australian Women's Weekly, Feburary 10, 1950, as reported by the Fashion Editor Mary Hordon and sketched by Dorothea Johnston. I love the dress with the red bodice and purple and blue skirt, and the sugar-pink skirt with the big patch pockets.

The outfits on this page are all for dressing up while giving dinners at home - so fancy! I think the "white pin-spotted muslin redingote" is a gorgeous idea over a plain black dress. Would you ever dress up this much at home?

Darling Dita in Melbourne

2011-11-17T14:44:00.001+11:00

Everybody's favourite ~~stripper~~ burlesque artist, Dita von Teese, has been very busy since last time I posted about her outfits in July. She even managed to squeeze in a trip to Australia!

Here's Dita in Melbourne launching her capsule clothing line at David Jones. I was so cross that the launch was at 10am on a Friday, so I was at work and couldn't go! The collection, called 'Muse', consists of five pieces, which will be priced at $600-$900 a piece. The dress Dita wore to the launch is part of the collection, and has what looks like a bias-cut skirt with a fitted, draped bodice, and three red shoe-string straps on the shoulders.

Dita tweeted a photo of her cat, Aleister, lying on some of the silk print used for this dress. You can see up close that it has a pattern of roses and elegant hands with red fingernails (with Dita's signature half-moon manicure!). This fabric has a blue background, and the one that Dita is wearing has a pink background, so it's probably available in two colourways.

Dita attended Derby Day at the Melbourne Cup, wearing the 'Follow Me' dress from her Muse collection, a one-shouldered red dress with a full skirt, draped bodice, and a floating panel/train at the back. It's very classic.

Here is a sketch of the design, which will be available in black or red, and a look at the label.

This is the black version.

Dita's hat was by Philip Treacy. I love it, the colour is wonderful, and it's so over-the-top but quite feminine too.

Dita tweeted a picture of herself wearing her 'VIP Coat' from the Muse collection, so that makes three pieces so far. It looks like a classic trench, but the colour! Wow, I would love to get my hands on that!

It also comes in black. Love the nipped in waist, and the full skirt. I think if I were to splash out on one piece from the collection, it would be this. I bet it will be the most expensive though!

This is the 'Showcase' dress from the Muse collection. A black velvet, sleeveless sheath dress, very fitted.

Here's a closer look. Personally , I really like it, it's simple and elegant and very sexy.

And last of all, this dress. I can't find any other information about it, but it looks like a fitted jersey dress with a high neck and long sleeves. Plain but very versatile. Hope it's in a wool jersey! The 'Muse' collection will be available at David Jones in January 2012.

Bellique at Whitehorse Spring Festival

2011-11-15T15:43:00.001+11:00

I forgot to mention that the belly dance troupe that I am part of, Bellique, danced at the Whitehorse Spring Festival a couple of weekends ago. That's me, third from the left. We are wearing our new costumes, which are Desert Swirls, from the Bellydance Store. They were the cheapest ones we could find that still looked good, and had a range of colours and sizes.

Seems I am doomed when buying costumes off the internet, as similarly to last time, there was an issue with the colour. I ordered the costume above, thinking it would be hot pink like in the photo, but as you can see, when it arrived it was a rather violent evil Disney villain purple. Still, I kind of like it now, it seems to make my skin look extra white, which is always a bonus!

Here we are in action! We did two dances, and Tara (on the left in pale blue) did two amazing solos in-between. Then we had a mini workshop with the people in the crowd. There were lots of really sweet little girls who really got into it, which was nice.

My friend Zoë and I hamming it up in front of the matching flowers. You can't tell, but my costume is not just evil purple, it's metallic purple snakeskin! Tack-tastic!

Underwater Beauties

2011-11-10T14:28:00.000+11:00

I came across this amusing photograph on the net today, and decided to do some digging to find out who the photographer was. Doing so unearthed a treasury of underwater photography, by a pioneer of the craft.

Bruce Mozert was born in 1916 in Newark, Ohio, the youngest of three children. In the mid 1930s, his sister Zoe moved to New York city. Zoe would go on to become one of the most famous pin-up artists and models of the 30s and 40s, and that's one of her paintings above. (I'm definitely doing something about her in a future post!).

Mozert tagged along with his sister, and began working as a photographer. It was Zoe who introduced him to Victor de Palma, a top photographer for Life magazine (shown above spruiking for the New York Institute of Photography). Mozert worked with de Palma, before moving into freelance work. He travelled around, photographing anything that he thought would be newsworthy, and had his photographs published daily in newspapers such as the New York Mirror and Life.

1942 postcard of Silver Springs from Moody's Collectibles

In 1938, Mozert visited Silver Springs in Florida, because he had heard that Johnny Weissmuller was filming one of his Tarzan movies there. Silver Springs was a popular tourist destination, with visitors taking rides in glass-bottom boats and swimming in the crystal-clear waters, and enjoying water-skiing shows and trained porpoises. In it's heyday in the 1950s, the Springs had 800,000 visitors annually.

Mozert was frustrated that one of the photos he wanted to take, or Weissmuller swimming in the waters of the spring, was impossible to take. A waterproof drum had been constructed for the movie's cameraman to shoot the underwater scenes from, but there was no room for Mozert as well. To solve the problem, Mozert built what was probably the very first underwater housing for his camera out of galvanised metal sheeting, old inner tubes, and rubber cement.

“When I showed up at the set the next morning, they all laughed at me,” he says. “But I just walked into the water and took my pictures.”

MGM was so impressed with the resulting pictures that they used them as publicity stills for the movie.

Mozert remained in Silver Springs and continued to hone his underwater-photography skills. At his peak, his photographs appeared on two magazine covers a week. He worked on many films, including all three Creature of the Black Lagoon movies (above), and also did underwater camera work for several television shows.

It is his underwater photographs, used as publicity for the clarity of Silver Springs' water, that are the most fascinating. Mozert created scenes of people doing ordinary things - golfing, mowing the lawn, talking on the telephone...but all underwater.

Mozert put a lot of thought into his shoots. For a shot such as this, Mozert used condensed milk to simulate 'smoke' rising from a barbeque. For bubbles in a champagne glass he used Alker-Seltzer.

Not all his famous shots were underwater ones. This photograph of Jayne Mansfield was taken in 1955. The relatively unknown Mansfield was in Silver Springs as part of a publicity drive for the Howard Hughes movie Underwater. At a promotional event for the movie, Mansfield and several other swimmers took part in an underwater skit, during which the top of her swimsuit 'accidentally' came undone. The star of the movie, Jane Russell was not impressed with the publicity this garnered for the young starlet. Mozert had taken this photograph of Mansfield on the beach, and this picture was used for a lot of the publicity surrounding the incident.

In 2006 it was reported that Mozert was still working at the age of 91, driving to his studio (shown above) at the Springs every day. In 2004 he brought out a calendar of his work, and he still occasionally does some ariel photography - piloting the plane himself, of course! He took his last underwater photographs at the age of 86, although he has been toying with the idea of a remote controlled boat with an underwater camera. "Why should I retire?" he asks, "I love what I do."

If you want to know more about Mozert, a book of his work was published in 2008 called Silver Springs: The Underwater Photography of Bruce Mozert by Gary Monroe. You can buy a signed copy from Mozert's website.

Historically Accurate Disney Princesses

2011-11-10T09:30:00.000+11:00

I'm one of those pedantic history nerds who splutters in disgust when characters in historical films/television shows are wearing historically inaccurate costumes. So I was delighted when I came across these illustrations of Disney princesses.

Claire Hummel (also known as Shoomla), an artist for Microsoft Game Studios Publishing, decided to take the original Disney outfits and rework them to create more historically-accurate costumes that belong to specific time periods. My favourite has to the Princess Jasmine (above), who's outfit is based on pre-Islamic Middle Eastern fashions.

Sleeping Beauty is based on fashions from the year 1485. Her outfit so much more beautiful than the original, with a lot more detail.

Cinderella's dress is based on fashions of the mid-1860s. I love the glimpse of hoop petticoat below those fantastic striped skirts.

.
Snow White is another of my favourites. The strong colours of the original design work well with the modified costume, based on outfits from early 16th century Germany.

Pocahontas, shown here in 17th century Powhatan costume, is one of the more controversial illustrations. The real Pocahontas was a 12 year-old when John Smith met her, and probably would have been naked, but Hummel said she was not trying to illustrate the historical figure but the Disney character. She told Flavorwire:

“Oh, Pocahontas. Really not one of my favorite Disney films, but it posed an interesting challenge. Note that this is the Disney character, not the historical figure, so while I tried to make the outfit accurate to 17th century Powhatan clothing she is, most definitely, not a 12-year-old. It’s my happy middle ground when drawing a historical version of an inaccurate portrayal of a historical person. That’s a mouthful.

“My one big cheat on this was her necklace — the shell necklace should in theory be a deep purple (turquoise is a much more Southwestern commodity), but you lose so much of the Pocahontas visual identity without the splash of teal around her neck.”

Ariel, from the Little Mermaid, obviously has to be shown in her human incarnation. Here she is dressed in an 1890s evening gown. The bouquet of seaweed is a clever touch!

Belle from Beauty and the Beast is dressed in French court fashion from the 1770s. If you are interested in Claire's ideas behind the costumes, do have a read of the Flavorwire article.

Braaaaaaiiinnss!

2011-11-08T11:09:00.000+11:00

Just in time for Halloween, last weekend was the annual Melbourne Zombie Shuffle. I'd never taken part before, but I'd been intrigued, so Mr Macska and I decided to go along and get undead.

Mr Macska wanted to go as a zombie doctor, which was pretty easy to achieve. I bought a lab coat, and begged a faulty stethoscope from the guy in charge of medical supplies at work. A pale blue shirt and a bland tie were cheaply purchased at KMart, and voila! Zombie doctor.

Of course, the natural choice for me was the complimentary Zombie Nurse. I really wanted a classic, 1950s-style white nurse outfit, but where to get one, with only a week to go before the Shuffle? I absolutely refused to buy a 'Sexy Nurse' costume, so the only choice was to make my own.

I used a vintage pattern for a button-through fitted short-sleeved dress, bought 2m of white cotton drill and started sewing. I made a toile in calico first, and with the addition of two darts at the front and three in the back, I got a pretty nice nurse's outfit.

For the nurse's hat, I used this pattern. I cut two pattern pieces out of cotton drill, stiffened one piece with iron-on interfacing, and edged the whole thing with bias tape. The cross was cut out of felt and glued on the front. I bought some white slip-on shoes from KMart for $8, so that was footwear sorted out.

Next came the fun part - splattering everything with blood! I didn't want the dress and lab coat to look too white and new, as the zombies must have been lurching around for a little while, but soaking the whole of them in tea would make them too brown. Instead, I made up a strong cup of tea (1 tea bag, half a cup of water), then put half the tea along with an equal amount of water in a spray bottle. I sprayed the outfits with the tea, which gave them a subtle stained look. When that was dry, I also dribbled some of the strong tea on them, to produce some nice brownish stains.

