The Norma Desmonds: The new wardrobe

Filippo: You did a great job Giovanna, this idea of using old Edith Head models for Tecla's wardrobe was a stroke of genius
Giovanna: Thank you Filippo, I hope she likes them. The hardest part was adding the leopard accents to each of them. That was boring!

Filippo: You know, the leopard accent is her trademark. The used to own one in the old days. Oh yes, Virginia, the fitting is good, nice job.

Virginia: Oooh, thank you Mr. Filippo!

Giovanna: I won't come with you, I think Virginia shall present the models to her. Because of Enrico, you know.

................

Filippo: Madame Tecla? Your wardrobe is ready, if you wish you can come to the atelier and have a look at the models.
Tecla: Well Filippo, I don't really feel like coming to the atelier. You can bring everything up at my mansion so I shall see it at my convenience.
Filippo: Naturally Madame, how silly of me. We will be there in the afternoon.
Tecla: Very good, Filippo.

.................

Tecla: Max! The wardrobe is ready, finally. They will be here today.
Max: I'll supervise the defille, Madame. Everything as you wish.

..................

Filippo: Madame, let me introduce you to Virginia. She's our designer. She will introduce you each piece of the collection she designed for you.
Virginia: Good afternoon Madame, the clothes shall be modeled by our  models: Greta, Veronica, Vittoria and Camilla
Tecla: They are a bit fat, aren't they? It doesn't matter, let's go ahead. I've been waiting for this collection long enough.

Virginia: As you indicated, I designed dresses in marroon and black, with cheetaa accents.  Each dress has been named after the defining moments of your carreer. The first dress is called "how to divorce a millionaire"

Tecla: I like this one.

Virginia: Thank you Madame. The second dress is called: Untamed

Tecla: Excellent!

Virginia: And this  one is "Indiscreet"

Tecla: I like the coat, the line of the dress is interesting, too.
Virginia: Something classic and something new, Madam. As you requested. And now the Dressing Gown. "Beyond Breakfast"

Tecla: Perfect. Filippo you outdid yourself.
Filippo: Thank you Madame. You're very generous

...............

Filippo and Virginia are going to give the good news to a nervous Giovanna, their ordeal is over (for the time being!)

I'm curious about which is your favourite dress, I'm willing to make some more late 40's early 50's dresses, those Edith Head sketches are beautiful and Costanza wants a wardrobe of her own too!

Summer Fashion Collection: the Girls in Japan!

Last spring Sasha went to Japan, I couldn't go with him this time, so he gracefully agreed to share his pictures for the Blog.

As you know I've been working on a new summer collection for the girls for a while. I saw these pictures from Etro's 2015 summer collection, and I thought I could pick some ideas for a sort of ethnic collection for the girls!

The girls are thrilled, as they haven't got much attention lately, but only on the blog, as I've been playing around and photographing them for a while. Until I think I came up with the right poses (as usual I ended up watching at Avedon's pictures of Twiggy and Verushka). I think Sasha this time outdid himself....

These Japanese Temples and Sanctuaries, with their elegance, make a perfect setting to display this collection.

For the dresses I used mostly viscosa, jeans, silk (I will not try again until I'm better with viscosa) and an acrilyc fabric in a Missoni fantasy. The final result is very different from the Etro designs, apart from Camilla's and Giada's outfits, but I just needed an theme to start with (I had "girl's fashions cramp" after spending so much time on the guys' suits!)

Let me know which is your favourite, I'm still looking for the "perfect look" for these girls

Agata: Temple of the Golden Pavillon - Detail of the Garden

Camilla: Temple of the Golden Pavillon

Caterina: Miyajima island -  Floating Gate to the shinto temple of the God of Seas

Cecilia: Kyoto -  Kiyomizu Buddhist Temple

Giada - Kyoto:  Kodaiji Temple's garden

Veronica: Kyoto:  Kodaiji Temple's garden

Vittoria: Kyoto:  Kodaiji Temple's garden

The Cover: Treats for June

Gloss Convention FR Collection:
A new soul, Giorgia
A new soul, Emilia
A new soul, Pietrina (posponed to july)
Extra - What about some action figures?

8th March: Women's day

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

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).

A trip to the countryside

I've found some beautiful shots of autumn landscapes, so I figured out a simple oufit for Vittoria to wear on her trip to the countryside, trousers and a silk shirt and scarf, in the autumn shades of brown and orange

In spite of being so sophisticated, Vittoria is really comfortable in the outdoors!

handbag and shoes by thevogue.hk

Vittoria

chanel tailleur...fitting completed

it was really hard, but the outcome is pretty good.....

Vittoria

Egle (she really looks a lot like the model)

tres chic!