The painting is part of a current exhibit “Girl with a Pearl Earring: Dutch Paintings from the Mauritshuis,” which features paintings from the golden age of Dutch influence in art and culture. The highlight of the exhibition for me included a pair of wedding portraits featuring the most exquisitely represented 17th century fashion. The jacquard fabrics, especially caught my eye, as the fabric style is very relevant to current fashion.

This painting, by Pieter Jacobsz Codde (Dutch, 1599-1678), has a similar style and shows an example of jacquard fabric with a similar floral pattern. The manner of juxtaposing extreme detail with impressionist-like strokes is really effective at portraying texture. In person, that is. Also of note in this period of fashion are the gigantic lace collars, which, though terribly impractical, were worn as status symbols.

From her clothes it is clear that this woman (above) is a woman of considerable status. She is well-to-do and fashionable: her dress is richly ornamented, around her neck is a Millstone ruffs. The millstone ruff is a round collar made of pleated white linen. It was fashionable in Holland from the late 16th century to about 1625. They began small, but became increasing broad until finally resembling millstones. Manufacturing such large ruffs was a complicated and time-consuming task for the specialists who made them – mostly Flemish or Dutch women. A ruff like this required a great deal of material, sometimes as much as 15 meters. Usually cambric was used, a fine linen often decorated with bobbin lace. After washing and starching, it was gathered or pleated and set on a collar and then ironed into circular shapes with ‘pipe’ irons. These costly collars or ruffs were worn by the well-to-do, both men and women.

Source

Not long after my visit to the de Young, I walked past this floral jacquard jacket in the window of a Zara store in the Financial District of San Francisco. Not long ago fabric like this was considered best left to grandma’s curtains. Now, however, jacquard, brocade, and damask fabric is common to trendy, contemporary fashion.

aleXsandro Palombo is an Italian illustrator, whom the cult knows via his blog Humor Chic. Palombo studied design at the Marangoni Institute in Milan and later launch is own line before becoming the scathing blogger his is today. The designer has a no-hold’s barred social point of view and he uses personalities from the worlds of fashion and politics as his cartoon character templates.

One of my favorites is his reworking of Michelle Obama’s March 2010 Newsweek cover (seen below). It’s irreverent & relevant without hitting you over the head with it’s satire. I love that the skeleton is cheetah print! Mrs O, is almost as trendy, after all.

Images: humorchic.blogspot.com, michelle-style.com

With only these tiny, 2-D representations of of the clothing it can be hard to relate to reports of attendees crying at the sight of the hand-sewn creations gliding down the runway. Granted, the alleged crier was Monsieur Lesage, himself. The legendary couturier responsible for Chanel’s embroidery. Considering the upwards of 350 hours of work that go into the making of a single couture garment of this caliber, one can imagine the tear jerking effect of seeing your labor of love finally sashay down the runway on the slim hips of an underfed, underpaid model… And just imagine, they do this twice a year.

Indeed a haute couturier is a rare and strange bird. One who often guards it’s secrets like newly hatched eggs. “Mademoiselle Pouzeux, who does the braids for couture. She has a secret and she wants nobody to know,” Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld said in an interview. “We cannot find anyone to work with her. She does it all alone. She only works for couture because she cannot produce enough for ready-to-wear. And no one knows how she does it.” See the video of this interview below. But before you do that, enjoy some hi-res detail photos of the two looks from above. Still not like actually getting to put them on yourself, but they do better convey the astounding intricacies of the clothing. A sincere thanks to two of my new favorite tumblrs: pellucidus & Emmi Camille

The below image is of the 1927 painting “Kiss” – a work by the French artist Marie Laurencin, whose art Lagerfeld references in the interview (and in the collection, apparently). As the designer implied, the murky color palette is really the only thing that’s reflected in the Chanel collection. There’s something about Laurencin’s paintings that strikes me at the soul level. Aesthetically it’s not a style that I would choose, but it somehow provokes nostalgia for a time I never experienced. It resonates with me in a way that’s not entirely pleasant, but I suppose that’s the sort of bittersweet attraction that good art often has. See more Laurencin works via kroshka_50369.

Multi-talent Cédric Rivrain was recently featured on the Opening Ceremony blog. He is interviewed by Rory Satran.

