Burberry Prorsum Cable-Knit Trenchcoat and Leather Tie Belt

Unexpected inspiration!  Time for fall knitting...

Photo courtesy of Bergdorf Goodman

Click on the link for alternate views.

Description from the Bergdorf website: "For the Burberry Prorsum Fall 2011 collection, head designer Christopher Bailey drew on vintage 1960s looks.  He was especially inspired by the iconic looks of model Jean Shrimpton, and paid homage ot her at the runway show.  This trenchcoat looks places cable knitting - a traditional cold-weather staple - on a trim, moddish silhouette, with a thin belt adding structure and contrasting color."

I love British Vogue.  It has interesting style coverage.  It features the latest fashions, of course, but frequently features women who are stylish in their own right, whether or not they are wearing the latest or are famous. It has printed photo stories showing what real professional women wear to work, including shots of those women in their offices; interesting interviews of people in the fashion industry, and not just designers - they recently interviewed one of Alexander McQueen's design teachers. BV covers accessories extensively, and feature pages of cosmetics, though I have to admit that these days I've usually seen most products on someone's blog before it shows up in the print magazines.

The July issue is devoted to Ageless Style.  The best piece, in my opinion was "Civvy Street," in which Stella Tennant models new fall garments, which include "cozy knits" and corduroy.  I'm accustomed to seeing Tennant as a light-haired waif in more feminine clothing, so her darker hair, and androgynous style was a distraction from the clothes themselves.  Interestingly, BV has not air brushed the lines from Tennant's face. I don't think she has ever look better. I love the tousled raven hair, the life etched on her face. It's a great look for Stella - I wonder if she'll keep it.

I wasn't totally distracted actually.  I love the Maison Martin Margiela chunky double-layer knit below left, and the Michael Kors cardi on the right.

And the Burberry merino sweater left, and the corduroy suit right.

I love the general styling below, though I'm at a loss at what to call it.  Fur is faux.

The entire shoot reminds of me the 60s,  possibly the hairdo at right?

All photos from British Vogue, July 2011.

Fall 2010 RTW

Issey Miyake's Fall 2010 RTW collection, shown at Paris Fashion Week, looks electic to my untrained eye, ranging from unusually long and unusually styled infinity scarves to classic designs.  No pleats.  I suppose  he hasn't done pleats for a long time.  All photos from Style.com.

Here are a few that caught my eye:

This jacket/cardi made me wish that I like to sew.  It's so elegant and modern.

Immediately reminds me of Habu stainless steel.

Finally here's an interesting knitted sweater by Yohji Yamamoto.

Japanese Avant-Garde Fashion at the Textile Museum

I had a chance to see 35 articles of Japanese avant-garde fashion from the collection of Mary Baskett at the Textile Museum a couple of weeks ago. The weekend symposium began with a reception a Friday night, which I missed, because it was rainy, cold, and by 7:30 I was fried. Saturday's session was held at the Phillips Collection, one of my favorite art galleries in DC. The theme was from "Kimono to Couture: the Evolution of Japanese Fashion.” The Museum brought in experts to speak about the kimono in early Japanese history (which I missed because there was bike race through NW Washington which brought traffic to a standstill. Many of us were late.); the geisha influence on kimono fashion; the modern kimono; Japanese avant-garde fashion; Japanese youth in fashion subcultures; and Japanese textiles, in which the speaker described a number of ways to create textiles. I wish they would give classes on the latter, especially shibori.

The Sunday session began with a guided tour of Japanese textiles developed by Nuno, a Tokyo-based corporation. It included fabrics created with stainless steel thread, some felted pieces, and some that were hand-embroidered.

ETA: You can click on any of the images for a larger view.

Nuno Stainless Steel Fabric

Then Ms. Baskett conducted a guided of her garments. I know it’s lame to scan the exhibit pamphlet as I have below (and I hope the Textile Museum doesn’t mind, I’m not affiliated with them), but I took few photos and they’re not great. I dutifully left my camera in my handbag as we were not supposed to take photos, but when Ms. Baskett posed for a few shots, everyone whipped out camera phones. It was like we all had our hands on our photographic equipment just waiting for a chance…

I won’t go into detail; the pamphlet covers it all. Most of the garments were designs by Yohji Yamamoto, Issey Miyake, and Rei Kawakubo, designer and owner of Comme des Garcons. It’s an entrancing collection that really showed the genius of these designers.