I wanted most of the blood to be dry, and I had read that fake blood just goes pink and watery on fabric when it dries, so I decided to use acrylic paint. I mixed up a blood colour (red + brown) and thinned it out with water. Then I laid the dress and coat out on the floor, and flicked the paint onto them with a paintbrush and an old toothbrush. The hat and shoes got the treatment too. When they were dry, I turned them over and did the backs.

The makeup was fun, as you can't really go wrong with zombie makeup - it's meant to look gross. I used liquid latex and tissue to make some wounds on my forehead, neck and shoulder, and then some more to create patches of lumpy skin on my cheeks. The skin colour was a mixture of white, pale blue and pale green water-based facepaint, with a bit of liquid foundation added. I used red and blue mixed to a horrible purple under the eyes, and a bit of black. The wounds got filled in with a dark red lipstick, and then I just added lots of fake blood.

The day was a lot of fun, and there were several thousand ~~people~~ zombies, even though the weather was rather cold and windy, and threatening to rain. We even ran into some friends of ours, who had brought their four children out for a day of wholesome family fun! Afterwards, hanging around at Federation Square, we were asked about 20 times to pose in the photos of Asian tourists, who seemed delighted to find Melbourne crawling with the undead! We happily complied, and pretended to eat their brains.

Turning 30 at LuWow

2011-10-20T10:27:00.001+11:00

Last weekend I turned 30 (woohoo!) and decided to have my birthday celebrations at a new bar in Fitzroy. It's a tiki themed bar called LuWow, and it's pretty amazing inside.

This is a (professional) photo of the front bar. It's all bamboo screens and wicker chairs, fake plants, hanging lamps, leopard print, etc.

Photo by Kristoffer Paulsen

Out the back there is a room where bands play and go-go dancers dance on little podiums on either side of the stage. It's more like a Polynesian temple out the back, lots of carved "stone", fake snakes and tarantulas, vines covering the ceiling with lights hanging down in the shape of fruit, skulls dripping blood and impaled on spikes, that sort of thing!

Alice (as usual!) made me a lovely dress for the occasion. It is of leopard-print matte lycra, and is basically a shorter version of the black dress I'm wearing here. The front is made in three panels, the middle one of which is lined at the back with heavy satin, and the boobs and halter strap are also lined like this, so they don't stretch.

My lovely friend Zoe got into the theme with a floral shorts playsuit and the most amazingly high wedges.

With my man, Mr Macska, looking very smart.

Tiki themed bars were very popular in the 1950s and 60s. Two men lay claim to inventing the Polynesian-themed bar/restaurant, Trader Vic and Don the Beachcomber.

Victor Jules Bergeron (better known as Trader Vic) opened a tropical-themed restaurant called Hinky Dinks in California in 1934, which later became Trader Vic's, and grew to a chain of 25 restaurants, which still exist today.

His amicable rival was Ernest Raymond Beaumont Gantt (known as Don the Beachcomber) who also opened a Tiki bar in Hollywood 1934, called Don's Beachcomber Cafe. While he was away in WWII, his wife developed the business into a chain of 16 restaurants.

Both men claimed to have invented the Mai Tai, a sweet, rum-based cocktail. Here's a recipe for one, from Sally Draper's Cocktail Cheat Sheet II by Dyna Moe. I never thought I liked rum before, but this is just the kind of drink I like - sweet, fruity and with lots of ridiculous garnishes!

Princess Invitation

2011-10-11T16:24:00.000+11:00

My friend Ian is a graphic designer, and recently wanted to create some invitations for his god-daughter's 4th birthday. Like most girls that age, she loves princesses, so he asked me to draw a princess, and some princess accessories to use on the invitations.

I based the drawing on a picture of the Disney Snow White, but gave her a more classical princess hair and face, and omitted the stand-up collar.

These are some of the accessories I thought up for her. The party was to be in a park, so Ian asked me to draw the objects so they looked like they were sitting in the grass. I drew a couple of different tiaras, some balloons, butterflies, and flowers.

More accessories: a fan, wand, another crown, little treasure chest, a necklace, and some more flowers.

Here is the front of the finished invitation. I like the soft colouring on the background, and I think the flowers and grass around the skirt work well.

This was on the back of the invitation. It's so exciting seeing my drawings used for a finished product! Apparently, the princess looked so much like a grown-up version of Bella, the birthday girl, that her mother thought Ian had given me a photo to work off!

Illustration Friday - Ferocious

2011-09-29T10:59:00.000+10:00

One of the most ferocious deities I can think of is Kali, the Hindu goddess of time, change and eternal energy. Although her name means "black", she is usually shown coloured blue. I would love to do a colour version of this drawing in the future, but I ran out of time!

MONA

2011-09-26T11:37:00.000+10:00

No party will ever live up to David Walsh's 50th birthday party at MONA last weekend. I was expecting it to be pretty amazing, but to tell the truth, I was concentrating more on what I was going to wear! Here I am with Mr. Macska, his brother Dan and our friend Jacquie just after getting off the ferry.

Alice came to the rescue of course, and made me a beautiful black silk shantung dress. It's based on the Bombshell Dress that Gertie has a tutorial on over at Craftsy, but quite modified - completely different skirt, re-drafted cups, etc.

The stunning necklace was lent to me by William from Metal Couture. It's blackened silver, with a beetle in acrylic in the centre, and I got so many compliments on it.

There was a lot of alcohol - check out this whole table of absinthe shots!

And there were girls in cages, dancing around in their underwear, and then...not in their underwear. Saucy!

The amount of food and the way it was displayed was stunning. There was a huge tuna, that slowly got cut up during the night by the sushi chef.

A whole table of oysters, several dozen different cheeses,

Smallgoods and smoked meats, including the most delectable pate I have ever eaten (I know, I felt guilty afterwards)

And a display of fruit and vegetables so exquisitely arranged that I could hardly bring myself to eat it. Seriously, doesn't that just cry out to be painted? Note the tiny white pansies scattered througout the fruit.

I especially liked The Nymphs, an Andrews Sisters inspired four girl acapella singing group from Melbourne. This is a video of them on Spicks and Specks, but they did do this song on the night, wearing 1940s army uniforms. Gorgeous voices, and we had a mutual hair admiration session later!

One of the really fun things was eating little balls of dried fruit and crunchy stuff, cooked in liquid nitrogen! When you put it in your mouth and chewed, it exploded and you breathed out nitrogen gas like a dragon. They were yummy too.

We ended the night by dancing until I thought my feet were going to bleed, best party ever!

Bohemian Masquerade Ball

2011-09-13T11:50:00.001+10:00

It was the Bohemian Masquerade Ball again on Friday night, and as the flyer had a Mexican sugar skull on it, that's the theme we went with!

I wore a dress that Alice made me several years ago to go to a NIN concert. It's a heavy stretch fabric, which really sucks you in, and it flares out in a fish-tail at the bottom.

I copied this makeup look from Vintage Vandalizm, I like the idea of having a dead half and a pin-up half. I made it a bit more detailed, and stuck a whole lot of royal-blue sequins around my eye. My parents brought my necklace back from Malaysia for me a while ago. As far as I can remember, it's a traditional folk necklace (or a copy of one).

Alice and William were a Day of the Dead bride and groom. So cute, I wish they would wear these outfits when they really get married!

The ever-gorgeous Thea made her fabulous turban, it is giving Carmen Miranda a run for her money!

And finally me and Mr Macska on the tram. No makeup for him, but he did wear a top hat. I do love men in hats!

Illustrators - Harry Clarke

2011-09-08T13:08:00.000+10:00

In my early 20's, I bought a lovely copy of Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edgar Allan Poe, at Sainsbury's Books in Camberwell. I was drawn to it because of the magnificent black and white illustrations, in a style reminiscent of Aubrey Beardsley.

Thumbelina

The illustrator turned out to be Harry Clarke, and Irish stained-glass artist and book illustrator who was a leading figure in the Irish Arts and Crafts Movement.

The Little Mermaid

Born in 1889, the son of a stained-glass craftsman, he began studying stained glass in Dublin when he was a teenager, winning prizes for his work. Despite his successes, he began working as a book illustrator. Clarke's first completed commission was for Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen, which was published in 1916.

The Pit and the Pendulum

This was followed shortly by Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Poe. The illustrations are much darker than Beardsley's, with incredibly detailed backgrounds and a lot of black.

Some of them, like this illustration for The Masque of Red Death, are quite morbid.

I particularly like this one, with the man buried alive underground, and the tree roots and other coffins. Delightfully gothic!

Clarke also illustrated The Years at the Spring by Lettice d'O Walters (1920), Fairy Tales of Perrault (1922), Goethe's Faust (1925), and Selected Poems by Swinburne (1928). The Faust contains some fantstic images, including the ones above and below.

Clarke and his brother took over their father's studio after his death in 1921, so while he was working on these later books, Clarke was also working to produce over 130 stained glass windows.

Photo by StainedGlassAustralia on Flickr

One of them is even in Australia, in St Stephen's Catholic Cathedral in Brisbane. The window was commissioned in 1923, and is inscribed to the memory of Isaac and William Mayne (it is known as the Mayne window).

Photo by StainedGlassAustralia on Flickr

The middle window shows Christ ascending to heaven over a sunset, with Mary standing below, while the two panels to either side show the eleven apostles.

Photo by StainedGlassAustralia on Flickr

Unfortunately, the pace of work took its toll on the two brothers, and they died within a year of each other. Harry was the second to die, in early 1931 at the age of 42, while convalescing in Switzerland with tuberculosis. Grandma's Graphics has scans of many of Clarke's illustrations, including all from Faust, Tales of Mystery and Imagination, and the Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales.

Illustration Course - Pencil

2011-08-30T10:10:00.009+10:00

Illustrators at Hallmark, 1950s.

Last week I started a short course at RMIT, called Illustration: Styles and Techniques. It's just a six week course, one night a week, but it's really inspiring me to get back into drawing. The course is taught by Lorette Broekstra, a children's book author/illustrator, who is really interesting and enthusiastic, and I'm having a great time.

Each week we are working in a different medium, so for the first week it was pencil. Lorette brought a whole lot of fruit and vegetables, and we had to make a little still life up, and sketch it. One half of the picture was to be in coloured pencil, and the other half in grey-lead, and in the middle the two merged. It was really good to just sit around for 3 hours drawing with a whole lot of like-minded people.

Later in the week, I had a go doing a coloured pencil sketch from a photo. It didn't turn out exactly how I wanted, she looks a bit flayed and red, but I'm happy with the eyes, and I'm sure if I finished it and added hair and the rest, it would look better. Can you tell who it is?

Probably not, but it's the Afghan Girl, photographed by Steve Curry in 1985, and used on the cover of National Geographic. The reproduction I was using had a lot more red in her skin than this one, but I'd like to have another go and try to get it a bit better. Skin is amazingly difficult to capture, and I'm wondering if doing a watercolour wash first and then laying the pencil over the top would give it a bit of a smoother look.

Tony Duquette

2011-08-25T12:35:00.000+10:00

A friend at work recently emailed me some photos from a fashion shoot that was in Vogue Italia in 2000. It wasn't the bikinis he was pointing out, but the fantastic location. (You can see the rest of the shoot at Make the World a Prettier Place).

