UNLEASHED
C4 EDITION
FLYER DESIGN BY TRAVIS DAVIDS AKA T-DESIGNZ
18 JUNE
CAFE VACCA MATTA
click on image to enlarge
Monday, 31 May 2010
"What a dump!" Monday + Goals!
Yesterday I was digging in a box of art supplies searching for some wrapping paper, and look what I uncovered! I didn't even remember I owned this Bette Davis paper doll. It must have been a gift.
I'm especially fond of this lovely black number, no doubt an Orry-Kelly:
I really should have a pot luck or something and we can bring all our dolls!
But on to sewing. I found this book on Saturday at the flea market and it has inspired me.
I feel like I'm ready to re-approach pattern making; I wasn't back in January. The book proceeds project by project, making garments of greater complexity. I'm psyched!
Remember our lively discussion about harem pants? Well a few of you recommended Simplicity 4788, a sort of Lawrence of Arabia get-up. I found the out-of-print pattern online and bought it. I love all three versions and the clothes are cute too. Thanks for the suggestion!
I experimented a bit with a yard of black crinkle cotton I bought last week and I came up with this:
It's basically just the baggiest pair of boxers ever made but super comfortable and so pretty to twirl in if slightly immodest. Michael calls it my "skort." If I'd had another yard, however, they'd be the balloon pants of my dreams.
So to recap, my week consisted of:
1. Sewing my skort, which took about an hour.
2. Donating a few bags of fabric to the Salvation Army.
3. Reading "Deluxe."
4. Oh, yes. I was transfixed upon seeing this photo of Liza at the "Sex and the City 2" premier. I love this Liza look, which I think Cathy could pull off in something a bit less transparent.
I had to find out more about it so I started what turned into a very lively discussion on the Pattern Review message board, definitely worth a chuckle if you're interested. I bought this pattern as a result. Can't you see some of these looks in red sequins?
Readers, at the flea market on Saturday I also saw the loveliest vintage Singer 301, but I successfully talked myself out of purchasing it. I really do have more than enough machines... sob.
For the coming week I want to:
1. Get started on the pattern drafting book, taking all my measurements and maybe trying to draft my first pattern.
2. Re-thread my serger which has sat unused for nearly a month.
3. Figure out what I want to sew next. There's a menswear competition on Pattern Review that ends in a few weeks and I'm not sure whether I'll enter it or not. Maybe I'll whip up something slightly "Road to Morocco."
And now how about you guys?
I'm guessing you're mainly off work today so you'll all be busy sewing. In honor of the holiday, I am only going to nag you telepathically. But you know who you are and believe me, the frequency should be coming through loud and clear. If you can't hear my nagging voice in your heads, you're not listening!
Have a wonderful, relaxing and/or productive day everyone!
What are you sewing these days?
Sunday, 30 May 2010
Another downer: "Deluxe: How Luxury Lost its Luster"
After reading "The End of Fashion" last week, I serendipitously stumbled upon "Deluxe: How Luxury Lost it's Luster," at the Salvation Army (hello, irony) on Friday and jumped right in.
Written by Dana Thomas and published in 2007, "Deluxe" tells a similar story to that of Teri Agins' 1999 "The End of Fashion," though it brings us forward nearly ten years and has a narrower focus. It's a depressing tale.
The subject is marketing and fashion brands and how global corporations like LVMH and others have bought up small, tradition-bound, family-operated luxury companies and simultaneously exploited their reputation for fine craftsmanship, mass marketed their pedigrees, and squeezed them for profits, all the while compromising the quality that made them famous in the first place.
I would not be a consumer of brands like Louis Vuitton or Chanel regardless of who owned them; still, I feel about these historic luxury companies the way I feel about the endangered glaciers in Glacier National Park: I may not benefit directly but it's nice to know they're there. To discover that a so-called luxury item selling for thousands of dollars is produced at one-tenth the cost by young Chinese women living on a factory campus is literally disillusioning.
