duvessa’s blog

Release the hounds.

nobody@vox.com(Jay) — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 14:35:26 -0700

I do believe I just made a noise that only those of the canine persuasion can detect. Why?

Hidden Histories - Africans in Medieval and Renaissance Art

Why, look. There I go again with the noise.

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[knocks dust off this thing]

nobody@vox.com(Jay) — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 13:44:25 -0700

Well hey, kids. We'll just ignore whatever I was talking about last, as it didn't get done. However! I got some bee in my bonnet this morning and took over a section of the basement and now have a dedicated, if a bit dreary, sewing area. I mean, I can lay out patterns and actually cut them out! It's all very exciting.

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Now, we turn from Historical to Vintage

nobody@vox.com(Jay) — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 09:50:14 -0700

Hey kids. In an effort to not be so damned gloomy and pissy all the time, I've turned back to crafting things. Because I'm less likely to throttle someone if my hands are busy. So! Yes. Still planning 15th century goodness, both for myself and for my trade project. Which reminds me, I need to get on sketching hers out. Hrm.

ANYWAY, those are being back-burnered for a bit because two dear friends of mine are getting married in June and I just got the invitation in the mail yesterday. And, the bride being the fashionista she is is having a vintage-themed outdoor garden wedding with brown and blue as her colors.

I always did like that girl's style.

Now, the invitation blatantly states that guests are not required to participate in the vintage-them nor in the color scheme. However, give me a chance to wear different costumes than my everyday one, and I'll most likely take it. If I could figure out a way to dress as a classy sort of pirate done up in light blues and tans, I'd be all over that shit like white on rice. But, as it stands, I've been pouring over images of different vintage eras trying to decide which silouette I like best and which would take an apple-hourglassy figure and make it not look like a sack of potatoes. Without requiring I wear complicated underpinnings, because I'm not going for complete historical accuracy with this project. Also, because if I'm gonna wear complicated underpinnings, I'm gonna go whole-hog and just show up in some Victorian inspired Gothy nonsense and I think the bride might brain me with her bouquet were I to show up in a some corseted nonsense.

Now, nothing's finalized, but I think I'd either go with The Teens, The 40s, or The 50's. Reasons are as follows:

- Mainly because I think the 20s would look horrible on me, no matter how much I adore it. Even with a girdle, my body + dropped waist = fugly.

- I'm still undecided on the 30s as I adore bias-cut things because the of the drapery and flow, but am still looking for examples of something I could wear without having to do a girdle underneath. I have done girdles for much of my life prior to when I went off to college, kids. As a fat girl with Southern and Baptist roots and family, it was a neccesity and a rite of passage. One I always LOATHED. And I hope to NEVER have to wear something that requires one again. I would go on an extreme diet and exercise regiment first to lose all semblance of fat from my person, and I like to think I'm fat-positive. Yes, it is that serious. Which, is funny considering how much I like (properly fitted) corsets.

- I really want to see if I could make something reminiscent of A 1910 Tea Gown or A Mourning Dress from the Later Teens (scroll down to almost the bottom of the page for that second Mourning Dress link) without driving myself nuts. Also, I think that style would flatter my shape pretty well, but I could be wrong. And if I did up a mourning dress replica or inspired something, it would surprisingly not be black, because wearing a mourning dress to a wedding that's not a Gothy one is just. Something. Special. Too special even for me, I'm afraid to say.

- If I make said Tea Gown or Mourning Dress, I think I could get away girdle-free, as the waists are high enough and belted with wide sashes to actually work with my figure.

- I already have an early 40s copper crepe-back satin dress that actually fits my boobs. Just not everything else since the stress/illness weight has packed on. Folks? I look fucking FABULOUS in this dress. (Which I apparently have no pictures of, wtf?) Even when I would clearly need the dreaded G-word to make it fit right at the waist, the color still looks wonderful with my complexion and the cut makes my legs look hot. Since the doctors and I are working to get my body properly functioning again, my metabolism might actually. You know. WORK again, and I might fit into it by June. We'll see. I would try to let it out some, but it is a vintage dress and I am not badass enough to alter vintage anything without messing it up.

