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December 30, 2009
A box of wonders full of gloves and popular expressions: Iron fist in a velvet glove. It fits like a glove. Be flexible like a glove. Throw a glove to someone, ...
But also the glove, as a sign of courtly love. Remember that for a woman to drop her glove before a suitor meant assent. The glove, like a second skin. Each
morning, the pleasure of opening the glove box and choose a pair to
match the occasion: a ride with the Parisian Velib bicycle, a hot chocolate at
Angelina, a concert at Pleyel ... Elegant ladies, do
not go out without a pair of gloves and I assure you that having your glove picked up on the street by a handsome young man is much better than surfing on Match.com ! 
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December 29, 2009
A wonderful blog exploring the world of textiles. John Hopper, its talented author full of curiosity and erudition offers a broad and incredibly eclectic vision of textiles in all components and origins. Implicitly, he manages to demonstrate how textile is co-substantial with the adventure of human species. With a beautiful iconography and outstanding writting, he performs the miracle of making presented textiles to appear tangible ! These stories of textile are also very moving stories of human beings. When I need to feed my imagination, I get to surf on the textile blog and I walk through it just like within a wonderful
caravanserai. Inspiring ! http://thetextileblog.blogspot.com/
 
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December 13, 2009
Last week, a rainy day of winter in Paris. To make a fuss, it comes to my silly mind to invent a strange figure made of ribbons and lace. I dress HER up, add an umbrella and stick some needles in her body to avert fate and bad weather. Besides her, I set up a button's box that probably belonged at some point to a marabout. The brand's motto is odd. I t says le Sava, nail
button, either dies or gets devoted !  |
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December 9, 2009 at 15:03
Should the caraco be included to the UNESCO's World Heritage List ?
My
answer is definitely YES because the genuine camisole, a practical and sensual underwear, is threatened by new models against nature. They damage our silhouette instead of glamorizing our sumptuous hips and chest and they use trivial names:
top, body. Therefore, I say it loud and clear "Let's protest against the vinyl body that make handsome men run away !
 Above, a traditional camisole (19th century) with simple cotton panels and perforated straps. Previously, women were buying this common clothing on markets.
In his book "100 Words to Save" our legendary TV presenter Bernard Pivot is working to preserve endangered words, (a French habit). The exotic and singing Caraco term is one of them. I
quote: "The jacket (male name) is a word of Turkish origin "Kerake" which means two pieces of woman clothing, one that hides, the other that shows.
Formerly, a jacket was a blouse, a pretty ample blouse, a piece of the above in which one could only guess the shapes of her owner ...
 ... today the camisole is a piece of lingerie. Sometimes silk or satin. It is a very sexy underwear, which stops right at the waist and is held by thin shoulder straps. The knickers are sometimes combined. Above, a model of my new collection made
from a traditional pattern with old fabrics : silks and laces of the
19th century.The fantasy camisole. This is the kinky underwear adopted by sensual or fast women pictured by the 19th century authors, including Maupassant.  In
honor of Gerard de Nerval, I wish to share a quote from his famous Pandora "You have
all known, O my friends, the beautiful Pandora of the Viena theater. She
has left no doubt for you as well as for me, cruel and
sweet memories! ... Neither man nor woman, nor hermaphrodite, nor
woman, neither young nor old, nor chaste, neither mad nor shy, but all
this together ... Finally, the Pandora that's says it all but I don't wish to say it all. At last, the seductive
Pandora had to play a trick of her own. She appeared in a frivolous costume with a white camisole embroidered with garnets and a dress of
Scotch stuff. Her hair shaped as a lyre stood on her dark head with two majestic horns ".
In order to continue the fight, I therefore propose two initiatives. One, to create
a LEAGUE FOR THE PRESERVATION OF CARACO (L.P.C) to which I invite you to
join as soon as possible. The other, to organize a demonstration in spring on the
esplanade of the Trocadero, each of us dressed in her most fancy camisole !    Above, an old camisole from the early century part of my personal collection. Next time I'll tell you about the beautiful story of a memorial camisole, told by the Itinerant haberdasher.
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December 8, 2009 at 22:49
  
November 4, 2009 - January 10, 2010 Heaven on earth for lovers of beautiful threads. Here they are made of silk and sometimes gold. It is indeed a wonderful journey of discovery the fascinating scenes of the
great roller woven on a French Jacquard loom by Master Yamaguchi, who
died in 2007 at age of 106. I felt a deep emotion in front of his picture, as if he was still alive, selecting his tangles of all sorts of colors. I stayed long minutes admiring his book with the preparatory drawings and silk samples. Large skeins protected by windows appeared to me as invaluable stones of a great jeweler. For your intention, I you have collected fragments somewhat impressionistic of this master piece. To view them I invite you to click on the cover of the book below. The fineness and precision of the weaving make each character and each element of nature alive.    The “Tale of the Genji” (Genji Monogatari),
written by Murasaki Shikibu, a lady of honor at the imperial court of
Heian (now Kyoto), is one of the most important iconographic sources in
Japan. A mainstay of Japanese imagination, the novel, written a
thousand years ago, has crossed the ages and cultures to join the
universal literary patrimony, thanks its extreme refinement and
modernity...
It has spawned the Genji-e (the “pictures of Genji”), a
pictorial movement in itself. Depicted on all sorts of media - scrolls,
albums, foiled screens, fans, kakemonos - and in various styles, the
Genji-e allows the novel to be read as a figurative expression.
To reproduce the painted scenes from Genji Monogatari
or “Tale of Genji”, dating from the Heian Period (794-1185) and kept at
the Museum of Nagoya and Tokyo museum Goto in weaving, Master Itarô
Yamaguchi, born of a family of silk weavers in the Nishijin district of
Kyoto and honoured in this exhibition, used the Jacquard loom. Invented
in Lyons, introduced in Japan during the Meiji era (1868-1912), it
revolutionized the art of weaving both in Europe and Asia.
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December 3, 2009 at 16:14
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December 1, 2009
Through this sampling tissue coupons from Lyon with technical comments attached, one can realize the extreme complexity of manufacturing a fabric. Samples
memories of hours spent at the marché Saint Pierre (the fabric market near Montmartre) with my grandmother,
Andrée, "première main" at Chanel, to find the fabric in which she was intending to sew my princess dress.
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