RS: Do you consider yourself more an artist, an illustrator, a fashion designer, or you don’t distinguish?
CR: I think I feel more like an artist, because…it depends on my mood and all. Sometimes when I am working on my drawings, it can be quite far from fashion. For example, the drawings I did with the mechanical eyes, obviously the plasters…even sometimes when it’s people who are related to fashion that I draw, it’s not about fashion when I do it. It’s more about what’s deep inside myself. I don’t feel they’re really fashion drawings. I just don’t want to put a label on myself. For example, Andy Warhol. He was a fashion illustrator before he was a big artist. Sometimes I wonder if I should stop with fashion and concentrate on my personal drawings, but then I realize I miss fashion. So I just want make everything evolve and keep on doing it all without making any distinctions.

RS: Is there anyone you dream of meeting and drawing? Maybe someone from the past?
CR: Someone like Diana Vreeland. I don’t know why, but I’ve always loved her personality.

RS: Have you read her book, D.V.?
CR: Yes, I have and looked at all her pictures. She was one of those people who made fashion about dreaming. So much of it now is so commercial. That’s why I am careful with everyone I work with and which jobs I take. I went into fashion because it made me dream.

Read the rest here.

“Beautiful Soul’s female fans will find light coats such as trenches, cropped jackets, capes and sleeved jackets where the sleeves can be adjusted and worn in different lengths, and a variety of dresses with and without sleeves… The brand’s strict zero-waste policy means a range of unique corsets will also be available, constructed from leftover fabrics… The collection gives vintage Japanese kimonos a ‘new lease of life’ as they are upcycled into entirely new designs. It will also introduce a retro bird print, following a collaboration with eco textiles designer Polly Hope.”

Learn more about Beautiful Soul at the label’s web site, beautiful-soul.co.uk.

I was really capitvated by illustrator Zarina Liew’s watercolor work. The artist has a gorgeous portfolio of work created for comics and for fashion projects. To the left see her chic rendering of Beautiful Soul’s FW10 Akane coat.

“Vintage kimonos remain a central aspect of No. 3, the AW10 collection, and add a touch of elegance and exclusivity to the garment. This collection also sees the introduction of British wool from a rare breed of Shetland sheep sourced from Izzy Lane, organic dupion silk, organic jacquard, bamboo jersey and denim is given a new lease of life, within structured silhouettes.”

Below left: Neon Butterfly for Oops! Fashion; Below right: based on Alexander McQueen FW08 gown. See more of her work at cobaltcafe.co.uk

The videos shown were curated by Yeah founder Eiliyas, who drew from artists around the globe. The selection ranged from art school cliche to visual symphony, but were generally decent. Among the most memorable – if only because it was the most narrative – was the animation piece submitted by Italian artist Lemeh42.

In 1910 Kandinskij published one of his most important works, Klänge (Sounds). The general principle of Klänge was the liberation of the inner sound. One century later, Lemeh42 realizes a personal homage to this russian painter. Inner Klänge (Inner sounds) is an animated journey to find the Inner sound.

Yet while the video festival was the main event, my ever-present fashion goggles drew me to a number of pieces currently on show at the gallery. Atlanta’s Paper Twins (artists Nica and Edgar A. English) has a deceivingly simple and folksy look from about 10 paces, but get closer and the cut out details draw you into the pieces, whose 2D style is transformed 3D effect by the artist’s clever use of scale. Then there’s that fantastic clothes line. There are at least two items on it that would love to have in my wardrobe.

In another corner of the gallery was a piece by an artist from Tel-Aviv known as Know Hope. Though the work shown at the Eyedrum was without the candle-lit magic that helped gain the artist his notoriety, the pen on paper drawings still captured my imagination with their loaded words, expressive limbs… and their skinny jeans. Definitely, this snaps (taken from my phone) fare from do the work justice.

Then, in a back room, which had lights dimmed for a video screening there were 2 of the 7 deadly sins. The pieces are a part of a multi-media series by artist collective The Status Faction. And just as you might expect from a fashion-lover my two favorites were Vanity and Envy. You can see better snaps of these two and the rest of the series at the group’s website. However, I rather like how they look in the dark. Plus, I was really digging my E.J. ensemble that evening and you get a little peek of it here… Vanity is hard to resist while in perfectly schlubby Thakoon for Target.