Analogue Chic

Posts Tagged ‘Costume’

You may recall we had a little fashion philanthropy picnic last weekend. 

It was bloody warm, the turnout was a bit disappointing, and everyone but my husband and I was hungry because apparently, they did not read the part of the invitation that said "Please bring your favorite picnic munchies…"

But those who did attend were quite good-looking, and did an awesome job putting together not just fabulous hats, but amazing period-referencing costumes.

It was basically like this:

with less wine and less bicep. Sadly.

But, more croquet!

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For centuries, it was easy to identify an upper-class woman by the amount of fabric she was wearing– yards and yards of it.  This has implications from art history to the hijab debate in Islam.  Nowadays, the opposite may be true ("It’s better to be cold and stylish, than to be warm and frumpy.").  But there is still a class of women, even in our modern democratic society, whose role it is to be fertile and look attractive for their husbands.  I’m talking about you, Fairfield County.

Here are two artists who deal with women (and men) and fabric. (Also see Shadi Ghadirian.)

Elene Usdin, Femmes d’Interieur series

In this series of pictures on “Femmes d’intérieur”, I want to play with the codes, to re-arrange them, giving a cushion or a chair or a pair of shoes the same attention as the subject. It’s my way of depersonalizing the woman, of turning her into (perhaps what she always was): the object, the woman-object. Upending things in effect poses the question: what is the social status of a woman? The reference to “great classics” of painting is a good way to illustrate how a woman is corseted by her rank and the social position of her husband or her own family.

To speak of just one of these photographs : the portrait of “Georges”, is the one of (Georges) Sand, the writer, who in her own era deconstructed the codes corseting women. I have chosen to repaint the famous portrait of her by Charpentier which shows Sand with an amused smile.
In my vision, she is inviting the viewer to sit down on her, she is the woman-chair. But attention: on the armrest there lurks an aggressive barracuda which reverses the notion of the submissive woman. A kick in the nose to what society once expected of women. And today, is their independence so much more meaningful?

Quotes via Elene Usdin.

Andre Wagner, Black Holes series

I was unable to find any artist statement or curator’s description of this series.  Many different intended meanings could be read into the series title… Optimistically, my interpretation is that this series is a commentary on the tendency of people in the West to view people of other, non-Western cultures, even people of non-European descent living in the West, as one simplified image, identified by their foreign clothing, rather than as individuals.

It appears he has digitally erased the flesh of his subjects as well as the background, leaving disembodied clothing, although you can still see wisps of hair peeking from the pallu of the girl on the left in the first photo.

All images copyright to their respective creators.

Via PSFK.

I half jokingly hatched this plan several months ago, but after seeing the same window display at the Salvation Army since this summer, I got serious.  I volunteered to dress the window display.  And it’s a win-win: hopefully, it will attract customers, and I get to practice styling and composition, and also play with clothes and decorations that I otherwise have no way to include in my collection.  It took about 2 hours to strip the window and find the clothes and objects I wanted to use, and then about 4 hours, with the help of The Fiance, to dress it completely.  And the results (sorry for the not-great lighting situation plus reflections…): Once I had permission from the store manager, I thought for a while about a couple of themes, and finally went with an Enchanted Winter Woodland (the losing theme was a sort of Nutcracker-New Year’s Eve party melange).  Ultimately, it was determined by what I could find among the clothes and bric-a-brac, and the dress selection was woefully slim. Anyhoo, on the left hand side, we have the Faerie Queen in green, with one of her attendants in red, and 3 wood nymphs in the background (worst mannequins ever!); and on the right is the Woodsman and his Wife– I really wanted to get a Red Riding Hood-like character in there, but no child-size mannequins I was influenced by, like, all of the picture books, fairy tales and fantasy novels I read over and over as a child, Celtic mythology, British literature, and Alexander McQueen’s Fall ‘08 collection (although it was much more Russian than Celtic).  And I was looking again recently at this beautiful paper fashion by Violise Lunn– we have similar influences also.

Woodsman and Woodswife.

I’m pretty pleased with the way it came out, what with limited resources and for a first try.  Ideally, there would have been a lot more fabric on the backdrop, with more of the brown ribbons-suggesting-trees.  And, conveniently not in the pictures, the far right hand side is pretty bare.

Some more highlights:

And my favorite:

  I will be updating the window with some lighting features (and hopefully filling in the right corner) for our local First Night celebration. Comments, critiques, etc., especially as to composition & color, are most welcome.

Because you never know when you’ll need a disguise.

I’m not sure what sparked this little cultural phenom, or if anyone else has noticed, but it was brought to my attention by my (apparently) trendsetting sister.  Mustache as fashion accessory and home decor. Lookie:

MonkeyGirl, my sistah

Nylon Magazine featured monocle-style mustache necklaces in their October ‘08 issue, like this:

Tree Mustache

 Who is responsible for this trend? Who but…

Mr. W.B. Mason

 My personal favorite mustache:

Moustache of Irma La Douce

Take a look at my latest homemade fashion, on Craftster:

Keeps my chin warm.

The Fiance says I look like Vincent Valentine of Final Fantasy VII:

Mr. Valentine

Whoever.

It’s all made of recycled materials (previously owned clothing) except for my homemade button and the hem tape I used for the button loop.  I’ll be putting a general how-to on the Craftster page, so bookmark it and check back in a couple of days if you’re interested in that.