Pages

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Do Not Attempt To Adjust The Picture

"There is nothing wrong with your television."


That's a little homage to the Outer Limits television program from the 60s.


It might appear to be an alien invasion, but you’re actually looking at my last two completed projects, with the latest, a Pucci print, next to the Marc Jacobs I blogged about earlier. They are both simple chemise dresses with straight lines, which I’ll wear belted.



The Pucci is from fabric.com in a line by Springs Creative Products. I love all the Pucci patterns in all the colorways, but there’s only so much Pucci you can wear in a single lifetime, so I settled on the aqua/lime combination. These are my favorite colors and I think the dress came out very nicely, even though the pattern is basically a casual housedress.


I made some changes: split the front yoke to give it the V-neckline (and a little flap collar which you can barely see), omitted the back zipper as it’s easy to pull on, lined the whole thing with lightweight black polyester (we’ll see if that gets too hot) and cut the sleeves at elbow length.


back




Without the belt, it looks like a muu muu. Give me some big fuzzy slippers and hair rollers and I could be a 60’s housewife (but only in San Francisco where the neighbors could make up stories about my wild reputation and I wouldn’t mind).

Anyway, I don’t intend to wear it loose because of the muu muu effect and I think it does look fairly presentable with the belt. And probably no one will even notice the dress style because their eyes will be burned out from the print.

Isn’t it nice how certain shapes never really go out of style? Both the McCalls 8991 from 1984 and the Simplicity 5225 from 1963 have the same straight shape, basically a shapeless rectangle with dolman or kimono sleeves. I don’t know much fashion history but I presume they are all successors to the simple shift that first appeared as acceptable daywear (as opposed to lingerie) in the 1920s. I liked the pattern because it was very easy, but I think I’m over the simple shift dress for a while. I want some shape. I still have time to do a couple of fitted things before the cool weather comes and we start thinking of shapeless clothes again.
For your enjoyment, some great vintage Pucci:




From left to right, from these shops on Etsy:
Platter Matter
Catwalk
Cool Vintage Finds

Katrina

No comments:

Post a Comment