And on the other hand, there's orange.

More advice from Emily Post

A SUGGESTION TO THOSE WHO MIND SUNBURN
No advice is intended for those who have a skin that either does not burn at all, or turns a beautiful smooth Hawaiian brown; but a woman whose creamy complexion bursts into freckles, as violent as they are hideous, at the first touch of the sun need no longer stay perpetually indoors in daytime, or venture out only when swathed like a Turk, if she knows the virtue in orange as a color that defies the sun’s rays. A thin veil of red-orange is more effective than a thick one of blue or black.

Orange shirt-waists do not sound very conservative, but they are mercifully conserving to arms sensitive to sunburn. Young Mrs. Gilding, whose skin is as perishable as it is lovely, always wears orange on the golf course. A skirt of burnt-orange serge of homespun or linen, and shirtwaists of orange linen or crepe de chine. A hat with a brim and a harem-veil (pinned across her nose under her eyes) of orange marquisette,—which is easier to breathe through than chiffon—allows her to play golf or tennis or to motor or even go out in a sailboat and keep her skin without a blemish.

Emily Post, 1922

I wouldn't try to substitute orange for several layers of SPF 30 myself, but I do find myself oddly attracted to orange garments lately. I say oddly because it's always been my feeling that pasty-faced white chicks like myself should avoid orange for fear of looking jaundiced. But as with poison green, I'm orange fabric is calling me -- and even worse, orange brocade fabric is calling me, because it's briiiiiiiight and shiiiiiiiiny. Thus, if I succumb to my current obsession I not only risk looking like an overstuffed and jaundiced walking piece of fruit, but an overstuffed and jaundiced walking couch.

Of course, not all brocade dresses are couch-like. Consider this beauty from woodlandfarmsantiques.com. I think the orange brocade fabric at left (from Thai Silks) would look gorgeous made into a mod shift like this one. But I guess the $64,000 question is -- would it look gorgeous on me? *lesigh*

Ed. -- and speaking of bright and shiny, the ruffled dress is being offered at Black Light Vintage Clothing. No one's going to get lost in a crowd wearing that! (and yes, I, I, I . . . kinda like it).

'Tis the season

But nothing really can compare with the utility and smartness of black. Take a black tulle dress, made in the simplest possible way; worn plain, it is a simple dinner dress. It can have a lace slip to go over it, and make another dress. With a jet harness—meaning merely trimming that can be added at will—it is still another dress. Or it can have a tunic of silver or of gold trimming; and fans, flowers and slippers in various colors, such as watermelon or emerald, change it again. In fact, a black tulle can be changed almost as easily as though done with a magician’s wand.

Emily Post, 1922

Yes folks, as whoever does the damn store displays reminds us, the holidays are upon us. So go out and buy your turkey, your cranberries, your X-mas tree, your fairy lights and gifts for all and sundry, especially and including yourself. I suggest treating yourself to a little black dress if you'll be making the rounds of holiday parties, because every woman (and a the occasional man) needs a dress she can step into, zip up, and go out in with the confidence that she's wearing something totally appropriate yet absolutely fabulous.

Right now, Kitty Girl Vintage has so many fabulous black dresses on sale I had trouble deciding which ones to feature. The perfect black lace Dior that originally caught my eye is already sold, and mazel tov to the purchaser. I chose these three dresses to feature because they're so different, but each is perfect in its way.

The top one is a 1950s New Look organza dinner dress (scroll down) designed by Maxwell Shieff Beverly Hills. Check out the bodice, it's completely pin-tucked. This dress the perfect thing for a girly-girl to wear to a holiday party in a temperate zone, the perfect foil for grandma's pearls, so terribly Grace Kelly (who, if you didn't know, was quite the party girl in spite of her ice princess appearance).

The A-line little black cocktail dress is by Jerry Silverman, and, alas, already sold too. That's no surprise, considering that this LBD was a wearable size (B36, W36, H 38) and it looks like it was made yesterday. This dress is so chic that it's almost painful to look at (check out the band and bow above the hem.) It would be perfect to wear to a corporate party, although its appearance might make every female within 100 feet, including a boss or two, sick with clothing lust.

The bottom gown is by Galanos. It's so gorgeous it almost makes me forgive Galanos for being Nancy Reagan's favorite designer. The gown is, unfortunately, also tiny, B32-34, no surprise considering that Galanos dressed Social X-rays. But the price is great, $210, making this dress the perfect purchase for the slender lady of a certain age. All she'd have to do is put on a pair of dangly diamond earrings and a pair of fabulous shoes, and she'd be the belle of the ball.