- Also, because if i went 50s, I've already got some lovely blue ombre-dyed and embrodered linen/cotton blend fabric (around somewhere) and a sundress mockup (around. somewhere. else.) that could be redrafted for more of a swing look. Which, full skirt + being mostly top-heavy = balanced and fabulous. I might see about rasing the waist or futzing with other design elements to make it work without looking stupid. Because, even though I look good in empire waisted dresses, empire waist + full skirt = weird-looking. Yes, I have tried making something like that. It was a riff on Regency. Updated. No, it shall never see the light of day. It got cannabalized into a circle skirt I wear quite often in the summer and the bodice went. Somewhere. Probably scraps.

- Or, maybe I'll just say hang it all and go ala Marlene Dietrich, because pants and I are friends moreso than dresses, anyway.

- And is always the question in these cases, what do I do about shoes? Different Vintage eras mean different shoes choices.

I don't know. Thoughts? Please talk to me about this, because I always think better when folks talk it out with me.

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when left to my own devices

nobody@vox.com(Jay) — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 21:59:00 -0700

side-front lace corset draft

Excuse the poor image quality. The flash washed everything out something awful, so no flash for the sake of it not being a glaring atrocity. Pattern from Sempstress.org and futzed around with for my own liking. Still might add more boned tabs. Haven't decided. Like the Sempstress said, side-front lacing may not be historical, but being able to get in and out of your underpinning by yourself makes it worth say a hearty "Hang it all" and just doing the damned thing.

15thcendoodle

What happens during a dull spot at work. Not to bad for a freehand sketch. Just me working out layers and what goes where and if a kirtle would go under a gown if I were doing Italian or if that's another region. Also, would be a good basic peasant ensemble that could then have a fancy over gown thrown on top for a more middle class persona without having to make separate ensembles. And yes, overgown would be to the floor, so not to show my naughty ankles. A working peasant woman, folks ain't so picky about.

This is all just me thinking aloud. Carry on.

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Research, a do over.

nobody@vox.com(Jay) — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 08:04:45 -0700

[same post as a few days ago, just reposting as it got completely jacked up in the feeds]

So, research on historical costumes. From "One World of Fashion," a book far too large for my flatbed scanner and I didn't feel like piecing together images, so the digital camera and balancing precariously on a stool over a high table wins again. For my own record keeping. Blah blah, yadda yadda yadda.

"La Tapisserie Gothique"

A plate of Demotte's "La Tapisserie Gothique" taken from "One World of Fashion," p. 95.

Late Gothic/Early Renaissance Italian costume. I want the dress smack dab in the middle with the black skirt and the bell sleeves. Also, the. Is that a turban? Bah, I need more source images!

The text from the opposite descriptive page (94) reads as follows:

The Elegants of the 15th Century

Contemporaneous records of the earlier centuries of the costume history in Europe are scanty -- rare illuminated manuscripts; stained glass; the royal seals and the carven facades of cathedrals, and fragments of fabrics in the treasure rooms of religious institutions. But, the finest of all records are the early Gothic tapestries of Flanders and France. The material for this plate was taken from Demotte's "La Tapisserie Gothique," one of the most carefully prepared of art histories from the early Renaissance.

This plate deals with the great 15th Century. By that time, the Italian cities of Genoa, Florence and Venice had not only developed a trade with the Near East, but had organized their own industries of fashion and had acquired, to some degree, the arts and skills of Asia Minor and Syria. Wealth had increased in Europe, and the influence of the Crusades had reached its zenith. The courts of Flanders, France, and even of England, were centers of trade and luxury, wealth, and elegance.