The Sun Room

By coincidence, the most recent issue of Vogue Living has an article about this very place. It was the residence of the interior designer, set designer and artist Tony Duquette (1914-1999) who built the house (named 'Dawnridge') with his wife Elizabeth in 1949. It is decorated in the most amazing Asian-Baroque fusion, but somehow instead of looking cluttered it just looks amazing!

The drawing room

The house is now owned by Duquette's long-time business partner, Hutton Wilkinson, who purchased it after Duquette's death in 1999. He and his wife re-decorated the drawing room in 2000, but retained the Duquette style.

Reproductions of some of the furnishings, such as this rose chest and the marchasite fabric hanging behind it, are available to purchase from the Duquette website. Be warned though, the marchasite fabric, which I love, is $138 a metre!

The master bedroom

This photo shows the Duquette's bedroom. (If you click you can see it twice as big). I love the Chinese pagoda style canopy over the bed, so exotic and cosy at the same time.

This is an alcove in one of the bedrooms, with a little sofa and a mirror which reflects the wild garden outside.

The Green Dining Room

The dining room has a mirrored tile ceiling, and a leopard-print tablecloth, divine!

Duquette grew up in Los Angeles, and received scholarships to both the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, and the Yale School of the Theatre. In the early 1940s, he met Lady Elsie de Wolfe Mendle, an famous socialite and interior designer, who became his patron. With her backing, he became one of the leading designers in Los Angeles, creating costumes and sets for Fred Astaire musicals with Vincente Minnelli at MGM. He also designed sets for operas and ballets, and created interiors for the rich and famous, including Mary Pickford, Elizabeth Arden and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

Duquette was a talented painter, sculptor and jeweller. He created many stunning pieces of jewellery for Elsie de Wolfe, and in the 80s he designed jewellery for Tom Ford at Gucci. He was the first American to be honored with a one-man show at the Louvre in 1951.

Dawnridge was not the only house the Duquettes created. 'Sortilegium', high in the Malibu mountains was another stunning residence which they purchased in the 1950s and spent the next 30 years renovating and decorating. Unfortunately it was destroyed in the fires of 1993, although you can see photos of the interior and gardens here.

Gennady Spirin

2011-08-18T15:08:00.000+10:00

The next in my little series on my favourite illustrators is another Russian. Gennady Spirin was born on Christmas Day, 1948, in the small town of Orekhove-Zuyevo, near Moscow. He studied at the Surikov Art Institute at the Academy of Arts in Moscow, and also the Moscow Stroganov Institute of Art.

Spirin has illustrated over 30 children's books, and won four golden medals from the Society of Illustrators in New York, as well as several other awards. He moved to the US in 1991 at the invitation of two publishers, and settled in Princeton, New Jersey, as that was where his editor lived. He has a wife and three sons, speaks almost no English, and is a practicing Russian Orthodox Christian. Apart from that, I cannot find any other information about him! No Wikipedia entry, no official website, nothing!

His illustrations are watercolours, very delicate but at the same time full of rich colours and incredible detail. I first came across his work in the illustrations he did for one of Madonna's children's books, called Yakov and the Seven Thieves. The story, a tale of an Eastern European couple in the 1700s who try to help their ill son, is rather trite, but the illustrations are divine. Apparently, Spirin never met Madonna, and had no contact with her, dealing only with the publisher, and his name was not included on the cover of the book, appearing only on the title page.

Spirin has illustrated several traditional Russian fairy tales, such as in The Tale of the Firebird, where he combines the tales of the Firebird, Baba Yaga, and Koshchei the Immortal.

I love all the border decoration, this is exactly the kind of stuff I would love to do if I had the talent! The costumes seem to be well-researched too, always a plus in my book.

Spirin has also illustrated more well-known fairy tales such as Goldilocks and the Three Bears. His bears, dressed up in lavish Tudor costumes, are just gorgeous! You can see more illustrations from this book here.

The Little Mermaid

I'll leave you with some random images from some of his other books, all very lush and yet ethereal at the same time. Beautiful.

The Princess and the Pea

Thumbelia (I presume!)

The White Wedding Dress

2011-08-16T12:56:00.000+10:00

On Sunday Mr. Macska and I went up to Bendigo with some friends to see The White Wedding Dress exhibition at the Bendigo Art Gallery. Well, actually, they boys went and looked at other things while Alice, Kat and I went to the exhibition.

The exhibition, which is from the V&A, covers 200 years of wedding fashions. The first dresses were some lovely examples from the first half of the 1800s, when it began to be more common for wedding dresses to be white or cream, and lace veils and orange blossom were traditional accessories. An example is this embroidered muslin dress, worn in 1834. The detail is exquisite, all that plumpy embroidery!

During the second half of the century, weddings were increasingly conducted in public in a church, rather that in private homes, and society weddings were reported on in the press. It was during this time that a whole industry centering around weddings sprang up, as weddings became more and more elaborate. The dress above, which was one of my favourites, was actually quite restrained for the time, although still fashionable. It was worn by a Quaker bride in 1874, and is made of striped silk gauze.

In the early 20th century, picturesque wedding gowns that took inspiration from earlier times were popular, such as this Liberty's dress from 1907, with its medieval-inspired long train falling from the shoulders, beaded and embroidered collar and pendant girdle. I adore the Art Nouveau-style pearl embroidery with its dog rose motif.

This glorious dress was designed by Norman Hartnell for Margaret Whigham, who married the American amateur golfer Charles Sweeney in 1933, when she was 21. Margaret was a prominent British socialite, and her dress was so publicised that crowds turning out to catch a glimpse of it blocked Knightsbridge for three hours!

The whole dress is appliqued with stars outlined in beads, including all around the 12 foot train. A team of 30 seamstresses worked on the dress for six weeks, and it cost £52 (a year's wage for a young working woman at the time). The stars around the neckline are appliqued onto cream net, so when worn, it looked like she had on a collar of stars (you can see that better in the photo above, same dress, it just looks white here). There was some footage of the couple coming out of the church, and two men struggling to carry the enormous train through the huge crowds of onlookers.

Margaret actually ended up being married three times, the second time to the Duke of Argyll. Their divorce in 1963 was a scandal at the time, as the Duke accused his wife of having affairs with 88 different men, and also provided Polaroid pictures of her naked except for her signature three-strand pearl necklace, fellating an unidentified man!

Alice and I also admired this cunningly constructed dress which was created by Charles James in 1934 for Baba Beaton's marriage to Alec Hambro. Baba was the sister of Cecil Beaton, and he orchestrated the whole wedding. The dress, of silk-satin, was cut on the bias and had no fastenings - one had to slip it over the head. The train was split into two points, and the bride wore a choker of wax orange blossoms, and a wimple-like headdress designed by her brother.

Speaking of celebrity weddings, the pièce de résistance for me was the wedding dress of Dita Von Teese. Designed by Vivienne Westwood, it is a giant Scarlette O'Hara type dress of the most amazing purple shot taffeta (synthetic not silk, interestingly). Her tricorn hat with mink pompoms was by Stephen Jones, and her purple t-bar shoes with purple diamantes down the front were by Christian Louboutin.

Also included was Dita's corset and peignoir from her wedding trousseau. The corset, by Mr Pearl was so miniscule, it looked like it was made for a child! The peignoir was by Nina Ricci and was like a black spider's web, so fine and delicate.

Well, there were many more fantastic dresses, but if you want to see them, you should go to Bendigo and have a look at the exhibition, it really is worth it. The weather was divine, and Alice and I had fun posing like idiots in the garden in our matching houndstooth outfits!

The Turin Horse & The Woman - MIFF 2011

2011-08-10T14:51:00.001+10:00

The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) just finished, and I only managed to see two films. I always try to get to one Hungarian film on the program, and in the past I've seen some really great films.

This year's Hungarian film was The Turin Horse (A Torinói Ló) by Béla Tarr, starring Erika Bók and János Derzsi. In 1889 in the Italian city of Turin, the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche witnessed a hansom cab driver whipping his horse, which was refusing to move. Nietzsche was so overcome that he threw his arms around the horse's neck, sobbing. This incident was rumored to have caused his subsequent mental breakdown.

The Turin Horse follows six days in the life of the aformentioned cab driver, his daughter, and the famous horse. They live a life of abject poverty in a one-room peasant house, following a monotonous routine of household chores and meals of a boiled potato each. A couple of times attempts are made to hitch the horse up to the cab, but the horse is obviously ill, and refusing to eat, and the pair never leave the environs of their house.

The entire 146 minute film is shot in 30 long takes, and in black-and-white, and contains almost no dialogue. It was simply the most excruciating film I have ever seen, incredibly monotonous, and with a dirge-like score. But somehow, about an hour into the film, I found myself caught up in the story. What a pity a whole selection of crazy house lights at the Forum Theatre came on in the last half hour of the film, including a bright orange spotlight right on the screen, totally ruining the mood! Apparently it was caused by a faulty dimmer switch.

My friend and I contacted the MIFF box office to complain, and they offered us free tickets to any other session, which was nice of them. Lots of things had sold out by then, so in a bit of a panic, I got tickets for us to The Woman, an American horror film by director Lucky McKee. Neither of us is at all into horror, so we thought we might be in for a bit of an excruciating time.

Well, we were pleasantly surprised! The plot follows a seemingly upstanding small-town lawyer in rural Maine, who comes across a feral woman living in the nearby woods. He captures her, locks her in the basement, and with the help of his bewildered family, sets about civilising her.

Pollyanna McIntosh is incredible as the title character, completely bestial and quite terrifying, but in the face of her captor's increasing aggressive and perverse behaviour, and his wife and daughter's passive inability to stop him, we come to sympathise with this most un-human-like character. Rather that straight horror, The Woman is a rather clever black comedy and social satire, while exploring issues such as domestic violence, and the notion of "civilisation". Although it does have some pretty gory scenes, there's nothing too gratuitous, and it's got a great soundtrack too. The Woman is screening soon at the Nova as part of Cult Cravings, so if you can stomach a bit of gore, check it out.

More of my Hats

2011-08-05T12:53:00.001+10:00

I posted back in March about my cousin's new shop Edgeley, for which I have been making some amusing hats. One of them even made it into the lookbook, shot by the incredibly talented Jo Duck.

The hats are called Lorax hats, after the Dr Seuss book, you can see why!

I even got a commission for a custom-made version of the Lorax hat for my friend Jesse, who has displayed this hat rather nicely under a bell jar, like some sort of exotic creature! It's a modified version of the hat I made for Alice for the opening, with a houndstooth stem, ostrich feather plume, and a ruffled base of black net, some of which is trimmed in black satin, the rest of which has been distressed with pliers and (very slightly) set on fire.

For spring, we are making more Lorax hats in deliciously bright colours. They have ostrich feathers at the top, and the stem and net are bound in silk georgette. Very classy. My favourite is the hot pink one, which sold only days after I made it. (Apologies for the fuzzy iPhone pictures.)

The most recent one is this one in green, and there should be some more colourful ones coming along soon!