Happy Holiday shopping, y'all!

Rule Britania!

In case you missed the post at A Dress A Day, the Royal Collection is staging " A special exhibition for the
Summer Opening of the State Rooms,
Buckingham Palace, 2006," consisting of a display of 80 of Queen Elizabeth II's gowns and assorted jewels. The Collection was kind enough to offer a beautifully photographed and magnified online display of 18 of the gowns, some jewelry and portraits of the Queen wearing both, to those of us who can't fly in to see the exhibit itself.

As a slut for jewelry as well as over-the-top clothing, I spent a happy 45 minutes examining each garment and jewel in minute detail. Both are beyond extravagant, as suits items that are more symbolic than practical. I also noticed that the Queen didn't look all that happy stuffed into gowns and jewels for her formal portraits. Perhaps it's unseemly for The State to crack a smile while on the clock, but I think her gloomy look just proves my theory that anything that becomes work is ruined, including the simple pleasure in putting on a pretty dress.

At any rate, I'm now on the hunt for a black tiara to wear with my Queen of the Night Halloween costume, which is about as royal as I'll ever get.

The black and white and yellow dresses pictured here aren't from the Royal Collection. Both are home sewn dresses in the design archives of the University of Brighton (click on the link "Fabrics forming Society"). They have some of the elements of the royal gowns of the 50s -- wasp waists, big skirts, embroidery -- and they were no doubt a lot easier to wear. I bet their original owners were delighted to wear them. These dresses inspire me, too. I know I'm not going to have access to embroiderers in this lifetime, but I could find some flocked or embroidered material and pretend I do. I'll add "make 50s dress with lace overlay" to my list of things to do.

Project Runway Finale -- I'm free!

In case you've been out of the country, in a coma, or hiding under the proverbial rock, let me bring you up to date: Season 3 of Project Runway is over and Jeffrey Sebelia is the winner. Of course, anyone who was watching the show and who hadn't spent years of reality television out of the country, in a coma, under the proverbial rock or totally dazzled by the alleged glamour of contestant Bad Mommy Laura Bennet pretty much knew Jeffrey was going to win from all the screen time he was given. Subtle, the PR editors ain't.

Actually, by the time the finale aired, the online fights between Jeffrey fans and Laura fans had become more interesting than the show. Even if I had the energy for message-board partisanship (I'm saving mine for the mid-term elections), I had no dog in that hunt. By season's end I was hoping Uli Herzner, the quiet, unassuming-but-not-without-her-bitchy-moments underdog would win. That one of her designs at left, my favorite look from all four fashion shows. But y'know what? It really makes no difference who won: the designers with ambition will go on to bigger and better gigs, and soon their dramas will be replaced by next seasons drama. I just wish the show would concentrate more on the clothes, dammit!

Walk like a Pilgrim -- or Catherine Deneuve

Can prime and proper be sexy? Hell yeah. Kinky too, as in "Belle de Jour," where the upperclass housewife trips off to her day job in a brothel wearing prim little Yves Saint Laurent shifts and buckled-toed Pilgrim shoes.

The champagne Roger Vivier shoes, top left, currently for sale on ebay, are practically an exact reproduction of Belle's shoes. The same seller is offering them in black, too, at prices much lower than retail -- alas, she's only offering size six, and the auctions are almost over. Luckily, the Pilgrim shoe (search online for "ornamented" or "buckle detail" shoes) are fashionable again, so other versions can be found. The gold buckled Delman shoes are available at Zappos. Bluefly has versions by Dolce & Gabbana and Prada. Heck, even Nine West has a pair. Then there's BCBG Girl's hoochie mama version, which misses the point entirely.

Of course, one could always just buy a pair of shoe clips and convert a pair of plain pumps into Pilgrims but I think I'm going to wander down to a local shoe emporium and find a pair or two to try on.

Say what?

No one likes retro futuristic styles better than I do, but I have to draw the line at what I will call, for lack of a technical term, boob buns. Please, designers -- round three-dimensional ornamentation on top of a woman's natural round three-dimensional ornaments is unnecessary.

This boob bun-adorned garment is from Lavin's Spring 2007 collection, which happily contains some really cute little dresses, too.