"La Tapisserie Gothique" is one of the great treasure houses of design, both for fabric and for costume, including millinery. It is a wise designer who turns, from time to time, back to original sources.

This is one of the few pages from this book that *wasn't* ripe with going on and on about noble savages and primatives and The Orient. It's a great book for plates of different periods and world cultures, but I have to keep reminding myself it was first published in 1946 and by a dead white guy with all the stereotyping that description entails. It was a lot of skim the words and just look at the pretty pictures.

Fashion Sketches in Brass, 13th to 16th Century

p. 93 from "One World of Fashion." More silouettes that struck my fancy. Mainly the ones on the upper right and the upper center. Drapery turns my crank, what can I say?

Fashion Sketches in Brass, 13th to 16th Century

One of the most accurate records of the costmes in England between the 13th and 16th Centuries is to be found among the life-size brass etchings which were places above the tombs of the nobility during these centuries. Here we find the draped costume of the 13th Century, and the knight in link armor, the beginning of plate armor in the early 15th Century, the influence that this had on both men's and women's costumes and the time of Queen Elizabeth, when trade with the Orient was beginning to affect the styles of England.

These are actual contemporaneous fashion drawings of these interesting centuries. Few of the original costumes remain, and, if it were not for the four thousand such etchings, scattered all over England, we would have no clear understanding of what the costumes had been in these periods.

These early brasses were once called "cullen plate" because the brass was imported from Cologne on the Rhine. In the latter part of the 16th Century brass foundries were set up in England to supply this demand.

Comparison of Chartres Cathedral figures with Chinese and Indian Buddhas

Once again my love of drapery acts up, as does my love of the sculpture at Chartres. Really, I'm kinda in love with Chartres as a whole, if it's possible to love a building, but that's neither here nor there. I really liked how this book pulled off several comparison pieces similiar to this one. (91)

Chartres Cathedral Inspires Costume Design

Chartres Cathedral, finished in the year 1260, is not only one of the world's greatest achievements in architecture but its richly sculptured ornament is still an inspiration to the costume designer.

Chartres was completed in the century of Marco Polo, the traveler, and Genghis Khan, the great Mongol ruler, who protected the caravan routes of central Asia from China to the Mediterranean, and brought the products of China and India and of the Mongols in abundance to Europe.

China and India, in their statues of Buddha, illustrate the gracious arts of draping. But, the Mongol horsement contributed a suggestion of tailoring, and also the use of quilted fabrics in which silk floss was used for padding. The combination of these arts is reflected in the carving on Chartres.

Modern designers still find inspiration in this material.

Watteau - Father of French Fashions

unknown page of "One World of Fashion," because I lost my notes on this. Photographed mainly for the woman in the lower left corner. I'm not terribly fond of most french silouettes, but that one grabbed me.

Watteau - Father of French Fashions (text)

I'm not transcribing this one, as I wasn't really using it for research as I'm not really into this period or area but included in my my photo taking for the sake of totality. You can read up on it should you choose, though. And other shots of the book are up on my flickr account.

Now! This whole post really was for that first image. The 15th century Italian lady in the middle of that fashion plate? With the Turban? Yes, her. I want her dress. And headwear. With a very real and visceral longing. Were I to see this lady walking down the street, I would beat her down, snatch her bald and naked and flee into the night with my ill-gotten treasure.

I guess it's good for my as-of-yet non-existent criminal record that I can make one for myself instead.

Now, I need to see if I can find primary source of Demotte's "La Tapisserie Gothique." and of some of the other pieces mentioned in other photos, but mainly Demotte's stuff. I need more source images to figure out construction and fit and fabric issues. Also, the corset vs. no corset debate of this period of Italian fashion that goes back and forth and round and round. For my figure? Corset. Definitely corset. Unless that undergown is ridiculously self-supporting, which it might be. Thus, more research is needed. Such a hardship.