Fashion Illustration

2011-07-18T16:54:00.000+10:00

One of my favourite sections in the Australian Women's Weekly magazines from the 40s and 50s is the fashion illustrations. From 1940-1951 the fashion illustrator and possibly editor too, was the mysterious René, about whom I can find out nothing. In France, René is usually a man's name (as opposed to the female Renée) so I suppose he was a man. Anyway, he did some lovely sketches, like the delightful one on "sports togs" from 1940, shown above. It includes such delicious copy as, "With spanking white shorts, try the audacity of a candy-pink hooded blouse spotted in white. Unexpected drama in the long, full sleeves."

I've also found another illustrator, Petrov, who drew up Last-Minute Fashions, which were supposedly airmailed from London by Mary St. Claire (this was during the War, so Paris was out of the question). Petrov's illustrations are a little more static than René's, but still quite charming.

My favourite by far though, are the illustrations of Dorothea Johnston, about whom I can find nothing. She usually illustrated the feature Mary Hordon's Paris Notes, which was written by the fashion editor about the latest couture clothing from Paris. I love the way she uses sweeping lines to give the clothing a feeling of movement. Everything looks so glamorous! The spread below is from 1952. Don't you love the blue sunray pleated dress with the black spots? It's Dior, of course!

Darling Dita - Paris Fashion Week Closing Party

2011-07-12T17:16:00.000+10:00

Dita attended the Paris Fashion Week Haute Couture Fall 2011 Closing Party at Trianon Palace on 7 July. She wore a long black velvet gown with an pale blue satin bodice, intricately beaded and embroidered in gold, and with sequined pale-pink tulle flowers on the shoulders and cascading down the skirt by Alexis Mabille, which incidentally was also worn by Leighton Meester in Gossip Girl season 4.

Incidentally, this same dress was worn by Leighton Meester in season 4 of Gossip Girl. It does look lovely on her, but personally I prefer it on Dita.

The dress was from Alexis Mabille's Fall 2010 collection. You can see the beaded/embroidered detail down the front much better in the runway shot.

And here is a closeup of the bodice. Click to make it much bigger. Look at all that work! Gorgeous.

Beauty Alphabet - X Y Z

2011-07-12T12:03:00.000+10:00

Last Letters in Your Beauty Alphabet!

X-Y-Z for Extra Energy, Youth, Zest

"You may not have a Grecian nose, your hair may tend towards mouse, your suntan may be uncooperative and divide into freckles, but...

...if you have glowing health and vitality you will have a radiance which shines through your eyes and invests your whole personality with sparkle and charm.

Energy, youth and zest...these are the basis of true beauty, and they are yours if you follow four simple rules: Diet, Rest, Relaxation, and Exercise.

Be sensible about your diet. Most women nowadays know what foods are health-giving and energy building. There are plenty of dietician's charts to advise you on the correct diet for your particular figure. Find the diet which suits you and stick to it! Beauty of figure depends largely on your eating habits.

Here is an invaluable health tip. Instead of the early morning cup of tea, have the juice of an orange or lemon (or both combined) in a glass of water, with sugar if you wish. You will feel much fresher and wide awake, and you will notice a big improvement in your health.

You cannot have good health unless you have adequate rest and relaxation. Plan your activities so that you have time to put up your feet, for early nights, for that weekend sun-bake. If you feel really "strung up" and overworked, you'll find it difficult to relax. This too, is a habit which needs practice.

Don't Worry

Your mental attitude is most important to your health. Many women ruin their health through unnecessary worry. Worry will never solve a problem - do you best, then put the matter out of your mind. A firm faith in the future is the greatest asset to your health and happiness.

And here is the last rule for health...exercise. Daily exercise in fresh air with blow the cobwebs away and keep you youthful. If you are a working girl, go for a long walk in the cool evening. Moderate exercise is essential for the not-so-young too. Walking, swimming and golf are ideal for those who have lost the vigour of youth.

Beauty is far more than skin deep. It is a habit of mind and body. The health of your whole body and the state of your mind are the things that determine whether or not you have that "inner radiance" which transcends mere beauty of feature."

(from The Argus, 4 Jan 1951)

Psychobilly Polyvore set

2011-07-04T15:48:00.006+10:00

Vintage Vandalizm is running a contest to win one of two $75 Iron Fist vouchers, and to enter, you have to make a Psychobilly Polyvore set. Here's my attempt! I've never really used Polyvore before, but it is quite fun. You can see the details of my set here.

Not sure where this photo is from (I found it on Polyvore but there are no credits) but I am so much in love with this girl. I want to look like this!

Beauty Alphabet - W

2011-06-28T14:29:00.000+10:00

"W" is for Waistline

"A slim, willowy waistline is necessary for summer frock and beach fashions. If you waistline is not wasp-like, you can take inches off it with a few simple measures.

The simple and waist-whittling exercise of touching your toes can be practiced each time you need to stoop to pick up anything, which leaves you no excuses that you haven't time for exercises. Stand up straight, then pick up the object without bending you knees. You will find there are innumerable times when you can practice this in your daily round [This seems to go against every OHS recommendation about how to pick things up correctly].

Here is an exercise which is quick and simple and slims both your waist and your hips. Place your hands on you hips and slowly move your body round from the hips, from right to left.

Your diet is most important of course. You can't possibly maintain a slender waistline if you insist on eating fattening, starchy foods and sweets.

To sum up, you have three simple rules for waist-slimming: Watch your diet, hold your tummy in and tuck your tail under, and practice your toe-touching exercises each time you bend down. You will find your waistline will soon be neat and trim."

(from The Argus, 28 December 1950)

This article from The Australian Women's Weekly in 1962 describes some more waist-slimming exercises. Click to see it larger.

This article from Life magazine in 1947 laments the return of the corset or 'waspie' that came into vogue with the New Look. "To the male, who sneaks an arm around an attractive waist, they will present a Maginot Line of elastic and bones of spring steel." Click to enlarge.

These days there are a nice selection of waist cinchers on the market. Not as restrictive as a corset, they are generally make of heavy-duty stretch mesh and satin, and take a few inches off the waist for special occasions. They also reduce the strain on the seams of vintage clothing, or allow you to get into that skirt that is just a little too tight in the waist.

Shown above is the Glamour Waist Cincher from What Katy Did. It comes in black or ivory, has spiral steel boning and six detachable suspender straps, and costs £45. They also do a Waspie (a shorter version) for £37.50.

Vintage Charm by Kim (one of the ladies from the Lindy Charm School for Girls) makes vintage-style waist cinchers right here in Australia. They are based on original 1940s-50s cinchers but with hooks and eyes rather than lacing, so they are easier to put on. The cinchers come in two styles: the Hourglass (shown above) takes 1.5-2.5 inches off your natural waist, and the Dior Wasp Waist takes 2.5-3.5 inches off.

Rago Shapewear also make several different waist cinchers, including this one, made of nylon and lycra and comes in pale pink or mocha, and provides firm shaping. There is also a nice one in red and black lace, which gives medium shaping, and a very serious extra-firm shaping one.

Illustration Friday - Launch

2011-06-22T19:28:00.001+10:00

The topic "Launch" first made me think of rockets and ships, but then I remembered the line, "a face that launched a thousand ships", which of course refers to Helen of Troy. The quote is from Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, written sometime between 1590 and 1604:

Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships

And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?
Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.

According to legend, Helen was a Spartan princess, who although already married, was abducted or ran off with Paris, a prince from the city of Troy. This started the Trojan War, with Helen's husband, Menelaus, raising a huge fleet of thousands of ships to attack Troy. I decided to show Helen dressed in typical Minoan dress, as this is when the myth dates from. I especially love the hairstyles, shown in a fresco above, from Knossos.

Beauty Alphabet - V

2011-06-16T14:57:00.000+10:00

"V" is for Voice

"Perhaps one of the most important attributes of a beautiful woman, and perhaps also one of the most often overlooked, is a pleasant, well-modulated voice.

There is not space here to enlarge upon voice production, but there are a few steps you can take immediately without any expert advice. The first step is to listen to your voice. I'm sure if more women took the trouble to listen to their own voices they would never speak the way they do.

A woman with a charming appearance can completely ruin the effect she makes if her speech is slipshod. Too often in Australia we meet an attractive woman who speaks with an unpleasant nasal "twang" and does not form her words properly. Nobody likes an affected voice, but this is not the only remedy for the unfortunate Australian accent [my italics].

With a little care you can round your vowels and pitch your voice on a lower key which is more comfortable for you, and pleasanter for the listener. Your voice can do SO much for your personality. Become voice conscious, listen to your own voice and other, take note of speech faults and work hard to make your own voice a delight to listen to."

(from The Argus, 28 December 1950)

I guess in the 1950s,a broad Australian accent was considered inferior to a cultivated English one. I do love a good English accent, but is the Australian accent really "unfortunate"?

This advertisment, singing the praises of elocution, appeared in the Launceston Examiner in 1931. According to this, elocution is "the medium whereby you may express your thoughts in clear, concise, and interesting speech. It enables you to entertain your friends. It ensures your popularity in social life." Elocution was obviously more than just how you sounded when you spoke, it was also how you spoke about things, more like a public speaking course today. Not such a bad idea really.

Illustration Friday - Swept

2011-06-15T17:11:00.000+10:00

A bit of a Cinderella one this week, not very original but it was the first thing that came to mind when I though of "swept".

Dita Watch

2011-06-14T16:26:00.001+10:00

I thought it was high time we had a look at one of my favourite celebrities, the ever-impeccable Dita von Teese. As I mentioned in a previous post, although I adore Dita's red carpet outfits, I am particularly interested in what she wears when she is out and about, shopping, at the supermarket, going to pilates, etc. How does one translate amazing Old Hollywood glamour into a wearable everyday style? (Photos almost exclusively from JustJared.)

Firstly, let's look at coats. At the airport, or on the way to and from pilates classes, Dita often wears an eye-catching coat, which makes her look nicely dressed up. Here she is at LAX airport in Los Angeles, wearing an iridescent purple trench with a huge fur collar, and leopard print flats. For all we know, she's wearing leggings and a t-shirt under that!

Another fur-collared coat at the airport.

This time Dita's chosen a very pale grey/off white trench, a pair of snakeskin peeptoe pumps, and a white patent Chanel bag. As usual, her hair is simply pulled back, and she is wearing big sunglasses.

Again at the airport (this girl flies a lot!) in a lovely fitted sheath dress with a pattern of black roses. Sensible flats (or very low wedges) with slender ankle straps, and a cardigan to keep off the cold. Perfect!

Suprisingly, Dita seems to enjoy doing her own grocery shopping, and here she is in a pair of capri pants, and the aptly named "Dita" cardigan from Wheels & Doll Baby.

It comes in three lovely colourways. I would love the red one!

I really like the combination of the fresh and pretty striped top with the grey skirt. Sort of a sexy secretary look. The pearl necklace has a diamante Vivienne Westwood clasp at the front.

Another secretary look, with a sheer blouse patterned with feathers, and t-bar shoes. She's got her dachshund Ava with her.

This is one of my favourite off-duty outfits of hers - the full tweedy skirt, simple black top, and that great leather bow belt. Plus the shoes are to die for, Louboutin spectator pumps. Kind of wish I couldn't see her bra through her top thought...

