brain candy

I picked up this fabulous book from the library called The Golden Age of Couture: Paris and London 1947-57 and is based on the exhibit at the Victoria & Albert Museum. It's a huge, coffee table book with truly beautiful photographs.

This quote from Christian Dior caught my eye:

"In December 1946, as a result of the war and uniforms, women still looked and dressed like Amazons. I designed clothes for flower-like women, with rounded shoulders, full feminine breasts, and hand-span waists above enormous spreading skirts".

And then this:

Notably, Dior chose models who were not too tall, to emphasize their well-fed, fertile shapeliness, in contrast with the lean wartime silhouette. Mme Marguerite, Dior's directrice technique (head of workrooms) described altering a dressmaker's dummy to fit Dior's vision, saying, "I even rounded the abdomen, as on a Greek statues, and there at last was a voluptuous figure to pin the muslin shape to, and ready to express the New Look."



I am pausing for a moment to honor this man's intention to design for women who actually looked like women. One has to wonder what he would actually think of his line today, modeled as it is by Amazons.

Yes, I know that the entire intent was to move on past the war and its food and fabric rations. Naturally, the image they'd want to project was that of the well-fed woman. But in looking through the photos in this book, I'm really struck how many of these models now would be considered too short and a little too chubby.

She would never be able to do modeling work today!



Ah well. I got very excited when I saw this page because the back of my wedding dress looked just like this (except, ya know, it was white).



Who knew that my wedding dress skirt resembled a Balenciaga design? (Yes, I know, he didn't invent the bustle, but I'm tickled anyway since it's the only time in my life I'll ever wear anything remotely resembling haute couture.)

But back to reality....

I had a Macy's gift card so I went to Redmond Town Center this afternoon. (I was smart and avoided the real mall where temptation would have been too great.) And what did I buy with my gift card? One pair of tights and three pairs of socks. Yeah, that's how I roll.

Although I did buy some new shoes yesterday. At Target. For all of $12.

I'm sure I must have worn Dior in my past life. I died tragically after a short, fast life of glamour, soirees, and homewrecking.

(Not that I advocate homewrecking in this life at all, but those women in my past life totally deserved it.)