HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Another year just went by. . .
I wish all my friends, followers and everybody else, who just pops by: love, happiness, prosperity, re-cognition and success for the coming year. I hope all your dreams will come true. Hope to see you here again in 2012.

DE LA BELLE ÉPOQUE AU PRET-Á-PORTER

Is an intersting exhibition, that I saw today at La Grande Bibliothéque in Montreal. 

As the title is indicating it´s about the evolution in fashion from individual made clothes to the beginning of production of clothes from around 1871-1940.

To illustrated the different Epoches, they made all the displayed models up in paper. Unfortunately all the explanations were in french. Luckily I already knew about this period in fashion history.

FASHION ADVERTISING

Just a follow up on my recent posts. I am always amazed to see how many adds fashion magazines like American Vogue manage to put into their magazine.

Though it´s not always obvious, because some of the adds blend in and look fashionable, they are also in a way showing what is going on in fashion, Vogue has some nice fashion-editorials about trends and news, features, interviews, designer-portraits in between.

Even if the Adds dominate and keeps the Magazine running, the Celebrity and Sociality stuff is also taking a lot of room. I don´t mind that. 

But, it could be quite nice with more content, like background stories on the Fashion Industry, designers past and present to put some perspective on fashion ? Maybe, it´s just because I am a professional that I miss that.
Do you like adds or do you sometimes have enough ?

CHRISTMAS FASHION DISPLAYES

Just wanted to share some fabulous window displays from some of San Francisco Department-stores, just for inspiration. Enjoy!

 

All photos by John Frantsen

ON ACESSORIES ADDS

Accessories adds, was another thing I noticed in Elle.

Adds are all over in Fashion Magazines these days. Bag adds, cosmetic-, perfume- and jewellery adds, sometimes with a model in a suiting outfit or just to give a certain appealing feeling, to tempt you. Because these things are affordable for most people. -The Companies know exactly how it works.

Nowadays every known artist or celebrity like Jennifer Lopez, Christina Aquilera, Avril Lavigne, Britney Spears and the Beckhams have their own perfume.

Because, that is where the money is. It is also the main reason why all the big designer brands and fashion-houses like Dior, Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent still survives today.

TREND - TEXTURES & COLOURS

When you travel, you always get new impulses and inspiration. . .

Like magazines you usually don´t buy. 

I found this fashion-editorial, that I came across in the December issue of Elle quite inspiring and wanted to share it.

THE COLLECTION OF ELIZABETH TAYLOR

Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) was a famous British-American actress. From her early years as a child star at MGM-Studios, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood´s Golden Age. As one of the world's most Iconic film stars, Elisabeth Taylor was recognized for her acting ability and for her glamorous lifestyle, beauty and distinctive violet eyes.

Through her career that spanned six decades, Elizabeth Taylor won two Oscars and made more than 50 films. Read my previous post to her tribute here.

Elizabeth Taylor was also a pioneer in marketing a celebrity merchandise brand, and despite her years as an actress, most of Taylor's wealth came from her business ventures. She designed fine jewelry for The Elizabeth Collection, and launched three perfumes, "White Diamonds",  Passion", and "Passion for Men", which together had an estimated US$ 69 million in 2010 sales.

Recently her entire Collection of Jewelry, Fashion and Accessories as well as her Haute Couture Gowns has been displayed in Moscow, London, Los Angeles, Dubai, Geneva, Paris, and Hong Kong to promote The Auction that is taking place these days at Christies.

THE WINTER COAT

 As promised last week, here are a few pictures of the finished Coat, that are going on a journey tomorrow. I always underestimate the time it takes to finish something like that, but I made just in time.

I will try to keep up posting here, while I´m away. Enjoy the Holidays.

VINTAGE DRESS

Another vintage dress that could be an option for the coming Holidays. I purchased it long time ago, because of the unusual color-combination and woven fabric-pattern. In the front it has a special empire cut and a small bow to emphasize that.

I will estimate it to around late 1960, but if you know better, let me know. The size. . .is about a 10/40, but can of course be adjusted to your size.

The label says: Nilaco - Danish Design

If you are tempted, don´t hesitate to contact me.

FROM SKETCH TO DRESS - PART 2

-Is another project I have done. The assignment was to create a small denim-collection and present it for the class.

I was inspired by this piece, that I have done earlier on and decided to develop the idea into this collection in white denim.

Design and Copyrights: John Frantsen

-Which eventually inspired me to do the "Spiraldress", that you can see in a previous post here.

Azzedine Alaïa Exhibition

Azzedine Alaïa in the 21st Century is the title of an exhibition that opens sunday 12th of december at The Groninger Museum in The Netherlands.

The exhibition displayes the most fantastic of his creations from the last decade. It is a continuation of the exhibition that were shown in 1998 at The Groninger Museum, that went on to be displayed at The Brant Foundation in New York 2002.

Azzedine Alaïa is one of the last major couturiers still alive. He stands for glamour, sensuality, style, cut, confidence, comfort and sex appeal of course.
His range of clothes have been available since 1980 and is very popular among celebrities. Check out my previous post on Alaïa.

I would really love to go there and study all his creations. Lets see how it goes. . .

HISTORICAL CORSETS

My previous post reminded me of these historical corsets from the late nineteenth century. I took these pictures at The Danish Collection of Costume at The National Museum in Brede Værk, that I once visited.
I used to link back, but the collection does not seem to be available anymore.

The corsets were not used as outerwear back then, but for the women to show more delicate when they were taking off their clothes. 

Notice the meticulous details and just imagine how much work that went into these corsets.

Photos: John Frantsen

THE HOUSE OF WORTH

Was very influential in the last quarter of the 1900 century. The House was founded by the Englishman, Charles Frederick Worth, 1825-1895.

Worth started out working for Gagelin, a prominent Textile Company in Paris, where he founded a small dressmaking department.
Eventually when he wanted to open his own house, they found it to risky to support and he was backed by Otto Bobergh, an investor from Sweden instead.
In 1858 The house of Worth et Bobergh was a reality. Worth is considered to be the first real couturier, because of the way he was promoting the house.

He was the first to put labels in his clothes and to present his collections on real models and he set the standard by putting the business into a system.

Of course there were tailors before that. But people had to go around and buy the fabric and trimmings they needed and then explain to the dressmaker, what they wanted. Worth was bringing it all together and was offering it as a total concept.
Customeres could choose from the designs of his collection and have the dresses made-by-measure afterwards. That is how Haute Couture still works today.

He was famous for his bold and opulent dresses in rich fabrics and delicate trimmings, as you can see here.

This particular dress by Worth from around 1890, was made for the late Queen Alexandrine of Denmark

Photos from The National Museum, Brede Værk

 

 

Photos from The Metropolitan Museum of Art

His sons Gaston-Lucien (-who by the way was the founder of Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne) and Jean-Philippe took over by his death and the house continued with his grandson, Jean-Charles until he retired in 1952 and The great fashion House closed.

Today the revival of the first Haute Couture house continues, with ready-to-wear, lingerie, accessories and perfume.
It was relaunced last year as the House of Worth Ldt., a company created by Indian fashion entrepre-neur Dilesh Mehta and Martin McCarthy with Italian Giovanni Bedin as designer. Read more here and take a look at his latest collection.

I have to say, the collection of corset/tutu dresses inspired by the past looks nice, but not very contemporary. My interpretation would have looked different. What are your opinion on this subject ?