I recognize even in myself a certain snobbishness regarding the provenance of an item (Italy, good; China, bad) as if Chinese workers had less right to jobs, comfort, and all the good things we all desire. We're all human beings. No one with a conscience, however, wants to purchase something made by people who are exploited or whose production is environmentally destructive. But knowingly or not, most of us do. We drive cars, we turn on lights, we eat bananas, we drink soda out of aluminum cans.
What's goes on in the world of luxury brands is just a window into how corporations affect us all, some more destructively than others.
Corporations by design must grow and they're expected to increase profits from quarter to quarter. They manufacture things (usually) but their primary purpose is to enrich their shareholders. We see the results in the loss of our local stores when Walmart moves in, the tragedy that's currently unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico due to cut-rate, largely unregulated drilling by British Petroleum, corporate farming, corporate food production, corporate restaurant chains, corporate weapons manufacturing and "security," the list goes on and on.
Who owns Singer today and why does a Janome sewing machine look just like a Brother?
If your pension fund or 401K is invested in a profitable corporation (and it probably is/was), or you work for one, however, you might be more ambivalent. It depends on your perspective.
I strongly recommend reading "Deluxe" even if it is a bit depressing; it's a fascinating story and it's eye-opening to discover what's driving those ubiquitous ads for luxury labels. Frankly, it was startling leafing through some vintage Eighties copies of Vogue I own a few weeks ago, to see how low-key and soft-sell the advertising was back then; no global brands. There were a LOT of cigarette ads, however.
So readers, should we lament the loss of the true, family-owned luxury brand that formerly catered only to a small circle of the very rich? Is it really our loss, or theirs?
Should we resist purchasing anything produced by a corporation, regardless of where it's made, and limit ourselves -- where we can -- to sites like Etsy?
Saturday, 29 May 2010
My Favorite Gown
I'm a big old movie buff.
In early April we talked about glamour, the good the bad, was it still around and did we even care. For me, if there's one garment that epitomizes what glamour is all about, it's the evening gown.
In old movies, they're everywhere, in almost every film genre barring Westerns. Gown designers often got their own screen credit (back when screen credits were brief) -- i.e., "Miss So-and-so's gowns by _______."
It's amazing how prevalent gowns still are on the fashion runway, at "red carpet" pseudo events, and in films like Sex and the City. Apart from the odd wedding, when does a woman wear a gown anymore? It's like we're not ready to let them go. I'd argue that gowns are more popular today than say, forty years ago.
There still are formal affairs like fundraisers and galas where women wear gowns, primarily in big cities. But it's rare to see a woman who isn't wealthy or a celebrity wearing a gown. Not good not bad, just the way things are.
I decided to choose my all-time favorite movie gown. You've no doubt seen it before. It's the feathered gown Ginger Rogers wore in the Cheek to Cheek number in Top Hat. It was designed by Bernard Newman, apparently with a lot of input from Ms. Rogers herself.
I actually got to see the original at a Hollywood costume design exhibit Diana Vreeland organized at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the mid-Seventies, a wonderful, wonderful show. Let me tell you, Ginger Rogers was petite and Astaire wasn't much bigger.
The gown truly seems to come from another world: it floats, it's white (on screen at least; I think the real thing was pale blue so as to photograph better); it shines (on the satin mid section); it's fragile but also sturdy. It bounces to the music and supports the mood of the lyrics.
You've probably heard the old story that Astaire hated the dress because the feathers had a tendency to fly off and stick to his tailcoat and in the film you can see a few feathers aloft. Rogers was adamant about wearing it and I'm glad she stood her ground.
If you've never seen it in motion, you must. The dance itself starts at 2:10.
It's hard to separate a famous costume from the actor who wears it. In this case, it was a perfect pairing. No one wore -- or danced in -- a gown in quite the same way as Ginger Rogers. Breathtaking.
As long as there's video, kids, glamour lives on!