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Second verse, same as the first

nobody@vox.com(Jay) — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 14:36:05 -0700

So, I have what I've titled Books I Should Use Toward Thesis, Hypothetical. Or, BISUTTH, for short. The first book was Perfoming Blackness on English Stages, 1500-1800. The newest addition is Black Africans in Renaissance Europe. Because, clearly, I just can't leave this particular topic and era alone. It's what's making my SCA research for possible persona choices and costuming so tedious.

On the one hand, I say "Hang it all!" in the face of being told I can only do Renaissance Italy because that place and time is when Africans (really) started being seen in Europe, and want to make a bliaut just to be cantankerous. Also because they're really snazzy.

On the other hand, the only other silouettes that are even remotely interesting to me are 15th and 16th century Florentine and Venetian. Which feeds into the pigeonhole I've been pegged into, but I've always been intrigued by this particular period EXACTLY FOR the reason that it's when the European exploring started in earnest and the African Identity was made known to the European consciousness at large, rather than just the Venetian traders and the Crusaders and such. Well, an African Identity other than the Moors, since they'd been in and around Europe and the Mediterranean for a bit, but that would eventually be a subsection of what I'll probably end up writing as I'm writing like an academic again without even trying.

[sighs]

But, ALSO because I *really* want to try making a partially corded corset like a few costumers I've been poking at have done. I mean, according to other folks, if I sew them in there really tight and stitch across them, I can actually wash the thing. Which is extremely useful in a corset. Also, the comfort factor is high up there. Only partially-corded though, because I seriously doubt a fully corded one would withstand me moving around and such without eventually buckling, given my figure and all. Not unless I used 1/8" hemp cord instead of 1/16" and put hella channels in that thing. Maybe use cable ties for the center front and to give some extra structure and support to the eyelets and lacing. The figure thing is also one reason why I think the bliaut wouldn't end up working, as I'm fairly sure it's supposed to be self-supporting. Unless I'm thinking of a cotehardie. Well, regardless, stupid boobs. They make historical costuming just as difficult as modern costuming.

Although, I lied somewhat about these being the only periods to interest me. Nothing of Elizabethan whets my appetite except an Effigy Corset. Mainly because, hi, extant garment source! Two, one can never under-estimate the power of being able to get into and out of a corset by yourself. Front-lacing For The Win.

I still need to figure out what to wear OVER the corset, but details, details. Painting research continues apace for that. The book I mentioned earlier has some paintings sprinkled throughout the text, so it's helpful on two fronts!

Another question I'm thinking about, aside from backstory for a persona and a name, is what the hell to do with my hair? I mean, sure if anyone gave me mess about locs not being historically accurate, I could just pull the Black Rage card, but I kinda don't want to be an asshole about this. I'm thinking it'd be coif and hat to cover the hair if I were Elizabethan, but I'm still looking into Italian options. 12th century Germanic would most likely just end up being a wig and figuring how to pin curl locs so to fit under said wig.

Then, there's bellydancing, once I get back into enough to be in shape again, and what historical options for that would be. Or, if I'd just go eh and only worry about bellydancing at Pennsic. Which, thanks to Josh, I have a new way of referring to it: "Pennsic is the Burning Man of the SCA, isn't it?" If this is true, they won't care about a bellydancing chick.

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So, you sewing fools out...

nobody@vox.com(Jay) — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 10:04:47 -0700

So, you sewing fools out there! I got a question for you: What's your preferred method of pattern drafting?

Do you do stuff by hand? Do you involve math? Do you start with an already existing pattern and then alter it? Am I missing fifty million other possibilities? Let me know!

I know how I was taught (measurements and division and french curves and dotted paper and sloper, but I was also taught on CAD) but I'm curious what other methods there are out there and how folks fare with them. Bonus points if you have links to references/examples.

I'd much rather be sewing than getting ready to leave my house for work, kids, Seriously.