Also, when the widest part of a model's leg is her knee, the model is too thin. Really, I don't expect high fashion designers to send size 10 models down the runway, but I don't enjoy looking at women who've starved away all their muscle tone, either. There's got to be some kind of happy medium.

The Perfect Dress --- Madame X's grand black gown

Take a good close look at Madame X's dress here. Or better yet, go the the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and see the 7' x 3' version of the painting in all of its glory.

Madame X, aka Madame Virginie Amelie Avegno Gautreau, was a professional beauty of her day. Her reputation as such was built on her use of violet-colored powder and low-cut dresses, however when Sargent's famous portrait of her was exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1884, it caused a scandal. Evidently at that time it was acceptable to wear make-up (apparently the contrast between Madame's white face and her pink ear is a give-away), henna one's hair and wear revealing gowns (one chain strap was originally painted slipped off her shoulder!) as long as those activities weren't advertised in public, and in 1884, nothing advertised like the Paris Salon.

The portrait ruined the reputations of both Gautreau and Sargent, so naturally dressmakers and designers have been making copies of the scandalous garment (henceforth, the "X-dress") ever since. Linda Evangalista got to wear a near-exact copy of the X-dress for her August 2006 Vogue cover shot, without the corset, I'm sure, given her delicate condition. I'd like a X-dress in every color, even though color would probably take the edge off its X-like decadence. I shouldn't mess with perfection, should I?

A book was written about Sargent, Virginie, and The Scandal entitled: Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X. Dang, it's worth buying just for the title, isn't it?

**This October, a show entitled "Americans inParis: 1860-1900" opens at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It will feature portraits by Sargent, including Virginie's, as well as paintings by Whistler and Mary Cassatt. Ooooooooh.

Clothes on Film -- Two for the Road

Joanna (Audrey Hepburn): [upset] You just want me to become a beautiful memory, the sooner the better!
Mark (Albert Finney): Who said anything about beautiful?

How nice of the programing folks at Turner Classic Movies to broadcast "Two for the Road" while I'm in the middle of mod madness. "Two for the Road" was one of the last movies Audrey Hepburn made before she left filmmaking for 9 years to raise her children. The movie wasn't a hit when it was first released: the story, of the romance and troubled marriage of a couple driving through France, is told in multiple flashbacks that audiences found confusing. It also portray's Americans unpleasantly, to say the least. I think the screenwriter, Frederic Raphael, an American living in England who also wrote the screenplay for "Darling," was getting revenge on an ex-girlfriend. The movie is worth watching for Audrey Hepburn's performance. She plays a bitch and does it wearing a haute 60s wardrobe by Paco Rabanne, Mary Quant, Hardy Amies, Foale and Tuffin, and others.

One commentator speculated that Audrey's wardrobe wasn't by her usual designer, Givenchy, because her character, Joanna Wallace, was a housewife. I can't remember too many 60's housewives wearing Paco Rabanne or vinyl pantsuits, either.

Unfortunately it's hard to find good still photos from the film, probably because it's not one of Audrey's most popular, so I can't show you my favorite looks from the film. But if you're interested in seeing a fashion show from the late 60's on one of the world's best models, check out "Two for the Road" the next time it's on TV.

Avenging Gucci

Holy Mod raincoat, Mrs. Peel! (Is mixing TV shows like mixing metaphors?) Look what Gucci has done for you for Spring 2007! It has made pantsuits for you to wear while while karate-chopping the evil henchmen! Little mod coats for you to wear while dashing around town with John Steed! Little dresses to wear while dazzling the sinister Mastermind! It's everything the modern spy-girl-on-the-go needs!

I lurve the Spring 2006 Gucci collection because it feeds my vintage/Mod/Avengers obsessions. I'd so wear that white pantsuit and the neat little coat. I'd enjoy seeing some of the young celebutants in Gucci's little dresses (provided they wear underpants, for the love of Pete). This collection, however, is not without it's missteps, because its other theme apparently is Psychedelic Oktoberfest. Or maybe it's Grandma's Drapes Go Wild. Whatever, the collection is seriously schizophrenic -- perhaps an evil mastermind put something in designer Frida Gianni's espresso?

Speaking of Frida Gianni -- isn't she just the cutest little thing? She's cute enought to design for herself and get away with it, although I don't think even she could get away with Grandma's drapes unless she was waitressing in Munich. She sure doesn't look strong enough to lug around armfuls of beer steins, though.

