Hexagons in Fashion

Surprise! Dior has a quilt pattern in their pre-Fall 2017 fashion line!

ceramic tile detail in Barcelona, Spain

My Veronese friend Piera's latest quilt!
All hand pieced and hand quilted.
The outside shape of the 3-d block is a hexagon

picture taken at the ROM in Toronto, BIG/Méga exhibit
quote from the label: "Needlework was a professional trade
 as well as a domestic skill associated with the feminine virtues
 of patience, concentration and cleanliness"
...comment anyone??

A cube quilt in the process- interesting how the quilt maker
used a grey and black for 2 sides of the cube
 and only one coloured piece.

Click here to see how Dior used the hexagon shape! (it is slide #46) Interesting ....although the model doesn't seem to be too happy to be wearing it! (I can't stop laughing!)

Popular construction of a hexagon during the 30's and 40's,
hand pieced and hand quilted

Charlotte's Webs in Blue
large hexagon quilt by Judy Beca
(photo taken at the York Heritage Quilters Guild Show
Inspired by Bob Gutcher's spiderweb quilt

We are ahead of the fashion curve, ladies!

I show this example when I teach the art element of value.
Value is very visible when comparing it
to the same photo (below) in black and white.

Lace Shapes

I have always liked hand crocheted doilies. I have collected a few myself from Italy and a special one from Austria, a gift.

I don't know where to put them because they don't really go with my decor but they are special to me.

I appreciate the time the nameless women took to create each little stitch to make the intricate pattern.

This one was made by my Italian friend, Liana,
from the south of Italy. It was a gift to me last summer.

UPPERCASE magazine issue 26, has a selection of beautiful pictures of different kinds of lace and doilies. They were made popular in the 17th century by a cloth merchant named Doiley.

Hand made by Liana, another gift.

They were use in Victorian times. They were displayed over the backs of couches and chairs to protect the couch from men's oily hair products. They were sometimes placed under cups or pastries . The latter eventually replaced by paper ones.

Tile maker, Jane Sheppard, obviously feels the same as she uses them to imprint her tiles. You can see their influence in her Lace Series.

Photograph of article in House and Garden Magazine (UK)

Guess who else likes doilies this season?

I photographed this purse in a store window in Hong Kong.

I wonder how much Chanel sells it for?

Branding

Is your (art) business a goal or a product of your passion?

When a consumer looks at your work do they automatically think it is yours?

Do you think about branding or are you creating without a thought of the marketing side?

At the Chanel No. 5 exhibit (Paris, May 2013), branding was at the forefront of the perfume's creation.

(photo credit Sophia Reford)

Not only did Gabrielle Chanel create a new scent using chemical components never used before in perfumes, she was selling an image.

The clean lines that she is known for were visible in the construction of the bottle and the packaging.

Her rival fashion house, Elsa Schiaparelli, is in the process of being relaunched and with that comes a fresh look at the brand. Iconic designer Christian Lacroix was invited to create 18 pieces for the brand. His work was recently unveiled during Haute Couture Week in Paris.

Schiaparelli's vintage silk scarf,
a present from my daughter.

These "art" pieces are not for sale. The concept was to create an 'hommage' to Schiaparelli. It was more like a theatrical show rather than a regular 'défilé', where the designs were exhibited on mannequins placed on a carrousel and the entrance was more like a stage set of trees adorned with birds on electronic tablets.

To see a video of the dresses click here.

Stitch and Miss

Patchwork in clothes is sometimes stunning ...

Top Canadian designer, Joseph Helmer, made a patchwork maxidress of linen (2008)
photo in Elle Magazine (Canada) March 2008
photo credit: Leda & St. Jacques

...and sometimes not.

Patchwork skirt, Oscar de la Renta
photo credit: oscar PR girl's instagram

Sorry Oscar.

African Billie Zangewa

Billie Zangewa creates silk tapestries. She was born in Malawi, raised in Botswana, studied in Grahamstown, South Africa, worked in Johannesburg and exhibited in New York.

I was introduced to her work at Art Paris Art Fair at the gallery MAGNIN-A.

Christmas at the Ritz, 2006
120 cm x 111 cm
embroidered silk
There are better images on the artist's and gallery website

She comes to textile art from a fashion background. Fabric was her medium then and it is now.

She sews together snippits from her life. She often places herself in the image- a self-portrait in a captured moment.

Artist is in the right hand corner
(sorry about the reflection in the glass)

A captured moment like a photograph.

I love the way she has bits missing in her background fabric choice. That seems to be in all her work.

Simple stitching, beautiful choices of colour and fabric. It's like painting with fabric.

(notice the absence of the word patchwork)

Jean Paul Gaultier in Montreal

I am in Montreal for the weekend. My daughter and I went to see the gorgeous textiles of "l'enfant terrible" of the fashion world.

He is self-taught.

He is one of the most important fashion designers of recent decades.

Jean Paul Gaultier's haute couture. (images courtesy of Zio Paolino from flickr as I forgot my camera!)

I loved the photo transfers onto cloth, the textures, the beading.

Pierre Cardin told him, "The idea is more important than the material used to translate it."