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A post about more purple brocade

nobody@vox.com(Jay) — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 16:27:45 -0800

more purple brocade

Beatrice Sidney threatened to travel half-way across the country just to steal my new purple brocade. At first, I was wary. But, if it gets her to visit, I shall tempt her even more.

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All right. Let's try this...

nobody@vox.com(Jay) — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 15:32:41 -0800

All right. Let's try this out.

So, for those of you just joining the program, I do, on occasion, sew. I've not done so in a while, but my costuming brain just clicked itself back on a few days ago and. Well. I did some damage at JoAnn's this morning.

And it all started because my mother wants pajamas.

blue ombre crinkle silky solid

I figure that this is a simple, low-stress re-introduction to sewing. Hell, I learned to sew by making a corset, so this will be damned near Zen compared to that.

Also, there was to be a photo of the aisle of brocade and sari fabric loveliness right here, but I can't retrieve it from my camera right now. Nuts.

Anyway, we move on to the meat and potatoes of this whole shebang: Corset plotting. You see, it all started when I found out about a (now out of stock) corset made by Lip Service called Beyond the Thunderdome.

Those that know me know why this creation had to be mine by hook, crook, or manufacturing. Seeing as how hooking before I *have* the corset is a little backwards, and they really didn't make any in my size, I'll have to go with door number 3.

Clearly, I can't make my corset be an exact replica of this one, because that would most likely get my ass handed to me should Lip Service ever find out. Also, I want mine to lace in the front and the back. And possibly on the sides. I'm all about making something that works with my crazy weight fluctuations, yo.

As a random aside, I am a big fan of buckles and lacing and black and zippers. You'll realize just how little I'm kidding if I actually start making more stuff again and posting about it.

Over that a way are photos of the actual Lip Service corset. I have more from all good angles necessary for pattern reconstruction. Because I plan to hand-draft my own version/take on this and make it to my measurements (give or take about 15 pounds, so I won't have to make more than one of the things unless my weight gets ridiculously out of control). With all those grommets and snaps and buckles and such.

Yes, I do wear my crazypants all the time. But, if I can pull this off in whatever spare time I have, I will officially be happier 'n a pig in mud. I will also have something I can use to flounce about L.A. in October. I think that's a feasible costuming goal. Nothing to hand-drafted pattern to mockup to pattern reworking to 2nd mockup to final pattern to actual corset in about, what? Seven months? Yeah, this might actually happen.

In regards to this endeavor, my aforementioned damage done at JoAnn's also included other patterns. Because one always needs a good fishtail skirt pattern.

Butterick 4954

And the fabrics for the corset along with a more historical approach pattern that was on sale.

and so it begins

Fabric from the mayhem that was my JoAnn's trip. My plan is to make a corset. That's black denim (fashion fabric), black duckcloth (budget substitute for coutil), and two possibilities for lining.

Why, yes. It IS between "batik skull and crossbones" and "I'm the GD Batman" as the lining of my all black corset. I am a GD rockstar.

Something else I could NOT pass up was some purple brocade remnants that are just big enough to each be a panel of another corset some time in the future. Maybe I'll make another Victorian to go with the pinstripe Victorian I already own.

purple brocade remnants

What I do not have pictures of currently are the cable ties I plan to use as boning. They're hidden in the depths of my closet at the mo' and I don't feel like hunting for them. But, they're your basic white plastic cable ties. And I feel no shame at using them because One: Not worried about historical accuracy as this is not a historical garment and Two: I don't have to worry about this particular corset supporting or restraining the boob area. I trust nothing less than steel to corral the girls as they are quite rowdy.

There'll probably be more sewing and sketching and knitting babble on here as the months wear on, but that's where I'm at right now.

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Introduction

nobody@vox.com(Jay) — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 13:34:04 -0800

So, for those of you wondering who the hell this is adding you that doesn't have anything posted yet? Yeah, it's me. Jay. Baa-baa black sheep and all that rot. More will be in this space eventually. Just know that I'm not a troll or some such.

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