The 60's were the golden era of the LBD, I think mostly thanks to Breakfast at Tiffany's and the asounding collection Givenchy designed for Audrey. But the 60's were also the era of the empire waist, so I picked this wonderful dress by Dior.
I love it because is so incredible elegant, the quintessential LBD. And also I wanted something new for Berenice, as soon as I saw this dress I thought it was just the right thing for her to wear!
I used a gabardine fabric and some black ribbon. The shoes are by The Vogue HK (I've ordered some new accessories from them and can't wait to get them!).
I'm pretty proud with the result, I'm seldom truly satisfied but I absolutely adore Berenice in this dress!
As you can see, I couldn't stop photographing her! She's the perfect 60's model, classic but full of spirit!
I even found Poppy's body fun to pose (and at first I nearly hated it) who knows, maybe I should think about adding a new Poppy to my collection!
This issue soundtrack is one of my favourite songs from my all time favourite musical: My fair lady, again a hommage to Audrey and the 60's: "I've grown accostumed to her face" by the great Nat King Cole
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On the next instalment: Contemporary LBD by Karl Lagerfeld
The 50's were not such a great decade for the LBD, in fact in the movies of the era only femmes fatales or "bad girls" used to wear it.
With rare exceptions. And for me This is the exception of the exceptions. Because it was Haudrey Hepburn in Sabrin, and because the dress was designed by Hubert de Givenchy, who will be the main drive for the incredible rebirth of the LBD in the 60's.
There's a story about this dress, which I love very much. Maybe everybody knows about it but I can't resist telling a good story, even if it's 61 years old.
Edith Head's "original" design for the cocktail dress
In 1953 during pre-production of Sabrina, Billy Wilder wanted her to come back from Paris with a real parisian haute couture look. So he told Haudrey to go to Paris a choose some outfits. But there was a problem. The problem was called Edit Head, she WAS the costume department and in house designer at Paramount pictures since 1938, and she expected to design the dresses for Sabrina. So a compromise was reached. Head would design the exact models that Hepburn should choose in Paris (with Givenchy's agreement) and she also won an Oscar for them!!!
This is the only dress actually designed by Head, she won an Oscar for this
Givenchy dind't disclose this story until after Head's death. Even though the rumor had been circulating for some years (Wilder was a notorious loudmouth). Anyway, Edith Head won a total of 8 Oscars in her career and for 7 of them she was the actual designer! And she did design some wonderful outfits, think Grace Kelly in To Catch a thief or Rear Window.
One more bit of trivia: Givenchy was thrilled to hear that Miss Hepburn wanted to visit his atelier for the costumes for her new movie. But he expected Katherine not Haudrey (who had made only Roman Holidays and had not yet received her Oscar for it). So he was really disappointed and being busy with his new collection, Haudrey had to choose among the dresses of the previous season.
Anyway, this was the beginning of the incredible working relationship between Givenchy and Hepburn!!!
Now, this is the dress I choose to represent the LBD in the 50's, in one of his rare but defining appearances of the era:
Of course mine "in house" Haudrey is Virginia so she is modelling it.For the dress I used satin black linen. The shoes are by The Vogue HK and the little hat is by IT (courtesy of Mafalda). As you shall see this is not quite a perfect scale reproduction of the dress. I love Givenchy and tried several times to reproduce his designs but I found out that his dresses look simple but ARE NOT!!! And I need to improve my skills wit full skirts......
I'm happy to have finally Virginia in a post all for herself, I think she deserved it, she's the sweetest thing in my collection!
This time instead of doing a photomontage I tried to put together a little diorama with some Thai's jewel boxes and Burma's laquers and pottery,
Virginia is holding a Burma's pottery wistle, in a shape of a little bird
This issue's soundtrack: "Isn't it romantic" of course!!!! I picked the original rendition by Harold Stern Orchestra of this 1932 standard by Rodgers & Hart
After two decades in the 40's the rise of the Little Black Dress came to a halt. In fact during war time there was not much time to think about fashions. Anyway women favoured two pieces suits or floral dresses. The line that prevailed in the first half of the decade was still the siren of the late 30's. An example is the dress I made for Costanza: Costanza 40's dress
But in 1947, the war finally over, Christian Dior in his very first collection introduced the "New Look": characterised by a small waist and a full skirt. This style was immediately embraced by the most stylish women of the era. In fact it became extremely popular, influencing fashion well into the 50's.
This is the classic Dior line that we all know and love so well
Dio's New Look: The Bar Jacket
The Little Black Dress, born in the "no waist line" 20's, was back!!!
This fashion I choose is from 1948, and is called "Drag". I think it has a line that Greta Garbo or Katharine Hepburn would have loved:
The most "garboesque" among the girls is definitely Veronica, so she's going to model this one:
I think that these neoclassic columns emphasizes the timeless style of this Dior design
This issue's sountrack is "la vie en rose" 1946 by Edit Piaf
"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!!!
The little black dress is something each woman, or fashion doll, must have in her closet. I like this quotation by Lagerfeld, because it is so true, one can never do wrong with a little black dress!
In the 20's women's fashions underwent a drastic revolution, but as it seems they were not at all so elegant. So Coco Chanel took a drastic decision: "really, they are so badly dressed, i will put them all in black to teach them good taste"
In 1926 the little black dress was born, and never went away. Even though it made a brief disappearance in the mid 50's, it came back in a vengeance in the 60's and thank also to Hubert De Givenchy became a true icon.
I've decided to make a brief history of the little black dress, and its various incarnations in the decades, and as you shall see the little black dress is the Phoenix of Fashions!!!
Finally Mafalda got her well deserved redressing, she has just the right stile for this 1926 design, she's a bit of a flapper girl with a Parisienne touch I love, and she's quite elgant:
For this dress I used jersey fabric, a bit thick but the original was wool so it seems to me it's fitting
Now I'm sure she won't try to get Giulia's dress!!!