Ms. Basket is amazing too. She is a Japanese art historian, who was a curator at the Cincinnati Art Museum, then opened the Mary Baskett Gallery in 1977, which features contemporary Japanese artists. The pieces in the collection are part of her wardrobe; she wears them everyday.


You can view larger images here.

Mary Baskett in front of Rei Kawakubo exhibit

If you missed the symposium, the Textile Museum will conduct some evening lectures early next year.

Chado Ralph Rucci Documentary

Neiman Marcus sponsored the screening of an excellent and inspiring documentary, Ralph Rucci: a Designer and his House, tonight at the Corcoran Art Museum. Rucci, whose design house is called Chado Ralph Rucci, is currently the only American designer invited to design couture in Paris.

"Chado" is apparently a meticulous Japanese tea ceremony, and while most of Rucci's current designs do not appear to be Japanese-inspired, meticulous is certainly a great description as well artistic, singular, and simply beautiful. The hour-long documentary takes the viewer through the execution of designs from sketch through to its final stages. Obviously an hour-long film cannot show the details of every step - a single hand-sewn piece can take as long as 1000 hours! But the film is beautifully edited, showing Rucci sketching, tight shots of hand sewing, beading, pinning to mannequins, fitting the models, and finally the models strutting the garments down the runway. It was also interesting to hear Rucci's staff discuss how he designs and describe his point of view. Unfortunately, being more visual than auditory, I missed too much of the commentary. I was too caught up in the design of the collections, the colors he used, the artistry of the painter that he is and that he applies to design, and his design environment. I was left with the impression that there is a sort of Eastern, Zen quality in the way he corales and uses energy in the development of a collection. I must see the movie again so that I can listen more closely.

The photos above are from Style.com, where you can view his collections. The beauty is in the details of the garments, which photos frequently cannot capture or as Rucci said, are impossible to see two rows away from the catwalk.

The filmmaker, David Boatman, introduced the film and took questions afterward.

Martha Stewart, produced and narrated the film. Rucci was on her show late last year; you can see that episode here. Sundance Studios has three-year rights to the movie and occasionally airs it. You can see a clip here. After the three years are up it will go to disc.

There was a large audience there; nearly a full house.

Waiting for Neiman Marcus goodie bags.

Carrie's Wedding Dress at Muleh

According to Project Beltway, the Vivienne Westwood wedding dress that Carrie Bradshaw wore in the Sex in the City movie will be on display at Muleh, October 23rd, from 5-8pm.

Westwood's Anglomania collection will be on display too.

Muleh
1831 14th St., SW

Habu Trunk Show at Woven Art

Where does time go? I was in Michigan weekend before last and it's already the 19th. Of course I lost a week when I got back - I promptly caught a cold and slept off several days in bed. No knitting. Not the time of year to be sick, is it?

I attended a Habu Trunk show at Woven Art while I was there. Man what a show! It consisted primarily of the garments designed and knit by Setsuko Torii found in Setsuko Torii Hand-Knit Works.

ETA: The Japanese-language book is still available at Yesasia.com and Amazon Japan. There is no English-language version and no plans to publish one at the moment. I have it from a good source that only 2000 books printed.

Most of the garments are now available in kits from Habu Textiles. The pix I took don't do the garments justice - they are truly breath-taking individual works of art and innovation. I spent the first hour looking and staring - awestruck really. I was on sensory overload. Then I finally started trying things on, much later remembering to take pictures. My first impression years ago of most clothing made with Habu yarn was that they were best suited for smaller frames, but after watching everyone try them on, it quickly became apparent that practically every piece flatters every figure and every age. They are classic and timeless.

I can't choose a favorite. I loved some aspect of each piece: the careful color gradation knit into a jacket; the simple buttonholes created by enlarging and binding the opening of a stitch; the drapiness of the hand of knitted stainless steel or paper, or both together; unusual color combinations that would never have occured to me but really work; the innovation of a sideways knit making a deceptively simple jacket; or the rustling (a whisper) of a paper linen and stainless steel jacket when it moves. Design and concepts so simple in some cases that you wonder why you didn't think of it yourself.

The color gradation is created knitting different shades solid gray yarn at certain intervals. The yarn is not variegated.

