V&A Fashion - Part 2

Today I continue the discussion of the Victoria and Albert fashion exhibition, from 1900s to today.

The 1920s fashions show the "garconne" look, or the simple and straight style of the dress below. Fashions continued to be bright and vibrant and full of detail, often inspired my international fashion. For example, fans made of ostrich feathers like the one below were inspired by the excavation of King Tut's tomb in Egypt in 1922. Crazy!

The mid 1920s into the 1940s showed emergence of the style of the modern woman, especially through the Art Deco design and full length dresses that clung to figures.  The below coat was designed by Elsa Schiaparelli in 1937. It has two possible images--a vase filled with roses, or two faces. This idea came from the influence of artists like Salvador Dali.

The Surrealist art movement also influenced dresses like the one below from 1937, also designed by Elsa Schiaparelli.

Finally, the '60s! The best time period. Below are two of the dresses from this era, showing off the haute couture of the industry. French designers particularly used feathers and other embellishments in their gowns to enhance their image.

Today I visited the Fashion Museum in Bath which also had some fascinating items and a lot more information. I'll continue posting about what I learned next week!

V&A Fashion - Part 1

Welcome back! This week I come to you with some very exciting photos from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The museum has an amazing collection of European clothing in their large fashion exhibit, ranging from the early 18th century to present day. The exhibit is great because it has so many examples of the different types of fashion throughout history, as well as discussions of fashion trends and how certain pieces were constructed. Because the collection was so extensive, I thought I'd break it into different blog posts. In this one, I will briefly cover 18th and 19th century fashion.

Here is an amazing dress from 1750s. It shows the extensive use of silk textiles at this time period and the common floral print.

The next dress is from the same time period, but note the Indian shawl. It is from Kashmir India and made of goat hair.

In the early 19th century and going into the mid-19th century, dresses became more voluminous while keeping the classic silhouette. More vibrant colors became available, as seen is this hot pink dress from 1860.

Additionally, styles became more commercially available at this time, like the one below.

Finally, the below picture reveals the inner construction of a bodice from 1870. The details and different material that go into it are amazing.

Next time, I'll go further down the fashion time line!

Sewing Machines

Today I’ll talk more about the sewing machine, an important invention for both European and Indian costuming.

The sewing machine was invented in the 1770s century by an Englishman and revolutionized clothing manufacturing. Though they became popular in homes earlier, the sewing machine perfected by Singer and others was not utilized by factories until the late nineteenth century. The sewing machine allowed many articles of clothing to be created in a short amount of time, as well as ensuring their uniformity. 

Here is what the earliest Singer sewing machines looked like. I like the gold decoration!

As for sewing machines in India, I believe they became popular there the same time as the rest of the world in the late 1800s. Though I have not found any trustworthy source documenting their first use in India, I did find this strange short article from The New York Times in 1879, which has a short story about “the first sewing machine in India.” I find it hard to believe the tale is true, but it is interesting! You can read the short article here.

That's a very brief history of sewing machines. Next week I will be going to England, where I will get to research European costuming in-depth. After that, India! See you then.

Dress Completed

This week I finished one of the drama costumes: Myrtle’s pink dress! I loved making this dress because it is so quintessentially sixties and because it allowed me to refamiliarize myself with the European method of creating costumes. I discussed in my last blog posts the initial steps--design and pattern making, so I thought I’d wrap up this costume by talking briefly about final stages of costume making--sewing! My personal sewing machine is a small Singer sewing machine, but major costume departments generally have industrial sewing machines that are durable and efficient. 

Below is a photo of the finished product (without the hem):

And here are Lauren and Cameron, the actors who will wear the dress on stage. Because the dress had to fit both of them, it does not fit perfectly. But it does fit!

Fun with Patterns

As I've been working on costumes, I've been thinking about patterns, or the basis for creating clothing. If a costume designer is creating a piece from scratch, they will start with a drawing and then make it a reality, often by making a pattern. The pattern then allows for the same item to be made multiple times without variations. The dress I am currently working on will act as Myrtle Mae's dress in Harvey, and to create it I am using a pattern from the 1950s. Interestingly, little has changed in patterns from then ton now--the only major difference is sizing. While in the 1950s (and earlier) only one pattern was available for each size, nowadays one pattern will cover a range of sizes, making it easier for the sewer to adjust measurements.

Below are photos from earlier this week of the pattern I'm using for one of the dresses. I'll post the finished product next week!

Sketches in Design

This week has been a busy one, full of working, cooking, and costuming! I've been working on making a few dresses for the drama production of Harvey (February 23!). While making the costumes I've been reading a few books on the basics of costume design and execution. The Costume Designer's Handbook and The Costume Technician's Handbook  have been very helpful in learning the basics of costuming for theater. Both books are by Rosemary Ingham and Liz Covey and provide a very detailed overview of costumes, from how to identify fibers in fabric to how to draw proportionate figures. I have been applying much of the technical aspects this week, though I'm sure the design information will be useful when I start to research Bollywood costumes more in-depth. Sadly, I still await most of my resources regarding Bollywood costumes--many of the books are obscure and take a while to ship.

While I've been hunched over a sewing machine, I've also been looking at many notable costume designer's sketches for their shows. It is amazing to see the differences between designers in both the costume detail and the way they portray the costumes. One of my favorite things about costume design as opposed to fashion design is that costumes require a character. The character can be short, tall, fat, skinny, and half another half-dozen adjectives, all of which need to be portrayed in the sketch for the character's costume. Below are some designs by Desmond Heeley for Don Pasquale, which opened in New York in 1978. Heeley was educated in England and has two Tony awards for his costumes.