Croeso! Welcome to the still nebulous “new blog”. Here I
jump in with both feet and a wish that I can find time amidst my two hundred
dozen hobbies to write something interesting about a few of them. Well-intentioned
folk are always encouraging me to sell, teach, post, without the remotest idea
of how impractical such a thing may be.
This, I guess, is for them.
Pray forgive my lapses in time and coherence and take joy or entertainment if
you will from my feeble attempts to beat the universe (and some really nice
textiles) into submission.
Illusions & Lagniappe was the name I gave my once and
future business, some time around 1979.
It seems an apropos title for my ramblings. Illusions are the best products of a
costumer, and the lagniappe is what takes the illusion over the top.
Accessories? Language? Lighting? Carriage? A hundred little details take clothes
to fashion, and fashion to costume. Without
the lagniappe, Johnny Depp is just a guy in a fancy coat.
Thus we begin.
We begin in the middle.
This we must, for the beginning of me, of what I do, seems so
many lifetimes ago that I’ve lost a bit of it, and family history isn’t what
you signed on for. One truly horrid Halloween
costume and a sewing machine in a dumpster launched a lifetime love of “those
dresses you can’t wear”. A bit of silver
eyelash was the lagniappe. And then there
was Eleanora.
Meet Eleanora:
Italian, regal, flawlessly gowned, and, well, dead.
Which is how she got my attention. Somewhere in a boring history book there she
was, serene as Mona Lisa and covered in swirly-curly op-art (or possibly auntie’s
curtains). **PING**On my bucket list:
one brocade dress. Never mind that I
didn’t have the language yet to call it brocade, or the remotest idea where to
buy such a thing (New Orleans—you should be able to get ANYTHING there, right?).
I needs must have the dress. Small towns
in South Mississippi are not repositories of 16th century Italian
brocades however, and that proved an insurmountable obstacle. If you’re a costumer yourself, or a fan of
Renaissance art, you’re nodding sagely. Yes, I too was captivated by “THAT
DRESS”. In the costuming world, it has a
life of its own. I salute all the others
who have come before me, and the ones who will come after. I finally (after 30+ years) stumbled upon an
acceptable fabric. I must make the
dress.
For you who are completely mystified, here is a link to
Bronzino’s Eleanora di Toledo portraits and a history lesson (thanks
Wikipedia!).
And here is my oh so glorious fabric.
That fabric was a lucky find. I'm just curious--where did you end up finding it?
ReplyDeleteThe fabric came from Fabric Depot in Portland, April 2011. I remember when I posted on FB someone posted back they had some also, but in GREEN.
DeleteWelcome to The Blogosphere!
ReplyDelete