Of course the best place to see Dita in her most casual is at the Coachella Festival. Here she's gone a little nautical, with her high-waisted shorts, striped top with anchor motif, and Moschino jacket. Nice to see her in flats for a change!

Another nautical look with the sailor's hat, a cute orange flowered dress with a rope belt, and high-heeled espadrilles. She's so amazingly porcelain that it does rather look like she might burst into flames if hit by direct sunlight.

Finally, this lovely summery outfit, perfect for a spot of flea-market shopping. I love the appliqued rose stems on the skirt of the dress, but mostly I love that hat!

Look, the brim is all cut out in silhouettes that look kind of like palm tree tops, or starbursts. How gorgeous.

Beauty Alphabet - U

2011-06-02T11:10:00.000+10:00

(from Sears Fall catalogue, 1950)

"U" is for Undies

"Care of your undies is a priority [in] this hot weather. The woman who is personally fastidious will be very particular about her underwear, because crisp, fresh undies are the hallmark of a well-groomed woman.

Don't attempt to wear you lingerie for more than one day. Wash it out at night, or first thing in the morning. Don't leave it lying around dirty, as this is bad for the fabric. Dry your underwear indoors for the same reason you dry you stockings that way. [Why? So people don't steal them? Look at them? So they don't get bashed around on the line and get damaged?]. And be careful when you are ironing delicate fabrics. For silks and satins, don't have the iron too hot. For artificial silk you can have the iron hotter.

Watch for the first signs of wear - a slight tear or a worn patch - and mend it immediately. This way you will have a repair which is almost invisible, and you will add years to the life of your undies."

(from The Argus, 21 December 1950)

Colette Patterns has a pattern for a loungewear set called Nutmeg, which includes the French knickers shown above, as well as tap pants with a pointed yoke, and a light bralette with ribbon straps and a back tie.

On their site there is a nice tutorial by Rachel, on how to add lace appliques and trim to your French knickers so they look like the ones above.

Come and See the Seitz has a tutorial for making (non-vintage) knickers by taking a pattern from an old pair you like, but which has seen better days.

Illustration Friday - Soaked

2011-05-26T09:56:00.001+10:00

Finally, I managed to get another drawing done for Illustration Friday. The topic this week is "soaked". I immediately thought of this rather strange custom they have in Hungary (and apparently other neighbouring countries such as Poland and Czech Republic) where early on Easter Monday, boys will throw buckets of water on young unmarried girls! This couple are Matyo, from Mezőkövesd, and are wearing my all-time favourite Hungarian folk costumes.

Here are some real Matyo people getting into Wet Monday! It all looks like a bit of fun. My father said that in the city, they boys would just sprinkle the girls with cologne, rather than dump a whole bucket of water on them!

Magdalena Bors

2011-05-24T15:00:00.000+10:00

A friend from work just showed me these amazing images, which are by Belgian-born photographer Magdalena Bors, who lives and work in Melbourne.

These are from her 2008 Homelands series, which depicts household objects transformed into landscapes. Apparently she does it all by hand, which is rather amazing!

Her latest series, called The Seventh Day, is in a similar vein, with rooms transformed into Australian scenery, such as the Bungle Bungles and the Apostles. This amazing one above, called Reef, is all made up of jigsaw puzzle pieces! I love the colours, you really have to click and see it bigger to see the detail.

Crocheters out there will appreciate Bungle Bungles, which depicts the iconic Australian Bungle Bungle Ranges in the Purnululu National Park, all in crochet. The Seventh Day will be exhibited from 21 May to 31 July at the Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale.

Beauty Alphabet - T

2011-05-16T11:29:00.000+10:00

"T" is for Teeth

"Rosy lips parted to reveal gleaming white teeth and healthy gums. Is this a description of your mouth? Too often we see a woman who is lovely until she smiles - then she reveals uneven, dark-coloured teeth.

Regular cleansing - after each meal if possible - and frequent trips to your dentist are the means of ensuring that your teeth are healthy and gleaming. Be thorough about your toothbrushing, and always clean your teeth last thing at night.

We all put off that trip to the dentist we know we should make, but how fatal it often is! Next time you fear you lack courage, just consider the cost of your beauty. People DO notice your teeth. A word to mothers...you can protect your daughter's looks by taking her for regular dental check-ups. If her teeth are crooked, she can have orthodontic treatment, which will improve the whole contour of her mouth and jaw.

You cannot be too careful with your teeth. You won't need to worry about that upturned nose if your mouth is fresh and sparkling with white, jewel-like teeth."

(from The Argus, 21 December 1950)

These following pages are from a wonderful beauty book I bought when I was in Bendigo a couple of years ago. Entitled How to Attain and Retain Beauty, it was published in 1935.

I am always rather suprised at how sensible and modern the advice in the 1930s was. To quote, "We hear a great deal about vitamins nowadays, so much that we begin to think that is is necessary for us to buy concentrated extracts in tins and jars in order to keep healthy. But our ancestors flourished on natural food and there is no reason why we should not do the same."

Dental floss, which in 1935 was a piece of waxed silk thread, is recommended. Here is a picture demonstrating how to use dental floss. Goodness me, they really did pluck their eyebrows severely in the 30s.

A recipe for toothpaste is given in The Advertiser (a newspaper from Adelaide) from 1937.

"Take 5 ounces of precipitated chalk, 5 ounces of powdered soap, 2 drachms [about 3.5 ml] of salicylate of soda, 30 drops of rose geranium oil and 20 drops of wintergreen oil. Mix into a paste with 4 ounces of glycerine and one ounce water."

Mystery Woman - Copacabana

2011-05-12T14:29:00.000+10:00

I've temporarily (I hope) mislaid the cord that connects my camera to my computer, so no new photos today. Time for another Mystery Woman post instead! This was the first MW, from The Argus, 17 November 1949. The lady in question was spotted in the foyer of the Copacabana on a Tuesday lunch time.

She was wearing a "buttercup yellow crepe frock printed with a black flower design". The dress had a v-necked draped neckline, cap sleeves and a full skirt. Accessories included a black belt, black suede shoes and gloves, and a black leather handbag. She also wore a natural straw hat with a big black taffeta bow, and a thin line of black trimming under the brim.

The Argus fashion reporter, and the fashion artist Jo Newham, said they chose this lady as their Mystery Woman "because even though you lunch date was late, and you kept glancing at your watch, you seemed unruffled. And when he arrived ten minutes late, you smiled."

The Mystery Woman turned out to be Joan Hay, an unmarried market researcher, with "engagement ideas in the offing"! Joan was going to wear her yellow frock to the Melbourne Cup, but at the last minute decided on a suit instead. She intended to spend her £5/5/ ($225 today) prize money on a light summer raincoat.

I found this in the Barrier Miner (a newspaper from Broken Hill) 27 January 1950. Is this the same Copacabana that Joan was seen at? Scandalous! I think it might be, because I found an article saying it opened on the 28 October 1949, so it must have still been quite new and fashionable. The club was raided in 1950 because it was believed they were selling liquor without a license, but all the confiscated booze had to be returned later, because apparently, when the search warrant was sworn for, there wasn't a Bible present!

Belly Dance Festival

2011-05-09T11:05:00.010+10:00

Last weekend, I went to NSW for the 22nd Syd ney Middle Eastern Dance Festival. It was the first time I've been to Sydney, and most of our class went, so it was a lot of fun. The festival over three days, with worshops each day, a big performance on the Saturday night, and a student performance on the Sunday.

On the Friday I did Figure 8s and Bodywaves with Hilary, who is from Sydney. She is a Tribal Fusion teacher, so I found some of the moves not very applicable to Oriental belly dance, but there was some good stuff on bodywaves/camels.

Next up was Oriental Hands and Arms with Josefina, also from Sydney. I really enjoyed this class, and learnt a couple of arm movements that I had never seen before.

That evening was the Royal Wedding, and three of the girls were determined to watch the entire thing in the hotel room with champagne and chocolate. Zoe and I escaped and after walking around the centre of Sydney in the pouring rain for an hour, we finally caved and went to an Irish pub to have a counter meal. Imagine our horror when we realised that there were at least four giant televisions in the room! We managed to find a spot in the corner where we couldn't actually see any of the proceedings. I must admit, I did check out Kate's dress, very classy and Grace Kelly.

Saturday we had a Jewels workshop with Zahraa from Melbourne, who has a great sense of humour, and make the class very fun, which was good, because jewels are very difficult and use lots of stomach muscles in isolation that I've never tried to isolate before. Ouch.

Straight after that we had a veil choreography workshop with Nayima from Adelaide. Nayima is tiny, with a little girlish voice, and is a fantastic dancer. Although this workshop was advertised as for beginners to intermediate level, it was definitely intermediate. So many twists and turns, I had a hard time keeping up!

On the Saturday night there was a concert with the theme Classics and Cliches. There were some excellent performances, so inspiring. My favourites were Tais, a Russian dancer who now lives in New Zealand, and of course my teacher Prue, shown above in the turquoise costume. Doesn't she look gorgeous? The girl in orange is Rishi Fox, who is another lovely dancer from Melbourne.

On Sunday, we all dragged ourselves out of bed and slapped on some makeup and false eyelashes, to perform in the student concert. I think it was one of our troupe's best performances so far!

Finally, Zoe and I scooted off to go to our last workshop, Shimmies and Layering. I was so happy when I realised that it was with the amazing Tais who had danced in the concert the night before! She is really friendly and an excellent teacher, and I learned so many things in her class, even though I was extremely tired by then.

Then after a bit of fabric shopping, it was time to head home. I didn't really see that much of Sydney, no opera house or harbour bridge, but I had a wonderful time, and I can do all that touristy stuff whenever I want to.

Happy Zombie Jesus Day

2011-05-06T12:41:00.000+10:00

Ok, so I'm a bit late with this post, but I hope you all had a lovely Easter break. My cousin Alice and I decided, at the last minute, to host an Easter afternoon tea party, so I spent the weekend frantically making food. Of course, I chose to make macarons, which I can tell you now, are horribly difficult to make, and it's probably much easier to just buy them from a reputable cake shop.

image from wani-musician

Macarons, (as opposed to macaroons which are rather plebby coconut, sugar and egg-white little cakes/biscuits popular in England and Scotland), are French biscuits made from egg white, almond meal and sugar. They are tremendously fiddly to make, and have to be piped onto baking sheets and then left for a while to sort of set, and then you have to watch them like a hawk when they are in the oven to make sure they don't brown or overcook.

The first batch I made, which were lemon flavoured, just went very flat. It probably didn't help that I was using the French method, where the ingredients are mixed cold, rather than the even MORE fiddly Italian method, where the mixture is heated up to a particular temperature, but for god's sake, I don't own a candy thermometer! They were still quite tasty, and I had to slap Mr Macska away from them before he ate them all up.