Project Runway -- Uli über Alles

This was the episode that was to decide which three designers would get runway shows at Olympus Fashion Week (which we all know was two weeks ago). It was another anti-climax: the judges decided that all four should go, but in fact four ALWAYS show, one is just a decoy. Last season, however, the decoy, Kara Janx, sent out a collection that the fashion press dubbed the winner. I assume that the judges learned something from that, and rather than suffer the embarassment of making a bad choice, they let everyone play.

The challenge was to create a garment for Elle Magazine's First Look page. The look was to be "editorial," meaning, apparently, that the garment is photogenic and totally unwearable. The designers were to make a garment that would be representative of their Fashion Week collection yet shows the judges the designers could step out of their respective design boxes -- enough mixed signals, ya think?

As with every other final episode, the designers basically collapsed. Jeffrey designed a dress with an interesting bubble skirt and a wonky bodice. He was chided for stepping out of his box too much, although I bet that if he had made the dress all white his design would have received a warmer reception. A warmer reception from me, anyway, because then you couldn't see the weird top-stitching around the neckline. Laura made her usual lace and drippy-bead cocktail dress. She was chided for not stepping out of her box enough. Michael planned a gown with a complicated woven bodice, and got screwed when something like six hours was shaved off the designer's prep time so they could go out and take pictures of their outfits. His garment looked like it only had half a front. He was chided for doing a gown when his forte is sportswear. Uli started out making her usual Uli dress, got stuck, got unstuck when she wripped the oversized pattern on her fabric in half, and made the pictured vintage-inspired dress in about two hours. She even put a modified Watteau train -- actually more like a Watteau panel -- in the back. The judges loved it, I loved it, she won this challenge. I didn't notice until I saw the still photos that the beaded trim on the front oddly extends beyond the hem of the dress. Ah well, no one's perfect, especially on PR.

Uli, however, also incurred the ire of millions of viewers when she "stole" audience-favorite Michael's model Nazri. She was voted auf in the live poll during the show (although how "live" it is to Pacific time viewers is debatable). Humph, people, it's all about the dress!

The Devil can HAVE this Prada!

Good grief, I take my eye off the fashion ball for a week and look what happens! Miuccia Prada loses her f**king mind! I know she's been prattling about abandoning the lady-like look for a while, but does the substitute have to be teenage anorexic hooker, demented granny-pants wearer, or crafter with OCD?
What's the deal, Miuccia, lots of us LIKE looking like ladies, or at LEAST some of like keeping the icy winds sweeping down the Sierra off our booties!!!

If her collection, filled with tootie-baring ultra mini skirts, catches on, the paparazzi will have a field day. No more waiting for Lindsay Lohan or Paris Hilton to get out of a car in order to catch that elusive hairless beaver shot!* (I'll spare you links to those shots; not only are they NSFW, they're positively traumatizing.) Because you know that our slutty young actresses and socialite celebutants are not going to be wearing granny pants like the Prada models.

And speaking of granny pants: the Prada high-waisted half-leotards or whatever the hell they're called are probably the best example I've seen lately of Why High Waists Are Bad. And where exactly would one wear this? Oh, I know I know, we'll see Fergie the former Pea wearing it on the red carpet any day now.

Oh, and check out the turbans. Y'know, I actually like turbans for, like, Norma Desmond role-playing days, but these things have eau du bad hair all over them.

Then, THEN, Prada delivers dresses that look like someone gave Angela, the Project Runway contestant with the "fleurchon" obsession, a glue-gun and unlimited time. Oy vey! Who is it, exactly, who wants to appear at an event looking like a toilet paper cozy tatted by a particularly demented maiden aunt?

Miuccia's still designing some seriously gorgeous shoes, though.

*I shudder to think what Google will bring me for using that phrase, but that's about as polite as I can get.

London Fashion Week -- say hello again to Biba.

I can't really say much about London Fashion Week because I don't know the designers. I can, though, jump up and down and point to the return of Biba, which was "the fashion house of Swinging London in the 60s and 70s." You can read about Biba's history, and its designer, Barbara Hulanicki at Pari's Biba Site. The site has a gallery of vintage Biba, too, that hints at the fabulosity that was. I particularly like this purple dress. (Blogger has been a bitch about loading photos lately, so please forgive all the links.)

The new Biba's collection isn't a complete triumph as far as this vintage-lover is concerned. The white dress at left (which is not shown well on the super-skinny corpse-pale model) is the most Bibaesque of the collection. I hope the new version of Biba sticks to its roots and manages to achieve fabulosity that is.

