Classic Hollywood: Miss Sadie Thompson

Hollywood really loved W. Somerset Maugham's  short story "Miss Thompson" (later retitled "Rain").
It was famously played by Gloria Swanson in the 1929 silent movie

And by Rita Hayworth in 1953

But my favourite version is the 1932 pre-code talkie, starring Joan Crawford. Comparing Swanson's outfit with Crawford's you can see what the great depression did even to glamorous stars!

It is a "torrid (rainy) melodrama" set in the South Seas. Miss Sadie Thompson is an "easy living girl" who is escaping from San Francisco to Samoa and is forced to stop at Pago Pago with her fellow passengers, among wich is notably a righteous preacher.......interesting developements ensues....
As this movie is in the public domain I won't tell you anything more. I rather post the link where you can enjoy it for yourself: Rain (1932)

I like the movie and I like Crawford style and dress. Costanza agreed to model it, she's such a classy and versatile girl!

                                                   I made the dress, hat and bracelets.

  Earrings are IT  (Hot Property Natalia)

Shoes are by PaulZanby. 

Gloves and purse are Poppy Parker's.

I'm pretty happy with this dress, maybe Costanza shall pop up in some future story dressed as Sadie!

30's fashion: evening dresses

As anticipated, i'm going to show you the dresses I sew for the New Year's Eve party, along with the original fashions that inspired them.
I got the idea while searching in internet for some Myrna Loy outfits for Ofelia, and I came across these beautiful pictures:

Veronica

Evening dresses are not exaclty my greatest passion, as you can see browsing my blog so far, but I really like this kind of design a lot

Agata

So I sew the first dress, and then the New Year's Eve party was on its way!!!

Ofelia

I made two versions of this one, is the one I like best

Camilla

Caterina

And then, among the google result I came across this one, which is from the late 20's, but I loved the oversized ribbon idea

Vittoria

As you see I only picked the general line of the dress, and used satin instead of the softer fabric of the original dresses.
Just to be prepared for next year (and not having to face Cecilia's anger) I'm going to add three more of  these dresses for the tall (FR2) girls: Cecilia, Giada and the new Dania (she doesn't have a name yet).

2015 Editorial Line: some ideas and good intentions

Hello everybody, as 2015 has just begun I want to share some ideas about what is (hopefully) going to happen here.

First of all I feel quite pleased with the dolls I own, and besides having ordered the last WClub Exclusive Dania Zarr (which shall arrive next spring), I'm not planning to add any more girls. I'm still undecided about new boys, now that I have "fine tuned" my hommes patterns I'm worried about IT new male body which was going to happen this year, and probably will be launched in 2015. I'll probably stick to older models.

Anyway, I still have the problem to find a companion for Cecilia, she's too choosy and to be honest none of the guys seem quite to like her: this is going to be one of next year's themes:

we've not been on speaking terms since she dressed all up and then found out she was not to be invited to new year's party

So far this is what i've planned to work around:

Odette & Carlo are going to Oman and then Mexico:

sneak preview - Muscat in the background

I'm going to work on (and then present you) some Hommes Fashions collection: Urban Safari, Tartan Craze, Classic, Total White and Urban Cowboy....we shall see what I will be able to accomplish!

Urban Safari - sneak preview

Agata is going to get some new Chanel outfits and show you some more of Genoa

to be sewn.....soon

Ofelia and Goffredo are going to have their own series, inspired by the Thin Man movies I think, with fashions from the 30's and Nasty the Dog

The Redhead Connection shall go to Venice

New chapters for the Norma Desmond's: we can't leave Tecla alone on her sofa without consequences, can we?

New dioramas: I'm planning a new "persian room" and I still have to show you the "Earth room" in its full glory!

New Girls outfits: Urban Safari, Total White, Tartan Craze and some great fashions from the 30's

Of course I'll do more photomontages to show the fashions! I'm planning to use Spain as  a background!

I'd also  like to make a sort of a monthly "cover", as if the blog was a magazine, but I'm not sure yet.