For the second batch, I whipped the egg whites to within an inch of their lives, and the resulting biscuits kept their shape much better. They look a little lumpy but I only had one of those fancy piping nozzles. These ones were flavoured with rose water. The following day, I made a batch of rose water flavoured butter cream to fill them with. I don't know if it is the case with all macarons, but these ones were incredibly fragile, and several imploded because I was gripping them too hard when I filled them. It didn't help that my piping bag split down the side in the middle of this. The verdict: I will never make macarons again. Or at least, not for at least a few months!

I also decided to tackle a Simnel Cake, which is a traditional Easter cake in England. A light fruit cake, it has a layer of marzipan in the middle, and is topped with another layer of marzipan and 11 marzipan balls to represent the Apostles (minus Judas of course!). I used a Nigella Lawson recipe which I found here. After the bloody macarons, this was a doddle. I used half the recommended amount of marzipan because I was feeling cheap, and lacking a blow-torch, I didn't scorch the top (although it would have been fun!). Cake was delicious, especially a week later, and I don't even like fruit cake that much. Another excellent recipe from Nigella, bless her angora bosoms!

Finally, I also whipped up a batch of Coconut Ice Eggs. These are the height of tackiness, I remember making them in primary school for Easter. You make a batch of coconut ice, but leave it all white. Then colour a portion of it yellow. Make small yellow balls, and then encase them in white coconut ice, which you shape to look like an egg. Put them in the fridge to set, then you can cut the "eggs" in half, and voila, they look like a hard-boiled egg! To make it even more fun, I made some of the "yolks" in pale blue or pink, so when you cut them open, the colour was a suprise.

Alice made cucumber sandwiches and provided the tea and all the lovely crockery, and Bella made cupcakes, which I then iced with lemon icing coloured pale pink, which confused everyone. Our friend Milly (who comes from the same village in Tasmania as me, how quaint!) brought the most amazing cupcakes that were baked in silicone moulds that look like tea cups. By then I was so delirious from all the sugar that I forgot to take a photo, but they looked fantastic.

On Easter morning, while Mr Macska was in the shower, I nipped outside and grabbed some ferns from the garden, and fashioned a cunning little nest, into which I put some chocolate "quail's eggs" from Koko Black. He was very pleased with it, and the eggs were delicious, with a praline centre. Yum!

Beauty Alphabet - S

2011-04-21T17:04:00.000+10:00

Oh no, today's Beauty Alphabet is on the topic of suntanning. I simply can't condone that misguided practice in this day and age, and I've already gone over the 50s attitudes to suntanning as opposed to now in a previous Beauty Alphabet post. As we all know, there is no such thing as a safe tan, but that being said, I present it to you as a piece of 1950s trivia:

"S" is for Suntan

"A smooth, golden tan is the best accessory you can have to set off your new summer clothes. But an even tan is the result of care and patience. This summer don't be one of the hundreds who acquire a painful, blistered back on their first day at the beach.

Start your sunbaking at home. Don't wait until there is a burning north wind, but make use of the first day with a clear sky. If you have shelter from the wind you will find the sun warm enough for tanning.

Before you expose you skin to the sun cover it with sun lotion or baby oil. Start with 10 minutes exposure to the sun's rays and gradually increase the time you spend in the sun.

After a long day at the beach, replace the oil dried up by the sun, by rubbing cream or baby oil over your back, face, shoulders and limbs, and watch your skin acquire that smooth, golden glow."

(from The Argus, 14 December 1950)

And now for some beach eye-candy. This photo shoot is from Life magazine in 1947.

A bit of patriotism in copy for this article "After meekly following where Paris led in the matter of longer skirts and padded hops for dresses, American designers are now taking a firm stand of their own on the matter of bathing suits. Repudiating the well-publicized French philosophy of the scantier the better, they have brought back the one-piece bathing suit, improved in its present version to fit "like a second skin"."

Another feature of the one piece, they go on to say, is that it can cover " multitude of ingenious engineering tricks: built-in wire brassieres, stretchable shoulder straps, skirts that streamline the hips like a girdle." They also reported that swimsuit prices were at an all-time high, ranging from $6.95 ($69.95 today) to $89.95 ($901.38)!!!

La Belle Endormie

2011-04-19T15:03:00.001+10:00

On the weekend, Mr Mascka and I went to see Catherine Breillat's La Belle Endormie (Sleeping Beauty) at ACMI. This is Breillat's second film that retells a classic fairy tale - the other was Bluebeard, which I haven't yet seen. On the whole I was a little disappointed with the film. We missed the first ten minutes (someone just had to get chocolate!) but I gather it followed the classic Sleeping Beauty plot.

When princess Anastasia is born, and a wicked fairy curses her to prick her finger on a spindle and die. Three faries, who were late to the christening, manage to avert most of the curse. Instead, the princess will prick her finger at age 6, sleep for 100 years, and wake up at age 16. The fairies promise her that while she is asleep, she will dream.

The next sequence of the movie follows the tomboyish Anastasia travelling through her dreamworld. Rather confusingly, Breillat decided to add the story of The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Anderson to the mix. Firstly, Anastasia is taken in by a widow and her teenage son, Peter (Kerian Mayan).

The two are brought up together and Anastasia idolises the older boy, but after seeing the Snow Queen one night, he ends up being lured away by her. Anastasia sets out to find Peter, who she sees at part brother, part lover.

Anastasia sets out to find him, along the way meeting a dwarf railway guard, and in one of my favourite sequences, an albino prince and princess, who live in a beautiful moated castle and sleep in a golden bed. There is a wonderful scene, shown above, where the three children have a tea party in a conservatory, complete with a delicious selection of macarons other delicious French delicacies. Look at that crazy multicoloured layer cake at the centre of the table!

The royal couple give Anastasia some warm fur clothes, and send her on her way in a Cinderella-like carriage. Unfortunately this attracts a band of robbers, who are led by a gorgeous gypsy robber-girl (Luna Charpentier). Eventually the robber-girl releases Anastasia, even giving her her pet reindeer to ride to Lapland on. Here she encounters a shamanistic wise-woman who tells her that she already has the power to release Peter from the Snow Queen's clutches.

Jarringly, the film now reverts to the Sleeping Beauty plotline, with the now 16 year-old Anastasia (Julia Artamanov) waking up in the present day, and being visited by a young man who claims to be Peter's descendant Johan (David Chausse). The seduction scenes between the two are not very convincing, especially as we get glimpses of Johan's everyday life as a student in between. By the time it got to the lesbian sex scene with Anastasia and the now grown-up robber-girl, it was all becoming a trifle silly.

The film received mixed reviews, with a lot of comments that it was disjointed. The costumes and sets are gorgeous though, so if you can bear with the rather ridiculous and at times nonsensical plot, it's worth having a look. There is one more screening at ACMI next Sunday (24 April) at 3pm.

(most of the photos in this post are from Cinema of the Worlds)

Turban

2011-04-15T14:17:00.000+10:00

Everyone in my family likes to put silly things on their head. My aunt Isobel, who always looks amazing, once wore a turban to work when she was a bilingual secretary for L'Oreal, and said to someone on the phone, "I'm sorry, you'll have to speak up, I'm wearing a turban." As is was her birthday on Tuesday, I thought I'd put on a particularly OTT one in her honour!

Turban - three scarves, with a rose, wool pompom, and bird hair clip decoration. The jewelled bit at the front is actually a bracelet.

Top - Portmans

Bolero - ex-Rose Chong Costumes

Necklace - made by me

Earrings - cheap jewellery shop in London

Bracelets - Camberwell Market

Lipstick - M.A.C. Red

I'm working up to a Carmen Miranda style one. Feathers, net pompoms and glass balls on stalks? I'm there!

April is the Month of Birthdays

2011-04-12T14:26:00.000+10:00

So many of my friends and family have their birthdays in April, it's a whirlwind of card-making and cake-eating (not that I'm complaining!). Here are Alice and I with our lovely friend John, who had a very grown-up dinner party at his new house, and showed me his gargantuan collection of 80's knitted jumpers and denim jackets.

I made this dress to go on my first date with Mr Macska. It's a copy of one I have, and is very simple, like an off-the-shoulder peasant blouse with an attached tiered skirt. I ran some elastic through the top, and there is a zip at the back. It's made of cotton voile, and all the raw edges were finished with a zigzag stitch, so they create tiny ruffles.

The gold coin necklace was a present for my 24th birthday from my father. It's made from twelve Australian $5 coins. These coins are not used in general circulation, they are just commemorative coin that are 22 karat gold. These ones have little monkeys one them as it was the year of the monkey in 2004.

In the middle is a Hungarian 10 korona coin from 1893, which was a present from my aunt in Hungary. It has Franz Josef I on one side, and the other It makes me feel like a gypsy!

On Sunday I channeled my inner 1950s housewife and made a carrot cake with tiny marzipan carrots on the top (see it in the centre there?) for Mr Macska's birthday-afternoon eating-fest. There was a whole lot more food than that, which didn't fit on the table!

This dress actually belonged to my Hungarian aunt, Kati, and my grandmother made it for her in the 1970s. The fabric is a traditional Kalocsa or Matyo flower print, but in a 70s colourway (lots of orange and magenta). I love the style, like a fitted wiggle-dress, with the sweetheart neckline, and a long back-split. It even has little tabs under the shoulder straps to keep your bra straps in place!

Bare Naked Ladies (and cake)

2011-04-08T11:49:00.000+10:00

Ever since I was a child, I have always loved the idea of a scantily clad lady bursting out of a giant birthday cake. It's three of my favourite things all rolled into one - cake, naked ladies and suprises! The question is, does this ever really happen in real life? And in the sweet and wholesome way that I crave? Methinks not.

Anyway, that's what I decided to draw on the birthday card for my new mister. (Sorry for the blurry photo). Happy Birthday Mr. Macska!

Beauty Alphabet - R

2011-04-07T14:27:00.000+10:00

"R" is for Relaxation

"To be able to relax completely might be called the first rule of beauty. People who get themselves all stretched out, like a piece of elastic, without knowing how to loosen up, are those with drawn faces. There are always a few minutes, and I mean minutes, during the day when you can relax.

Don't worry about your work - you'll get through it much quicker when you are refreshed. The housewife can lie on her bed for 10 minutes, pillows under her knees, and consciously "let go", so that all tension disappears. In the office a girl can loosen up all tightened muscles while sitting in a chair, legs straight out, arms dropped at sides."

(from The Argus, 14 December 1950)

Articles exhorting women to relax their eyes during the day were popular in the 50s, and I suppose this advice is even more pertinent today, for all of us who spend hours each day staring that the computer screen.

What About Your Eyes?

by Doreen B. Simpson

"Eye beauty is not only possible for the girl who possesses lovely eyes. Your eyes are very often what you make them. Unless you have a definite physical defect you can make your eyes beautiful.

The basis of all beauty treatments of course is sleep. It just is not possible for a girl who keeps late hours for weeks on end to have really beautiful eyes. The eyes are the mirror of your health, and if you give yourself inadequate sleep you will not be in a fit condition, and this will tell on your eyes.

The next thing is to relax the eyes regularly. This means that the eyes should be "refreshed" during the day. The method is simple: At mid-day or some other suitable moment, you should sit back in a chair and cover your eyes with your hands. Do so in a way which prevents any light penetrating through the eyelids. It is important to obtain complete blackness. Sit like this for five minutes. When you take your hands away and your eyes have accustomed themselves to the light again, you will be amazed at how refreshed they feel."

