To start with, I want to return to a quote I used in my first blog.......

"Fashion has always been a repetition of ideas, but what makes it new is the way you put it together" (Caroline Herrera).

Jean-Charles de Castelbajac 1994

I have come across some interesting collection works of other designers, which connect with CdG concepts.

Comme des Garcons AW2009 RTW

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yxhamrdo48g

This site will show Castelbajac's whole collection.  It is colourful and fun, as a lot of his work is.  Google images of his work for a blast of colour.
Here is another design of Castelbajac's which relates with CdG.

AW 2011/12

CdG AW 2007/08 RTW

There is a surreal element to these design features, which many a designer has played with over the decades. Another one who played with the hands around the waist is Lesage.  In 1986 he designed this belt feature.

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They remind me of the queen of surreal design, Elsa Schiaparelli.  She produced wonderful design concepts during her heyday in the 20/30s, same era as Coco Chanel.  Like a lot of designers, Schiaparelli associated and worked with a number of interesting artists of the day e.g. Dali and Man Ray.  Apparently Chanel once describer her as "that Italian artist who makes clothes".  Does that sound just a little bitchy?!  What Schiaparelli did seem to have, was a good eye for really effective knit fabric.  She sourced good fitting knits and utilised them in fab bow knit sweaters, which secured her fame as a designer.  As it has been said, Schiaparelli's innovative approach still influences fashion today.  Check this image of one of Schiaparelli's bow knot sweater and work from CdG's AW2007 RTW collection.  What do you think?

And one last piccie of a cool design from Schiaparelli, bearing in mind that Kawakubo has often offered designs with extra sleeves and neck holes.  

Lots of influence and inspiration

Here are some more images, that reflect that influence/inspiration factor.

Comme des Garcons AW 2007/08 RTW in the top left, the rest are Hussein Chalayan SS 2010. Chalayan designed white jersey gowns with ceramic fingers and thumbs clutching the drapery in the necessary sections. Wonderful!

So, taking another quote "It's not where you take things from - it's where you take them to" (Jean-Luc Godard.)

And this is my take on CdGs AW 2009/10 collection........

a t-shirt with a machine stitched shirt front in black thread.  A bit of fun.  

I have only ever purchased 2 CdG items.  A bag that came from the Broken Brides collection and one of the Play t-shirts.  I got a L size, which it really wasn't, so I've done a bit of upcycling with it.  I took a bigger black t-shirt and stitched the 'Play' one on to it and used all these little black safety pins I had for embellishment around the neckline, creating this..

A homage to Rei K.  I've played with a couple of CdG design concepts, and I'll get more wear out of it now. 

I have a few other ideas on the go... always have!  But the only thing I have actually fulfilled recently is a pattern for a skirt that is influenced by CdG's SS13 collection, which was strong on a theme of crushing.

I've drafted a simple A line skirt pattern, which will have a folded/crushed feature at the hem.  I'm going to go with black, as one can always do with another black skirt in one's wardrobe. The other skirt project I'm working on, is rearranging a pink skirt I made at the beginning of the year.  It is rather plain and boring, so I'm going to smarten it up with a ruffled underskirt, which will make it much more fun to wear.  There is always something to work on!

I have come across some other CdG lovers.  

One of them is a wonderful woman called Lynn Yaeger, a New Yorker, who has a great approach to living life successfully.  She goes out into the world the way she wants to, not the way other people think she should.

Do You Love the Way You Look?

Believe it or not, it's possible. (Without surgery, drugs, or denial.) Five women explain how they came face-to-face with—and even grew to appreciate—what they see in the mirror.

Photo: Brigitte Lacombe

All Dolled Up

Fashion writer Lynn Yaeger celebrates being one of a kind.

Here are some reasons I had a hard time making myself look like Cheryl Tiegs on the cover of Seventeenmagazine: Unlike Tiegs, I had flappy ears, chubby cheeks, tiny lips, and virtually no eyelids or eyebrows—all of which made me look more like the Parisian ladies of the evening in a 1930s Brassaï photograph than a California-blonde cover girl.

The gulf between the reality of my looks and the cultural ideal only widened when I began to work in the fashion industry. Early on, I decided to ignore the industry's dictates—so stifling, unattainable, judgmental—and make my own rules. I had long admired women with strong signature looks—Anna Piaggi, Diana Vreeland, Isabella Blow—for whom the fashion world seemed to make an exception. And I found myself reaching far outside the box for role models: to the women in Pre-Raphaelite paintings (those floaty clothes suited my physique far better than jeans and a T-shirt); to silent-movie heroines (their pale complexions were easy for me to replicate); even to Victorian dolls (whose round faces and rosebud mouths reminded me of me).

Inspired, I started experimenting. The copper henna I threw on my head to give my hair a quirky tint was a miracle—coating my limp bob and making it bouncier than I'd ever dreamed possible. And maybe there wasnothing to be done for my abbreviated lids, but I could work wonders with my lips, exaggerating them into a dark Kewpie-doll shape that, unlike eyeshadow, suited me to perfection.