Taio Cruz – Rokstarr (US Retail Album)
Tracklist 01. Dynamite 02. Break Your Heart (Feat. Ludacris) 03. Dirty Picture (Feat. Keha) 04. Take Me Back 05. I’ll Never Love Again 06. I Can Be 07. No Other One 08. Come On Girl (Feat. Luciana) 09. Falling In Love 10. Higher 11. Feel Again (Bonus Track)
Follow link to download
Friday, 28 May 2010
GIG GUIDE / 5th JUNE / Chin Chilla Saturdays
CHIN CHILLA SATURDAYS
Flyer Design By Travis Davids AKA T-Designz
SOUR DIESEL EDITION
5TH JUNE
News Cafe (Fourways Mall)
Optical Illusion
Okay so this image is perfectly still...right?....NO WAIT...whats going on here....
Reflections on My First Year of Sewing
Subtitle: "A Cautionary Tale"
One year ago this week I purchased my first sewing machine, on eBay. I'd bought it with the intention of altering a pair of jeans I'd found at Goodwill; having them shortened locally would have cost more than I'd paid for them. Little did I know what that purchase would set in motion.
A year later, my life has changed radically. I sew nearly every day. I own a dozen sewing machines. My apartment is bursting with sewing books, notions, boxes of fabric, and a lot of sheet shirts.
Creativity is important to me and I've found sewing to be a wonderful new outlet with limitless room for growth. I love it. But at the start, there was no plan beyond shortening those jeans, which have since been passed on to Michael. (I wear my own jeans now, thank you.)
A year ago I had no idea you could actually sew a man's wardrobe -- shirts, boxers, trousers, etc. without years of experience. I learned otherwise.
The year divides neatly into four periods:
1. Getting Started
In late May 2009, I had never so much as touched a sewing machine let alone threaded one. I learned how to sew from You Tube videos and from Diana Rupp's excellent book, "Sew Everything Workshop." My first projects were things like boxer shorts (the first pair of which took me three days) and sewing machine covers. Then I got ambitious.
2. Finding Help
I reached out to Brian (of BrianSews) through Pattern Review last July and he became my unofficial sewing coach all summer. Brian was a tremendous motivator and it was fun having someone else to sew with even though he was living in Alabama. Perhaps most importantly, Brian demystified the mechanics of sewing machines so that I can now maintain my vintage machines myself. The basic mechanics of sewing haven't changed in a hundred years.
3. On My Own (sort of)
From September on, I just sewed everything I could think of. October proved fateful when I decided to enter the Pattern Review Little Black Dress contest inspired by the chic day-to-evening-wear photos of an early contestant named Elainemay. Since I obviously couldn't model my LBD myself, I got on the horn and reconnected with my estranged cousin Cathy. In Cathy I found my muse. I still sewed for me and Michael, my mother, and the dogs, but Cathy's glamour, enthusiasm, and spontaneity proved irresistible.
4. I Start to Blog
I originally had no interest in blogging: too much work. But as Cathy's popularity grew, I wanted a platform where she might be easier to find. Enter Male Pattern Boldness in January (Michael thought up the name). Like sewing, blogging constantly challenges and expands my creativity. It's like putting on a show every day without having to sell tickets.
Thanks go out to The Selfish Seamstress (Elainemay of LBD fame) and Gertie for their early help in spreading the word. Their blogs and so many others have set a high standard for me to aspire to as well as been a source of ideas to steal.
Also a big thank you to Deepika at Pattern Review, without whose website I likely would still be sewing boxer shorts in isolation.
Where I go from here is anybody's guess. I suppose we'll find out eventually.
Finally, a note of gratitude to you, my readers, and to those of you who regularly contribute comments. I greatly appreciate your warmth, eloquence, and good humor.
Have a wonderful holiday weekend, everyone, and thank you!
Lil Wayne - Da Da Da
This is one of the several videos Lil Wayne shot for, “Rebirth,” before being locked up.
Props Yardie
Kanye West ft. Dwele – Power
Follow link to download
“Power,” may be the first single off of Kanye’s upcoming album, “Good Ass Job.” Leave your thoughts on the track below, and damn finally some new Kanye West.
The 10 Stadiums of the 2010 World Cup
Pictures courtesy of http://abduzeedo.com/10-staduims-2010-world-cup
I appreciate GOOD architecture, these stadiums look AMAZING.
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