(from the Morning Bulletin, Rockhampton QLD, 12 July 1952)

(from The Australian Women's Weekly, 6 July 1955)

Mojo Juju

2011-04-05T11:47:00.001+10:00

On Saturday night we went to Red Bennies to see Mojo Juju and the Snake Oil Merchants play their last Melbourne show. I've seen them before and they are really amazing, like something from a 1930s speakeasy.

Here we are just before going out. I'm not sure why we all look so worried! I made myself a fake fringe for the night, and I'm wearing a Prue Acton dress that Alice gave me. Alice is wearing an orange brocade 60s dress, and one of the Lorax hats I made for her.

The band in action! Everybody in the crowd was dressed up, there were top hats and great 1920s hair, such fun! There was even burlesque fan dancing courtesy of the Jitterbeetles, and the lovely Frankie Valentine performed her amusing strip-teases too.

While I'm at it, I'd just like to say thank you to all the lovely people who have followed my blog, and who leave comments, I really appreciate it! I was so exited to reach 50 followers. I hope I can continue to post interesting stuff for you all to read!

Planning a Winter Wardrobe - Part 2

2011-03-31T15:03:00.000+11:00

Some more advice on planning a winter wardrobe, this time from the ever-knowledgeable Mrs. Betty Keep.

"How do I achieve a well-balanced wardrobe? Mine always has the appearance of being thrown together."

"This problem is one that appears frequently in my fashion mail-bag - and here is the answer. In order to be successful in anything you have undertaken it is necessary to have a plan, and in fashion this rule is a golden one. It is not how much you spend; it is how much you plan. The girl or woman who has a wardrobe full of unrelated clothes and accessories will never look smart and well-turned-out no matter how much she spends on clothes.

I consider a chic wardrobe is based on classic lines, with colour and accessories to individualise the wardrobe to the wearer's own style. The intelligent girl puts her own style before high style. A perfectly planned, balanced wardrobe has no room for passing fashion fads.

The first step in planning is to know which classics will outlast changing fashions. This is what I consider to be the backbone for a winter daytime wardrobe:

one un-belted camel-hair coat or a tweed one
one single-breasted three-button tailored suit
one long-sleeved and one short-sleeved shirtmaker blouse
a cashmere cardigan sweater
a coat dress
a wool skirt
one late-day dress

The second step in being well-dressed is to plan a wardrobe as a whole. This can be done by choosing a basic colour scheme. For perfect colour planning, buy coats, dresses and suits before blouses, hats and other accessories.

The best basic colours are black, navy, brown and beige, because they are the easiest to accent with other colours. The correct shade to flatter your eyes and hair can multiply your attractions. But don't forget that artificial light changes and will often fade out a colour.

The third step in planning is to make a periodical inventory of your wardrobe and discard worn-out garments and re-plan any unrelated pieces. Clothes that can be interchanged are true wardrobe builders.

The fourth step is the careful choice of accessories, and when purchasing be sure all items are good mixers. For a small wardrobe the classic accessory is best. Particularly good is a classic shoe in fine leather. The same rule applies when choosing a bag. It should not be exaggerated in size, colour, or shape. A beret in a becoming colour is a chic and economical hat.

Gloves are important, and I can think of few occasions when a well-dressed woman is seen without them. Have at least two short pairs in white; the washable kind - and keep them spick and span."

(from The Australian Women's Weekly, 8 July 1953)

(from The Australian Women's Weekly, 29 July 1953)

I have enjoyed reading Betty Keep's column, "Dress Sense", and was interested to find out that she joined the staff at The Australian Women's Weekly in 1947. Apparently she had already "occupied a prominent position in journalism" for the previous ten years, presumably in something to do with fashion. In 1947 she had three children, Tony, Margot and Dickie, aged 22, 16 and 12 respectively.

To quote from an AWW article from 1947:

"She says she herself has never owned a large wardrobe. "My guiding principle," she says, "has always been to have a small, carefully considered collection of clothes. Then I aim at perfection in accessories. Hats are my real fashion hobby, and to buy one once a week is my fashion dream. Actually, I buy two new ones

every season. Modern living is too streamlined to have much of any one thing - least of all clothes."

I was fascinated to find that the State Library of NSW has a 2 hour interview with Betty Keep from 1992, and I'm looking into whether I can access a copy of it, or a transcript.

Edgeley

2011-03-31T09:57:00.000+11:00

Last Friday my cousin Alice (from WAMP Nation) opened her very own shop at 220 Gertrude St, Fitzroy! It's called Edgeley, and it's like a lovely French salon inside, with peach walls and curly gold lights.

Finally I can show you the hats I have been working on for her collection! They are called Lorax, after the Dr Seuss character, and have a ruffle of net around the bottom, and a pompom of maribou on a long stalk, very silly.

For the opening, I made Alice an even bigger version, with a houndstooth stalk and an ostrich feather puff on the top. I like the way it looks like it is growing out of her head! The evening was a great success, and if you're in the neighbourhood, do drop in and see Alice's lovely collection.

Mystery Woman - The Wattle

2011-03-25T15:14:00.000+11:00

The Wattle was a popular cafe on Little Collins Street, and this is where our Mystery Woman was spotted on a February afternoon in 1950, standing in the downstairs foyer.

She wore a black moire faille (finely ribbed silk with a watered pattern) cocktail dress, with a full skirt and "angular pockets at the hipline." The bodice, while described as plain and "featuring the new plunge neckline", looks like it had a shawl collar and cap sleeves. The Mystery Woman wore a small hat of black grosgrain, perched on the back of the head, with a rolled brim and a bunch of grosgrain at the side.

Her accessories were a rope of pearls (knotted at the neck by the look of the picture), black suede gloves, and a black suede handbag with a gold clasp, and her black suede shoes were commented upon favourably as being "the low-cut classic court style which is proving so popular with dressy frocks at the present time."

The Mystery Woman turned out to be Lois Borella of South Yarra. I did a quick Google search, and turned up an inscription on a gravestone in the Mathoura Pioneer Cemetary for a Lois Borella Aslangul, who was born in 1928. If this is her, it would have made her 22 at the time this sketch was made, which seems about right. I wonder if this eye-catching young woman in her black silk dress is the same woman who died in the small town of Mathoura in NSW, aged 71, the "loving mother of Rex and Andrea"?

Women of the Qashqai

2011-03-22T15:14:00.001+11:00

Qashqai women weaving (from Persian Carpet Guide)

I am fascinated by ethnic costumes, and one of my favourite is that of the nomadic Qashqai (pronounced Kash-ky) people of Iran. I first came across these enchanting outfits when I watched the 1996 Iranian film Gabbeh. Taking its name from a type of Persian carpet, the film begins with an elderly nomadic couple washing their carpet in a stream, and goes on to tell the story of a young nomadic woman who's courtship by a stranger to the tribe is depicted in the carpet's design.

It is a beautiful film, with an almost magic-realism feel to it, and the visuals are just stunning, with the most amazing vibrant colours.

The Qashqai mostly live in southwestern Iran, and speak a Turkic dialect. They were originally nomadic pastoralists, who move their herds twice a year across the Zagross mountain range, from the summer highland pastures to the lower winter pastures. This journey between their summer and winter camps takes two to three months, and usually 10 or 12 families travel together. Since the 1960s, most Qashqai have become at least partially settled.

Qashqai women weaving (from Carpets of Yunt)

The Qashqai spin the wool from their sheep, and dye it with natural dyes from plants and insects. The yarn is then woven into carpets, using looms which can be quickly assembled and disassembled on the road. Qashqai carpets are renowned for being some of the most beautiful in Iran.

A Qashaqai women photographed by Nasrollah Kasraian

The women's costume consists of a long tunic-like dress with splits up the side, worn over several gathered skirts with ruffled hems. A long, gauzy scarf, sometimes decorated with sequins, is draped over the head and held in place with another scarf tied around the head. Hair is worn long, parted in the centre, with two sections either side of the face, and the rest of the hair hanging down the back under the scarf.

Veil dance at a wedding, photo by Yiannis Kelesakos

For special occasions, such as this wedding, the women seem to favour very bright, rather synthetic fabrics. It looks like the shinier and more sparkly the better...

Photo by Nico in Scotland on Flickr

Look at those glorious colours together! I love the amazing gold embroidered tunic on the left.

Photo by Nico in Scotland on Flickr

Beauty Alphabet - Q

2011-03-21T16:20:00.000+11:00

"Q" is for Questionnaire

Do you get full marks for this questionnaire?

Now that the hot weather is here, are you especially careful about your personal freshness?
Do you use a deoderant cream after your daily bath? Do you freshen up your skin in hot weather with an all over rub of eau-de-cologne or toilet water?
Do you slip on clean undies every day? You never make that garment last another day "just this once"? And you always rinse your nylons out at night?
Do you give your feet the care they deserve? Frequent foot baths in hot weather, and a rub down with eau-de-cologne? Are you as careful of your toe nails as your finger-nails?
Are you sure your breath does not offend? Clean teeth and a daily mouth wash and gargle should be sufficient guarantee of sweet breath if your health is good. For special occasions you can obtain breath sweetening tablets from your chemist.

Full marks mean that you leave nothing to chance, and on the matter of personal daintiness, you can never afford to take chances.

(from The Argus, 7 December 1950)

Melbourne Metal Collective

2011-03-18T15:20:00.000+11:00

If you have a chance, do go and check out the Melbourne Metal Collective exhibition, which is on now at 25 Jane Bell Lane, QV Melbourne, until the Sunday 20th March. It showcases the work of five young Melbourne jewellers, including my lovely friend Polly Van Der Glas. Some of her work is shown above (my terrible photo), she does a lot of things with hair, both real and cast in silver, and also teeth.

Planning a Winter Wardrobe - Part 1

2011-03-16T15:52:00.000+11:00

It's that time of year again, and my mind has turned to that annual task of planning my winter wardrobe. I've tried this in the past with mixed results, but I'm determined this year that I will succeed! By the time the cold weather arrives, I want to have assembled a wardrobe of clothes that I actually enjoy wearing, that are practical yet stylish, reasonably comfortable, and that can be mixed and matched in order to provide enough variety for the next four months or so.

In order to inspire myself, and perhaps you, dear reader, I've been trawling around trying to find vintage advice on wardrobe planning. This brief article from 1948 has some good tips for starters:

Winter Clothes: Hints on Planning a Wardrobe
by "Karara"

"Planning a winter wardrobe is no easy task for anyone and especially difficult when the choice of garment is restricted by a small budget. The following suggestions may prove useful in helping to select a wardrobe that will serve its owner throughout the season.

Firstly, take stock carefully of all garments owned at present. Sort them in orders of smartness, usefulness and colour. If most of the will harmonise with one basic colour, such as brown or navy, it shows sensible buying in the past and provides a good start for the coming winter. Accessories are often the most expensive items in a budget and also the most important ones. After sorting out, discard garments for which there is no further use. It is a good idea to make a bundle of them and give them to some deserving organisation.