People have asked how I get the courage to walk the streets in, say, a shredded Comme des Garçons coat over a tutu, with metallic orange hair. I owe my confidence at least in part to my parents, who were convinced I was the cutest thing on Earth and told me so every single day. (Recently, seeing my reflection at a party, I could almost hear my mom saying, "Lynnie, you look so pretty!")

Though some of my more extreme choices have provoked laughter or incredulity, I also get more compliments than I could have imagined. This may be because I live in New York City, where a certain level of eccentricity is appreciated. But I like to believe that no matter where I lived, people would come to respect—maybe even like! admire!—the steps I've taken to create my own nutty, undeniably unique, and for me, deeply satisfying, look.
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And you have got to be successful at it when you are being used as a style form, like in this image

or a fashion illustrator produces an image of you, like this.  (Natalia Jhete is the illustrator)

and here she is in black and white

So cute!(maybe she won't like being described as cute, don't know.)  Anyway, Go Lynne, you inspire.

The other very interesting CdG lover I have come across, is found on:-   www.the-rosenrot.com

Go to 'Categories', then 'Designer Talk', then 'Why the feminist in me loves CdG'.....she expresses her reasons very well and I am in total agreement.

Well, I think that is enough for now.  I seem to have been banging away at this blog for long enough!

SLTSLTBsigning out for now.

new blog time

In my last blog, I mentioned Hussein Chalayan, and the amazing collection he once created around the theme of furniture.  Actually, furniture was not the theme of the collection.  It was Refugees, and their escaping a bad situation with only the clothes on their backs.  If you go onto this website http://www.flawlizfox.com/hussein-chalayan-afterwords-autumnwinter-2000/  
(highlight and right click should do it) you will see some good images of this work.  The video is a cool way to view the collection at work.

 Chalayan brings a strong architectural talent to his clothing design work.  He may have initially started training in this field then moved over to fashion/clothes design.  There are some wonderful books available on his work, check them out one day, any good library should stock them.

This is a photo (from the newspaper, can't remember which one) of a Massey University student's work which relates to a furniture theme.

Looks cool in this photo. Well done, Lisa Holmes.  I've constructed clothes from furniture fabric. That can have issues, but the clothes should last longer than the cushions I made from cotton shirt material!  You gotta realise, cushions come under a lot of abrasion.  Still they lasted a reasonable number of years...........................................

I have been off on a tangent, following some more amazing work by Hussein Chalayan.  A collection he created in 2006/7, titled 'one hundred eleven'.  (7 years ago! extremely innovative work)  It is the last 5 garments that really interest me.  They related to a 111 year history of fashion, ranging from  approximate 1900 to 2007.   What a fascinating concept!  Each dress represents a period of time in that time span, such as Edwardian and Twenties.  Chalayan designed it so each of the 5 dresses morphed 3 decades and actually transformed in shape, but he did do this with the help of other very clever folk.  Go onto www.technologyreview.com/news/406705/transforming-clothes/  

to read about the company that helped Chalayan achieve his design concept.  It's very interesting from a "technology" (and I'm referring to NZ curriculum here) point of view.  I am interested in the comment "...took over 6 months of experimentation with motors, pulleys and wires fed through hollow tubes to arrive at the subtle effect that Chalayan was seeking.  One of the design challenges was keeping the technology lightweight yet strong enough to move the delicate fabrics and materials."  Functional modelling and specifications examples, if ever there were.  

1906-1916-1926

1926-1936-1946

1946-1956-1966

1966-1976-1986

1986-1996-2007

2007-

Quite astounding work isn't it.

Issey Miyake is another wonderful innovator.  He may not be at the helm as much as he used to be, but the various labels, A-POC, Pleats Please and Issey Miyake still resonate with his amazingly creative spirit.  This was an interesting Issey image I came across.........

'cos..... I had a piece of fabric hanging around my workroom studio for ages...I'd pick it up, turn it over, think this, think that, then decided I'd manipulate it and make it into a scarf.  I tied wooden buttons, heaps of them,into it, steamed it and this is the result......

I had been given these lovely old buttons and thought they would be the way to fasten my scarf so it would stay in place. I love making use of what I have lying around.  It's one of my small approaches to the sustainability issue that is very important to this industry i.e working within the clothing/fabric world, in whatever shape or form.  Trying to reduce waste has become an important approach to my work.  I just love using up fabrics/haberdashery I have lying around my workroom, and some of the

 results are creatively satisfying, which I want to share in future blogs.  Oh, there is just so much I want to share! 

Anyway, coming back to SLTSLTBs. I love CdG inspired skirts.  I have lots of them in my wardrobe, and I just want to leave you some that work with a very interesting panel idea, plus they portray the concept that the skirt has been slashed/cut apart and a panel inserted, very CdG.  I'm not sure what collection they connect to, maybe someone can inform me. 

CdG Shorts

CdG Skirt

My 1st Skirt in this theme.  Pleated skirt with the inserted panel.

My 2nd skirt in this theme.  Straight skirt with the inserted panel.

Well, really think I should put this particular blog to bed.  Lots more to come in the next one.

SLTSLTBsigning off