These were the ideas. My good intentions: to improve the quality of the pictures! I hope I won't be always in a hurry and to be able to make some better pictures: as far as framing, posing and lighting goes! I also just bought a wonderful new camera: Panasonic Lumix TZ60. I bought it for travelling purposes, but as my poor Canon P90 has got several problems (too much desert sand I think) I'm going to use the new one for some selected photosessions.

I'd love to read your comments and suggestions!!!

New Years Eve: The Party!

As soon as Enrico is able to escape from Tecla's party, he manages to invite himself at Odette&Carlo's!
They gathered quite a bunch of friends to celebrate New Year's Eve, and they are throwing an amazing Party!

Odette loves to play the hostess in her Poppy Parker's pink dress, and Carlo is wearing a new outfit from my "tartan craze" collection (that I'll show you sometime soon!)

during the last year  something funny was going on in the doll's closets, so let me introduce you some "new" couples:

Giacomo & Berenice - they are the bon-ton couple around here, clean cut and well behaved, they do nothing, they just look cute

Bartolomeo & Agata - a bit of an odd couple: she's a Chanel crazy girl and he is a painter

Orso Maria & Camilla - it's a long story but you'll find out soon enough (they met on the set of a photosession)

Goffredo & Ofelia - well, they are our resident Nick&Nora (from the Thin Man movies) and they are beautiful, funny and the soul of the party....at least as long as martinis are around!

let's have a look around and let me introduce you the other guests, here  Veronica and Vittoria  are trying to get Nicola's attention

while the Dude is telling Sebastiano about his latest perfect game at bowling (but they are going to join the  others) - Sebastiano is wearing another outfit from the "tartan craze collection"

All the evening dresses are inspired by Myrna Loy's fashions from the 30's.  I'm going to post pictures of the original dresses along with my rendition in the next weeks!

Enrico is drawn to the beautiful Giovanna, he already met her duringh the "readhed connection" photosession

the centerpiece of the diorama is the new hearth room: I made the sofa with a desk bookshelf (and liend sponges)  and I found this lovely box shaped as a stump which makes a perfect coffee table, the ottomans are lined sponges too....

all the beautiful food and drink miniatures are by the wonderful Dawn Anderson at One Sixth Sense

The Dude gets bored and entertains the girls, Goffredo keeps an eye on Ofelia

The party is a success, Odette and Carlo have a little moment for themselves

All the girls and boys at Billa's Dolls and Fashions wishes you a Happy New Year. Thanks a lot for reading us during 2014, we have great plans for 2015!!!

Little Black Dress 2: "the 30's and Madame Gres" - featuring Caterina

"For a dress to survive from one era to the next, it must be marked with an extreme purity." ~ Madame Grès

A couple of months ago, researcing some Greta Garbo fashions from the 30's I "discovered" Madame Gres, she was an astounding cotourier (her design house was known from the 30's through the early 40's as Alix afterwards as Grés) who had a very distinctive design and a incredible skill for pleats. Her best known fashions have an incredible quality and  her dresses looked as they were sculpted!

Among her Hollywood clients she counted Greta Garbo, Katharine Hepburn, Marlene Dietrich and Grace Kelly.

I found this  astounding design of hers from the 30's.

This was actually an evening dress, dated 1934, but I loved it so much I revised it into a little black dress fashion, those sleeves are wonderful, and it seemed perfect for Caterina. You can see that Madame Gres knew exactly was she was talking about when she was speaking of purity of lines:

Backdrop: Subdivided Columns by Michael Hansmeyer - Gwangju Biennale in South Korea 2011

A couple of closeups: 

jewels by IT - Elise Jolie most wanted nexcklace, Strict Elegance Luchia: earrings, bang and ring

finally I managed to capture her incredible beauty

this is soundrack I've chosen for this decade: "Everything's been done before" from the 1935 Jean Harlow movie "Reckless",  it seems appropriate speaking of the LBD!!!

On the next instalment:  the 40's, Dior and the New Look previous instalment The LBT 1: 1926 Coco Chanel See you soon! Billa