Make a list of the articles you need. If one of these is a good topcoat, which incidentally is a "must" in all wardrobes, choose one that will tone with most other colours. A pale fawn coat will look well with nearly every shade, while a cinnamon shade may be allied with most greens, soft blues and browns. If your accessories are to be navy this winter try to match shoes, bag and gloves as well. Choose hosiery carefully too, since this is an important point towards achieving a well-groomed look.

Naturally, last season's suits and frocks will not have the "new look" but there is a possibility that they can be altered in various ways to obtain the new silhouette; hemlines can be lengthened, waists tightened, and shoulders rounded. If they cannot be altered in any way do not worry. Remember that the majority of women cannot afford to change their wardrobes overnight but must make-do with last year's clothes, whether they be outmoded or not.

When buying a new suit or winter dress choose deliberately and wisely instead of rushing the first one you see and like. Make sure it fits and hangs well and have a good look at the quality of the material and the suit finishings. Having made a selection, look around for matching accessories, remembering that they must match other garments too. Have as many changes as possible in sweaters and blouses to wear with a suit. This will supply a certain amount of variety in a person's dress.

Once a wardrobe is as complete as your budget allows, remember to look after it. A would-be smart appearance is often marred by split seams, creased skirts, or food and drink stains. Fairly frequent dry cleaning pays dividends with suits and coats, and so does careful washing of woollies and constant cleaning of shoes. Clothes, like most things, demand time, energy and patience, if a good result is to be assured."

(from The Western Australian, 9 April 1948)

Chilly

2011-03-10T16:57:00.001+11:00

There's a nip in the air here, now we've moved into March and the first days of Autumn. I thought it might be nice to have a look at some clothing for warmer weather, so I am presenting to you Fall Fashions from Life magazine 1947.

The afternoon dress with satin-dotted bodice (on the model sitting down) is my favourite, although I'm pretty sure that lovely bronze colour would look awful on me. It was by Jo Copeland, and cost $165 ($1580 in today's money)

This wool cape by Pauline Trigère uses 6.5 yards of fabric. Doesn't it look marvelously warm and elegant?

1947 was the year that Dior brought out his now-famous New Look, with the nipped-in waist, rounded shoulders and full skirts. However, this was not the only look that was fashionable that year, and Life titled their article "The Newest Styles Give Every Woman's Figure a Chance". The two main looks were The Pinched-Waist Look and The Wrap-Around Look, the latter "especially becoming to a stout figure".

Love the shoes on the far right!

Among some women the New Look was quite unpopular, and protests were even staged, such as the one illustrated above, in Dallas, Texas. It's difficult now to imagine how universal fashions were in those days. If skirts became fuller and longer, you just had to go along with the trend, even if it didn't suit you. To do otherwise would have looked terribly outmoded.

Even hem lengths had fashions. Here are some photos from Fifth Avenue, showing the new longer-length skirts which had just come into fashion. The new fashions were particularly popular among young women.

However, such a drastic change in silhouettes meant that in order to remain fashionable, many women would have to buy a whole new wardrobe, or at least alter their older clothes. Life predicted that "it may take two years of wearing out present wardrobes before the new look becomes familiar on America's many Main Streets".

Beauty Alphabet - P

2011-02-22T15:07:00.002+11:00

"P" is for Personality

"Personality, that elusive quality which every woman hopes she has. It does not depend on beauty. The plainest girl can give the illusion of beauty if she has a charming personality.

The essence of personality is a sincere interest in people. The person that attracts you most shows a genuine interest in your affairs, never talks too much, and never tries to impress you with her own importance.

Your voice is all important in your personality. A soft pleasant voice is essential if you want people to say, "Oh, Jane is so charming. She has such a pleasant personality".

Your personality is all the things which go to make up YOU. Hair, make-up, clothes, voice, deportment, grooming, but most of all, your interest and appreciation of your friends."

(from The Argus, 7 December 1950)

Not sure if I agree with this, as personality to me has more to do with your attitude to things, and your behaviour. Anyway, I found this Personality Test from the 1950s, titled "Have You An Inquiring Mind?".

"These questions will help you check up on yourself and see whether you're really interested in finding out what's what, or whether you take everything for granted. Correct answers are obvious, but the point is to answer honestly.

Do you believe these statements - artists are bohemians, spinsters are frustrated, modern girls are selfish?
Did you ever check on one of those wartime rumours?
Do you avoid thought-provoking films because "films are meant to entertain"?
If a paragraph is printed upside-down in a newspaper, do you turn the page around to see what it says?
If a chemist recommends something special for you cold, do you ask him what it contains that makes it better than other remedies?
Have you ever felt inadequate when surrounded by people talking in a foreign language?
Do you know - The history of you local district? How to change a tyre? The names of wildflowers and birds in the nearest open space or reserve?
If you child asks why the sea is blue, do you fob him off with, "Mummy's busy, dear!"?
If a provocative book shocks you, do you return it to the library unfinished?
Have friends ever told you that you're always asking questions?

The answers are:
1. No, 2. Yes, 3. No, 4. Yes, 5. Yes, 6. Yes, 7. Yes (you must get at least two out of three), 8. No, 9. No, 10. Yes

8-10 Right: Your mind is a perpetual question mark!
Over 6: When you were a child your school report probably read: "Could do better if she tried". It's so easy to take things for granted.
Under 7: Talking, reading and listening will help you to sharpen your wits and the intelligence that you so far haven't used.

These scans are from a 1950s brochure called How to Have a Prettier Room, which was for sale on Etsy by Snippets of Time. I think I must be an Artistic Type, who likes full skirts and interesting thong sandals.

My toof hurts...

2011-02-17T09:27:00.000+11:00

Ah, a trip to the dentist is imminent! I do like teeth, mine included. I fall in love with boys with gorgeous teeth. I like the shape of molars, and I can't believe I let my mother throw out all my baby teeth.

Look at this wonderful ivory carving, called "The Toothworm as Hell's Demon", from 18th century France. Apparently the idea of toothache being caused by a Toothworm has its origins in Mesopotamia. More info at Honeyed.

I remember falling about laughing when I learned that the Hungarian word for dentist is "fogorvos ", literally "tooth-doctor". It makes perfect sense, but tooth-doctor sounds so quaint in English. I really want to make a t-shirt with "Fogorvos vagyok" (I am a dentist) on the front.

Cast Human Tooth Ring by vanderglas on Etsy

My friend Polly Van der Glas makes rather amazing jewellery inspired by or using teeth and hair. Have a look at her tooth rings and beautiful hair bracelets on Etsy.

Claudia Cembrowicz, a fine arts student from Bristol, decided carve her wisdom teeth into the shape of fairies after having them extracted. She said "When I held [my teeth] I realised what a powerful material they were and decided to work with them - and the first thing that sprang to mind was the Tooth Fairy. She symbolised both sanctuary and reward, arriving as a blessing after a period of pain." Apparently it took her about 20 hours with a specially adapted drill and rotary cutter to sculpt each tooth.

Ivan Bilibin

2011-02-15T11:38:00.002+11:00

I thought I might do a little series of posts on here about some of my favourite illustrators and artists, and to begin I have chosen the Russian illustrator Ivan Bilibin. When I was a child, my parents bought me three thin stapled booklets of Russian folktales with the most beautiful Art Nouveau style illustrations. I still have these booklets, although slightly worn now, and I still find the artwork rather wonderful. The one I loved the most was the Alkonost, pictured above, which is a bird in Slavic mythology, a sort of good version of a Siren.

Portrait of Bilibin in 1901 by Boris Kustodiev

Born in Tarkhovka, near St. Petersburg, in 1876, Bilibin was the son of a doctor. At age 19, he began studying art at the School of the Society for the Advancement of the Arts, and he remained there until moving to Munich in 1898 to study at a private studio. On returning to St Petersburg the following year, he found another private studio, and there he was taught by Ilya Repin, whom he greatly admired.

Illustration from "Vassilisa the Beautiful" 1899

It was while Bilibin was studying under Repin that he was commissioned by the Department for the Production of State Documents to illustrate a series of Russian folk stories. Six booklets were published between 1901 and 1903, each one telling the story of a famous Russian folk tale. They are: Fenist the Falcon, The Story of Tsarevich Ivan The Firebird and the the Grey Wolf, Vassilisa the Beautiful, Marya Morevna, The Frog Princess, and Sister Alyonushka and Brother Ivanushka and The White Duck. (I have the first three booklets, but they are reprints from the 1970s).

Illustration from "The Firebird", 1899

Bilibin also began designing for the stage at this time, creating sets and costumes for a production of Rimsy-Korsakov's opera The Snow Maiden in 1905, and The Golden Cockerel in 1909. Although he made a name for himself in Russia, he sought a new "exotic" location, and in 1920 he left Russia and moved to Egypt, where he lived for the next five years. He married fellow artist Alexandra Shchekatikhina-Pototskaya in 1923, and a few years later the couple moved to Paris.

Bilibin continued to produce illustrations, and to take commissions for stage and costume designs, particularly for operas. However, he missed his homeland, and in 1936 he returned to Russia. He gave lectures at the Soviet Academy of Arts until 1941, when he died during the Siege of Leningrad.

Costume design for "A Warrior" for the ballet The Firebird, 1931

As far as I can tell, the illustrations were watercolour over pen and ink. His earlier works are heavily Art Nouveau influenced, and also draw on traditional folk motifs from wood carvings, especially in the borders, while his later illustrations look more like Byzantine icons.

Illustration from "Marya Morevna" 1901

There is an interesting article by Jennie Renton discussing Bilibin's art at Textualities, and a more in-depth look at Bilibin's life and work here. I also found this page, with full scans of three of the Russian folktale booklets.

Eye Candy - Clothes for TV Watching

2011-02-08T12:45:00.003+11:00

I've just finished watching the fourth season of Big Love, but let me tell you, I did not look this glamorous whilst doing so! These clothes however, are for hostesses who "have found themselves and their guests sitting on the floor after dinner to look at television". Obviously one cannot do that comfortably in a cocktail dress, so these are some elegant yet comfortable alternatives. I am amused by the idea of matching my outfit to the upholstery, but I do like the burnt orange strapless one-piece at the top, with a jewelled cardigan draped over the shoulders. The photos are from Life, 1951.

Mystery Woman - Raffles

2011-02-04T12:42:00.001+11:00

It's been a while since I've done a Mystery Woman post. Today's lady was spotted in December 1950, lunching at Raffles. She wore a grey linen dress and matching jacket, and The Argus said "You must be a very clever young lady, if you fashioned that suit yourself. And there is something about it that told us that you probably did just that thing." The dress had a straight skirt and two hip pockets on the sides. The cropped jacket, made of the same material, was flared at the back, and had a small collar and three-quarter length sleeves finished with a wide cuff.

For accessories, the Mystery Woman wore a long string of pearls, matching pearl earrings and a pair of grey lizard shoes. She was hatless, and her hair was drawn back in a low pony tail with a short fringe.

She turned out to be Margot Pullen of Elwood, and her outfit was designed by her mother. She said she intended to spend her £5/5 prize money ($244 in today's money) on a two-piece bathing suit.