Fashion history through DIY culture
This Sunday is the centenary of the Armistice of 1918, marking the end of World War I.
On the November 1918 Delineator cover shown above, two women wear military uniforms that could be sewn from a Butterick pattern. (Also pictured in the late Joy Emery’s book. Look inside the issue here.) Click the images below for my 1914 centenary post, Patterns for the Great War, and other patterns for war work.
In memory of Eiko Ishioka, who would have been 80 this year, a look at costume patterns based on her work.
Eiko Ishioka (1938-2012) is best known as the costume designer for The Cell and Bram Stoker’s Dracula, for which she won an Academy Award in 1993. Her last film project was Tarsem Singh’s Mirror Mirror, starring Julia Roberts and Lily Collins.
McCall’s and Simplicity both released patterns based on the film. McCall’s 6629 came in adult and children’s sizes. (Out of print, but details still on the Cosplay by McCall’s site.)
On the left—view D with collar E and feathered backpiece F—is Julia Roberts’ wicked queen. Ishioka’s original gown has panniers and miles of cartridge pleating:
The gown features white peacock embroidery and a molded basque with four-piece cups.
View B (top right) is clearly Lily Collins’ Snow White, but so is view A. It’s the dress with floral basque and skirt, seen early in the film, which Ishioka topped with one of the most memorable capes in cinema.
Simplicity also offered Snow White’s dress from the film’s Bollywood finale, moving the giant bow down from the shoulders.
The Costume Designers’ Guild gave Ishioka a posthumous award for Mirror Mirror. (For more on the production, see Wired.) And since her on-screen version, all yellow capes seem to point back to Snow White’s.
The new designer patterns for Winter/Holiday 2018 amp up the drama with sparkle and embellishment.
Vogue’s designer cover looks are by Badgley Mischka. Gracing both catalogue and magazine covers is Nadja Giramata, a Rwandan-French model represented by Elite New York.
Here and on the retail catalogue cover, she wears Badgley Mischka’s strapless popover gown with back detail. The original is stretch crepe with velvet ribbon.
The popover gown is from Badgley Mischka’s Fall 2017 collection, which was inspired by the women of the interwar period.
Other versions of the gown omit the grommets and embellish the flounce with lace or appliqué. The white dress is cocktail length:
The second Badgley Mischka pattern is a top and skirt ensemble with pearl-embellished cuffs.
The designers used stretch velvet for the top and a lustrous satin for the draped evening skirt with bow accent.
Photographer Jack Deutsch shared another shot of the ensemble on Instagram.
Combine the two looks and you get this current-season design:
New from Paco Peralta: a three-quarter sleeved top and high-waisted skirt, shown in brown, sequinned tweed. The sculpted shapes reference early Pierre Cardin.
Look closely and you’ll see that all the side seams line up. This drawing shows an earlier version, without the princess seams:
From Sharon Lombardo for Anne Klein, an open-front tuxedo jacket and skinny stretch pants. The originals were crepe and ponte knit.
The minimalist jacket was available in colours including claret, bright red, and basic black. Here’s a similar stitched shawl collar as seen in the Spring 2016 campaign.
Simplicity’s latest Cynthia Rowley design is a bell-sleeved dress with whimsical appliqués. The pattern also includes a top.
The Rowley original is wool with metallic leather appliqués. William Eadon photographed it against a giant satin bow for the seasonal lookbook (at top of post).
The rose appliqués made other appearances in the collection: on a jumper and wide-leg trousers.
Bonus: From Vogue’s Fall release, a version of Alberta Ferretti’s Venetian coat:
The version shown in Milan was midi length (view C) in unlined, mustard cashmere.
The pattern’s centre-seam hood is adapted from the original.
The coat features in Tim Walker’s ad campaign, which was styled by none other than Carine Roitfeld, the former editor of Vogue Paris.
Hack the pattern for a hooded cape—in opulent velvet for festive soirées:
There are only two weekends left to catch Balenciaga: Master of Couture at the McCord Museum. Anne St. Marie’s look (above) was inspired by Balenciaga.
From the inside note: “The new straight-coat fashion favored by Balenciaga, fall and winter coverage for its own sheath dress and everything else in your wardrobe. In colorful Anglo tweed and coordinated red wool, interfaced with Armo hair canvas to hold its line. Earl-Glo Sanitized taffeta lining; B.G.E. buttons. Emme hat; Mark Cross bag; Superb gloves.”
Pattern: McCall’s 3793.
