Musings

I subscribe to Vogue magazine. Not that I am a clothes horse but that I love to see all the beautiful things. I rip out pages of ads and articles when something catches my eye and keep them in a large bowl on my coffee table to look through for inspiration. Also, it is incredibly cheap to subscribe.. at $12.00 a year its an incredibly good deal. The Fall fashion issue arrived the other day with over 800 pages of current fashion and fashionable news. As I leafed through it I noticed a few things you might find interesting.

Smaller handbags - there was a very funny article on how one woman was asked to give up her large satchel for a more modest sized shoulder bag. The magazine sent over several samples for her to try out. The first one she tried was by Louis Vuitton of bronze leather that was covered with logos and brass hardware. There was a flap closure with a very heavy duty lock. The problem was that neither the author not a friend of hers could get it open. Such is life in the fast lane... incredibly expensive handbags that do not open! The author finally chose a lovely green crocidile leather YSL bag. It looked great on her but the long list of things it would not hold made me wonder how long it would actually be used.

Bigger Jewellry - Some of the jewellry would look large even on Mr. T. There were a pair of copper bangles, highly polished that would lovely on anyone except that they were about six inches wide ... I wonder how people use their wrists when they are encased in such large hardware. There was even a sidebar article about the 'new' necklaces, that stated that if you were not reminded that you were wearing them every minute or two then your necklace was too light. I know many fashionable shoes can make your feet ache but sacrificing our neck to fashion is going a bit too far in my mind. I do think its interesting that many crafty folk out there have been making large fabric based cuffs and chokers for quite a while that can mimic these heavy duty accessories but much, much lighter. Fashion following craft or visa versa?

That Handmade Dorky Look - It always amazes me the amount of raw edges seen in current fashionable sportswear when I work so hard to clean finish every seam. In fact, the amount of raggedy edges completely hides the wearer's shape and resemble my scrap bag... except that my scrap bag has some wonderful colors in it while many of the raggy looks have just dull, muddy colors.

That Handmade Couture Look - I did see a lot of hand applied embellishments that were perfectly gorgeous. Crystals, embroideries, ribbons and feathers were very evident. The patience and skill it would take to do this work is way beyond my imagining.

Knitting is BIG - when I say big, I mean gigantic. There was a knitted scarf and coat by someone named Giles ( I am not familiar with that name) where the yarn looked like wool roving , densely wound to a bulky wieght about the size of my wrist. The gauge must have been about a quarter of a stitch to the inch. Heaven knows who actually knitted these garments but I'd love to see a picture. Another knitting fashion I saw was something called galzed mohair. What the heck is that? And why would someone wear toeless socks? Another sidebar article was about a Vogue staffer knitting a cool looking grey tunic as her first knitting project. They showed her wearing it with pants and a shirt and it looked great. Maybe there is hope for my navy blue Tee Shirt/tunic.

Quilting - Chanel still has a love of quilting. Not only her classic quilted handbags and jackets but handbags made out of vintage looking quilts have all apeared previously. This year Chanel has taken it to a whole new level. I saw a lovely shirt style jacket with the body and cuffs constructed of traditional four inch red churn dash quilt blocks on a white ground. It looked to me like it was hand quilted in various feather variations. At a zillion dollars I think I can pass on it for now.

Stupid Idea - In past years I have seen a lot of bustiers primarily for evening wear but sometimes in sportswear. Their main purpose seemed to be to look sexy and not to restrict anyone's movements. Dolce and Gambino have taken it to a whole new level with metal corsets to wear on the outside of your clothes. Completely impractical, inflexible and they've got to hurt ... a lot! Other designers were showing corsets with a zillion buckles and clasps but again.. they look completely uncomfortable. I hope this is an idea that fades away very, very quickly or our emergency rooms will be over flowing with teenage girls with broken ribs.

Now all I need is for the high temperatures to dip below 90 degreees and I might actually begin to think about shopping for the low priced knock-offs of what I've been looking at in Vogue:-)