It was hard to choose a kit to buy. I finally settled on a new Torii design created after the book was published: a short wrap jacket with a shawl collar knit from DK wool and 2 tiny strands of ramie, and a white-on-white Kusha Kusha scarf.

I loved this cotton and stainless jacket.

The top half is made of cotton and stainless steel knit together. The cotton gives the jacket shape and form. The bottom half is knit with two strands of stainless steel, one off-white and one gray, giving the impression of modern, ultra-lightweight and airy chain mail. It floats in the back.

The "Washi and Tsumugi" coat flattered everyone who tried it on. It doesn't hang in a boxy way, instead it skims the contours of the body. Everyone loved it.

A mohair pullover edged with heavier tsumugi combination silk gives the garment weight and drape unimaginable in mohair.

The red jacket in the foreground had knotted "shippo tails" on the sleeves making it much more than just a simple jacket. We were all surprised that it had hidden pockets!

It is made of shosenshi paper and stainless steel, and rustles gently when you move in it.

This lovely Chinese Style Pullover is knit with two strands of shosenshi paper yarn in purple and khaki (actually green).

Photo from Hand-Work Knits.

The most astounding piece, for me at least, was the shippo tail tank.

Photo from Hand-Work Knits.

The MC is purple paper linen, followed by gray, chartreuse, blue/grey I think, then chartreuse, tipped with a bit of gray again. The chartreuse was beautiful with the gray and purple. It's brighter than it appears in the photo, providing a brilliant contrast to the purple. I'd like to make this eventually, but will modify the tail somehow, perhaps placing it elsewhere and modifying the length.

Takako Ukei, owner of Habu, gave an interesting talk about the development of Habu yarn Friday night, and three hour-long classes on reading Japanese charts Saturday morning. Each class was packed. Takako was delightful. She has a wonderful sense of humor and a boatload of patience.

Takako is wearing a sideways knit cardi. She had a pattern for it, so it is probably available as a kit too.

The pattern reading class was an enormously useful and gave me the chance to ask questions about some of the patterns in the book.

There are more pictures here.

Woven Art was an excellent venue for the show and the class. There was plenty of room to display the collection and try things on. The table was just the right size for the class (and the lazy susan in the center was perfect for treats!) Nancy's shop is the kind of place where knitters just go to hang, have a cup of coffee and knit (or weave. or spin.) as I would do if I lived in Lansing or East Lansing. Nancy is a wonderful host and the knitters there are warm, friendly people with whom I felt immediately at home. (I'll see you guys again soon!)

Why oh why doesn't someone in the Washington Metro area host a Habu trunk show? I would happily attend again.

Jaeger is going out of business! Of course by the time I found out about it most of the Matchmaker DK and Extra Fine Merino DK in the colors I wanted were gone. Some places are still selling it at full price, but there isn't much left of that either. It may sadden one knitter friend, who just tossed her fun fur, that Jaeger "Fur" is especially hard to find! There's some here. She may want to knit these Prada items:

Harper's Bazaar, July 2007

Hmmm, well, though I come around some fashions years later, right now these knitted suits are more my style: Vogue, August 2007

Kinda.

Lost my Knitting Mojo

don't know what it is. I've been working on these Pomatomus mitts and though I've looking forward to wearing them, I'm really sick of knitting them. I've totally memorized the chart. I can put them down for days and figure out exactly where I was when I pick them back up. That's too much. I debated making gloves because I'm going to have lots of yarn left over, but I really don't think I could make it to the fingertips. I'm using Sundara Superwash Merino "Black over Plum."
It's really hard to take pix of opera length mitts on your own arm.

In the meantime I've finished these. Like the gloves, I finished them weeks ago but didn't get around to taking photos. Too cold to take my socks off. Not much comment about the Marble Arches. You've seen a gazillion of them. They're made of STR Pink Granite. Not much comment about the Monkey socks either. I like them, but don't feel the love like everyone else. I used Sundara "Gray over Periwinkle."

OK, I know I'm starting to sound whiny. The new STR Sock club yarn arrived and it's beautiful! It's shades of purple (my fave) and green. So far I can't get shots that do it justice, but maybe by Friday.

In the meantime I'll leave you with these designs from Sophia Kokosalaki found on Style.com.