Nothing says Swinging London like Mary Quant. The pioneer of the Chelsea Look will receive a major retrospective at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2019. (An earlier exhibit, Manchester Art Gallery’s Mary Quant: Fashion Icon, had to close early due to conservation issues.)
The V&A is seeking vintage Quant for the show, including garments — or even photos of garments — made with Mary Quant patterns. See here for more details, or email the curators at maryquant@vam.ac.uk. Update: submissions are now closed.
Butterick licensed Mary Quant patterns from the mid-’60s to the early ’70s. (See my Mad Men-era post.)
For knitters, there were also ultra-mod knitting patterns. Some of these vintage booklets are available as official reissues, like these ones from Mary Maxim. (More on Ravelry.)
Mary Quant and her husband were profiled in Life magazine as early as 1960. (View story here.)
For his 1963 Life feature on the Chelsea Look, Norman Parkinson photographed Melanie Hampshire and Jill Kennington in these Mary Quant dresses:
Butterick released its first Mary Quant patterns in fall, 1964. Here’s Celia Hammond on the cover of the retail catalogue:
The Butterick Home Catalog hailed Quant as the originator of the Chelsea Look.
The earliest Mary Quant patterns pre-date the Young Designer line. This dress pattern even includes the rosette:
British copies of this dress pattern say “featured in Queen magazine.” Jill Kennington wore this and other Butterick Young Designers in what was billed as “The Queen’s first ever make-it-yourself fashion.”
Here Moyra Swan models a mod scooter dress. Suggested fabrics include linen, jersey, lightweight wool, and knits.
This jumpsuit or playsuit came with a matching mini skirt — “the latest put-togethers”:
What to wear with a Mary Quant mini dress? Why, go-go boots, of course:
By 1970, a Quant jumpsuit was more fluid, with a pointed collar; this pattern also includes a maxi-length cardigan. The catalogue gives a better view of the inflatable chair:
Mary Quant in a more romantic mode means a sheer tunic worn with knickers. View B is a maxi dress.
After 1971 or so, Butterick Young Designer patterns had illustrations, not photos. This Mary Quant dress dates to circa early ’73.
Have you made anything from a Mary Quant pattern?
Joy Emery, Professor Emerita of the University of Rhode Island and curator of the Commercial Pattern Archive, has died. She was 81.
Emery is the author of Stage Costume Techniques (Prentice-Hall, 1981) and A History of the Paper Pattern Industry (Bloomsbury, 2014), which I reviewed for this blog. Memorial donations may be made to the Joy Spanabel Emery Endowment Fund.
Read her obituary, or a 2016 URI profile upon winning USITT’s Distinguished Achievement Award in Costume Design and Technology.
Tonight at New York Fashion Week, Ralph Lauren celebrates his company’s 50th anniversary. Here’s a look at highlights of Ralph Lauren patterns from the ’70s to the ’90s.
Ralph Lauren started out in menswear, and Vogue Patterns’ first licensing with the brand was for men’s designs. The company released its first Polo by Ralph Lauren patterns in the summer of 1975.
That’s Polo Ralph Lauren on the right in Vogue Patterns’ American Bicentennial issue:
This Polo trench is classic for any gender:
Vogue’s licensing of Ralph Lauren women’s wear began in 1979. The earliest Ralph Lauren women’s patterns are for Annie Hall and Western looks like those shown in his Fall 1981 Santa Fe collection—prairie skirts, fringe, and serapes worn with cowboy boots and concho belts.
Ralph Lauren’s Spring 1984 Safari collection is said to have been inspired by Out of Africa, perhaps with a dash of Picnic at Hanging Rock.
Late ’80s Vogue Career designs by Ralph Lauren feature British model Saffron Aldridge, then the face of the brand.
Tartan was one of the main takeaways from Ralph Lauren’s Fall 1991 collection. (As L’Officiel observed, “For Ralph Lauren, tartan isn’t a fashion, it’s a lifestyle.”) Vogue released two patterns from this collection, a dress and trouser ensemble.
Although the envelope for the dress shows it in solid red, the tartan looks had pride of place on the holiday covers, both Vogue Patterns Magazine and the December catalogue.
The tartan pieces had already been promoted that same season in the Fall ’91 advertising campaign and a Grace Coddington / Linda Evangelista cover and editorial (“A Shot of Scotch”) in Vogue’s September issue.
Some later covers showing Ralph Lauren in a less WASP-y mode:
