On 8 March 1914 In London there was a march from Bow to Trafalgar Square in support of women's suffrage . Sylvia Pankhurst was arrested in front of Charing Cross station on her way to speak in Trafalgar Square.
In 1917 demonstrations marking International Women's Day in Saint Petersburg on the last Sunday in February (which fell on March 8 on the Gregorian calendar) initiated the February Revolution.Women in Saint Petersburg went on strike that day for “Bread and Peace".
We've come a long way since those days, but there's a lot still to be done for equal rights, education and wages!
In spite the fact they may seem just fashion horses, the girls here are very conscious about these problems so they asked me to pose in front of the Wall of Dolls in Milan. The Wall of Dolls is an installation unveiled during menswear fashion week in june 2014 to shine a light against the increasing wave of violence against women which is rising all over the western world.
They also wanted to pose in front of this installation by Francesca Biasetton in Genoa's Palazzo Ducale, inspired by the "Zapatos Rojos" project.
Zapatos Rojos or Red Shoes is an art project realized by the Mexican artist Elina Chauvet. It deals with a city route which consists in lots of pairs of red or red-painted shoes to commemorate the many cases of violence against women in the whole world. In particular, her first work was realized in Ciudad Juarez, the border city between Mexico and the United States, where for the first time it was used the expression “femicide”. Here, indeed hundreds and hundreds of women were abducted, raped and then killed since 1993.
On a lighter side: In Italy to celebrate this day men give women yellow mimosas branches, mimosa blossoms also mark the beginning of springtime!
A great Women's day to all of you!
Aretha Franklin and Annie Lennox: Sisters are doin' it for themselves
After a rainy and damp summer, we're having a fine autumn. I sew this dress for Agata, after a Lagerfeld's model of a couple of years ago, and she decided to take a straw in the center of the town.
Piazza Colombo
On the occasion she's going to visit a very interesting exibit at Palazzo Ducale about Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera! The exibit will be opened until the 8th of february 2015.
She's starting from Via San Vincenzo, where you can have some good coffe and pastry or buy some wonderful shoes
but you can also have a kebab, if you like....
then she took Via XX Settembre, up to Piazza De Ferrari....
Agata poses in front of the secondary entrance
In the main courtyard of the Palace Agata met Bartolomeo, he's an artist and he's going to accompany her to the exibit.
The last room of the exibit shows a selection of Frida's famous dresses
Agata wants to buy a Frida souvenir.....
The exibit was wonderful. There are many canvases and drawings, a complete collection of original pictures of both Frida and Diego, and it is punctuated by home movies, and a multimedia room about Diego's murales.
I'm not a huge fan of Frida Kahlo as an artist (I like very much Rivera), but I admire her as a very corageous woman, and find her paintings very interesting: some of them are truly inspiring!
The exibit is worth seing just for the fact they are showing these two pictures, which really stunned me:
Diego Rivera - Sunflowers
Frida Kahlo - Embrace of the Universe
It was a surprise to see a doll in one of the canvasses, this was in fact a bride doll that Frida Kahlo bought in Paris at a flea market in 1939
The Bride Frightened at Seeing Life Opened - Frida Kahlo
Agata was impressed too. She is in front of the main entrace of the Palazzo
Soon Agata will show you more of her new wardorobe and of Genoa!!!
Our soundtrack is one of my favourite songs by a genoese songwriter, Fabrizio De Andrè, who did several concept albums dedicated to his town mixing various sounds from the mediterranean area, this song is called "Creuza de Ma" and means little road going to the sea, and is about seamen ashore
When Agata arrived home, some months ago, some of you made suggestions about her new wardrobe.
I thought many of them were just right for her, so I decided to do some redressing photosessions of her. And Paris is the only possible backdrop to start with!
Off she is for a shopping afternoon in "La Ville-Lumière". Agata is going to wear a Chanel tailleur, as suggested by FDS. I did this some time ago for Egle, but wasn't really satisfied. Then I learned to sew a decent hem with a sort of a flat stitch, and now it looks just right!
Of course this is a Lagerfeld design.
getting ready
I think I need new bag.....
Done!
deserved rest
This is just a warm up for Agata, I've decided she's going to model all my future Lagerfeld replicas!
I had to wait for her a long long time, as I ordered her at the beginning of december, but she remained engulfed in the heavy Christmas traffic at USPS. Finally she's here: Strict Elegance Luchia!
I liked her outfit and accessories, this one is not as thick as Natalia's so I took some pictures of her before redressing.
The ensemble is itriguing and I'm sure this nice coat will come in handy!
I really like her sculpt, she's got a very simple colouring, with her deep blue/violet eyes and raven hair she's a winner, I love her blush....
Her new name shall be Agata!
I found out that Nu-Faces and Monogram bodies are easyer to pose, but I think it is due to is my lack of skill, so I'm going to do some practice to exploit the full potential of the FR2 model.
Now she's wearing a floral liberty cotton dress from an original design by me, I still have to understand her true nature, I believe she's a bit of an urban chic girl like Olga!
