(no subject)
I have an appointment with the admissions director of FIDM next Wednesday...that's when I find out whether I get in the school or not. Eeep! :O (I'm pretty sure I'm going to get in, but there's always a chance I won't...)
Speaking of FIDM...I posted this on Facebook and totally forgot to post it here!
I had to come up with six designs for a collection, along with a collage of images I used for inspiration. I wound up going with my weird "Napoleon in Egypt" idea. (It's entirely Wikipedia's fault.)
(click to embiggen)
I'm particularly proud of #2 and #4. I'm still kinda iffy on the turbans...they looked much better in my head than they do on paper, although it's probably just my execution. (Fashion illustration classes...I need them.)
Anyhoo, here's my inspiration collage:
I love the Internets for sharing all these pictures with me. ♥
While we're on the subject of historical fashion references...now I know why the site is called Tumblr: because I have been endlessly tumbling down a rabbit hole of fashion history blogs for the past month. I made a folder on my computer to save photos and fashion plates by time period...my collection is growing fast! I've also been working my way through the Art Renewal Center archives looking for fashion references in artwork. I've fallen in love with Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema and John William Godward for their paintings of Classical Antiquity (the ancient Romans and Greeks didn't really dress like that, but it's so pretty omg!) Also, James Tissot paints incredible late Victorian women and Giovanni Baldini paints incredible Edwardian women. Can you tell I love this site?? LOL
Also, total geek moment, but I found this on the Wikipedia entry for fashion in the Regency era (about 1795-1820...think Pride & Prejudice) and it gave me a good chuckle:
During the first half of the Victorian era, there was a more or less negative view of women's styles of the 1795-1820 period. Some people would have felt slightly uncomfortable to be reminded that their mothers or grandmothers had once promenaded about in such styles (which could be considered indecent according to Victorian norms), and many would have found it somewhat difficult to really empathize with (or take seriously) the struggles of a heroine of art or literature if they were being constantly reminded that she was wearing such clothes. For such reasons, some Victorian history paintings of the Napoleonic wars intentionally avoided depicting accurate women's styles, Thackeray's illustrations to his book Vanity Fair depicted the women of the 1810s wearing 1840s fashions, and in Charlotte Brontë's 1849 novel Shirley (set in 1811-1812) neo-Grecian fashions are anachronistically relocated to an earlier generation.
Of course those silly Victorians came to their senses and started to look back on the Regency era quite fondly by the time the 1880s rolled around. And nowadays everybody who's read a Jane Austen novel thinks the fashion is just so quaint and innocent and lovely. But when you think about it, those white cotton dresses were very racy for the time: limited corsetry, free waist movement, visible hips (saucy!)...plus if light shined through your gown people could see ever last detail of you figure from the waist down, and the wind made the dresses quite *ahem* clingy around the derriere. Let's not even talk about what would happen if you got caught in the rain. Oh dear.
I need to start watching period films again so I can get my costume nerd on. I was really on a roll there during the summer but somehow got distracted by Netflix Instant TV shows (curse you, Law & Order SVU and X-Files!)
Speaking of FIDM...I posted this on Facebook and totally forgot to post it here!
I had to come up with six designs for a collection, along with a collage of images I used for inspiration. I wound up going with my weird "Napoleon in Egypt" idea. (It's entirely Wikipedia's fault.)
(click to embiggen)
I'm particularly proud of #2 and #4. I'm still kinda iffy on the turbans...they looked much better in my head than they do on paper, although it's probably just my execution. (Fashion illustration classes...I need them.)
Anyhoo, here's my inspiration collage:
I love the Internets for sharing all these pictures with me. ♥
While we're on the subject of historical fashion references...now I know why the site is called Tumblr: because I have been endlessly tumbling down a rabbit hole of fashion history blogs for the past month. I made a folder on my computer to save photos and fashion plates by time period...my collection is growing fast! I've also been working my way through the Art Renewal Center archives looking for fashion references in artwork. I've fallen in love with Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema and John William Godward for their paintings of Classical Antiquity (the ancient Romans and Greeks didn't really dress like that, but it's so pretty omg!) Also, James Tissot paints incredible late Victorian women and Giovanni Baldini paints incredible Edwardian women. Can you tell I love this site?? LOL
Also, total geek moment, but I found this on the Wikipedia entry for fashion in the Regency era (about 1795-1820...think Pride & Prejudice) and it gave me a good chuckle:
During the first half of the Victorian era, there was a more or less negative view of women's styles of the 1795-1820 period. Some people would have felt slightly uncomfortable to be reminded that their mothers or grandmothers had once promenaded about in such styles (which could be considered indecent according to Victorian norms), and many would have found it somewhat difficult to really empathize with (or take seriously) the struggles of a heroine of art or literature if they were being constantly reminded that she was wearing such clothes. For such reasons, some Victorian history paintings of the Napoleonic wars intentionally avoided depicting accurate women's styles, Thackeray's illustrations to his book Vanity Fair depicted the women of the 1810s wearing 1840s fashions, and in Charlotte Brontë's 1849 novel Shirley (set in 1811-1812) neo-Grecian fashions are anachronistically relocated to an earlier generation.
Of course those silly Victorians came to their senses and started to look back on the Regency era quite fondly by the time the 1880s rolled around. And nowadays everybody who's read a Jane Austen novel thinks the fashion is just so quaint and innocent and lovely. But when you think about it, those white cotton dresses were very racy for the time: limited corsetry, free waist movement, visible hips (saucy!)...plus if light shined through your gown people could see ever last detail of you figure from the waist down, and the wind made the dresses quite *ahem* clingy around the derriere. Let's not even talk about what would happen if you got caught in the rain. Oh dear.
I need to start watching period films again so I can get my costume nerd on. I was really on a roll there during the summer but somehow got distracted by Netflix Instant TV shows (curse you, Law & Order SVU and X-Files!)