If you'd like to read more about Biba and London Fashion Week, drop in on the Catwalk Queen.

And the winner is -- Betsey Johnson?

I've always felt that Betsey Johnson's designs were too young for me -- even when she was selling stuff out of "Betsey Bunki Nini" in 1969, and I was *mumble mumble* teen. But now that she's a grandma (Betsey took her Fashion Week bow carrying her infant granddaughter, I'm guessing she skipped the cartwheel) she's surrendered to maturity, and heck, produced some clothes I'd wear now.

I'd wear the very Ceil Chapman-looking gray-and-white print dress knee-length; I'd wear the pale-green 40s-style swing dress as is; I don't know if I'd wear the pink and white dress but damn, ain't it cute? It doesn't look like it was designed for a 14-year-0ld streetwalker with a Flashdance fetish, either. This strapless white dress is so uncharacteristically elegant it look like the model wandered in from another show.

Of course, she's still Betsey, so her collection still includes hooker hotpants, rompers (who thinks these are a good idea for females over age 4?) and bloomers. Mama mia. But those trademark lapses in taste are balanced by little black dresses that are definitely meant for grown up women.

New York Magazine has Betsey listed as one of their "most popular" shows. I thinking a whole lot of people are tuning in to make sure it's true that Betsey produced such a good-looking and well-received collection.

Mazel tov, Betsey, may you be blessed with many more grandbabies and may you bless us with some more pretty dresses.

Holy carp! Look at this dress!

Alas, the photos of on this site are protected, so I can't post one (not the best marketing strategy, hello!) but day-um, is this dress for sale at Blue Velvet Vintage not one of the best dang balloon dresses you've ever seen?

Update: Teresa at Blue Velvet Vintage kindly told me how to grab a picture of the dress, and here it is in all it's purple, blue and green glory. As an extra special touch, the neckline of the dress is outlined with appliqued cut-out roses. Ain't it grand?

Vintage styles on Project Runway's runway.

I'm not going to write about PR Episode 11 in any detail because I didn't like it. It was too full of gimmicks -- returning auf'd designers, black-and-white only palette, instructions to use every scrap of material instructions -- and the resulting garments were awful. As the series progresses you can see the fatigue setting in, and I don't expect the garments produced in next week's episode to be any better. But most of all, whatever is produced on the shows is old news because New York runway shows for the final four designers has already taken place, and those are the garments that count.

You can see the four collections at NY Magazine Online. From the photos, I liked the viewer-selected evil Jeffrey Sebelia's collection best. Then I saw about 60 seconds of video on the Style Channel's fashion week coverage, and I thought Michael Knight's collection looked best, even though I thought the same stuff looked terribly hoochie-mama in the still photographs. I'm sure the judges, who get to see the collections close-up and personal, will see something entirely different from what the rest of PR world sees (gawd knows they have all season) and pluck a winner out of the air. What evah.

The collections caught my attention for two reasons: the vintage references, and the attention to current trends. In the first two seasons the designers made clothes as if they lived in a vacuum. This season, at least they did a few things "real" designers were doing, like using lots of white and metallics. Hey, if Marc Jacobs does it, it must be good, right?

Vintage is a trend, too, and it was the vintage inspired dresses that really "turned me on," to borrow one of Vinsane's vintage expressions. In the pictures at left, from top to bottom, there's Michael Knight doing YSL safari, Vincent Sebelia doing 50s New Look, Uli Herzner doing 1960s Mod and 1970s disco caftan. Wheee! What a treat!

I don't think I've seen anyone who's chosen Uli as the winner of PR because she's been making the same kind of dress all season, but win/lose/schmooze, I bet her dresses will sell like crazy. Her designs have "Rachel Zoe" written all over them, and I can so see Nicole, Lindsay, Mary Kate, Nicki blah blah blah wearing them. In fact, I would LOVE to see the aforementioned persons wearing Uli -- well, maybe not, there'd be a lot less material for the Fug Girls.

There was a fourth collection, by super-mom Laura Bennett, but I found it more Morticia Addams than anything else and -- well, that's all I have to say about it.

Vintage Styles at New York Fashion Week, Part 3 -- The circus has come to town!

In the late 1950s, the French called it the trapeze, in the 1960s the Americans called it the tent, your Mom may have called it a muu-muu, whatever, it's baaaaaaaaack. The billowy dress, fitted at the shoulder and straight down and out from there.

According to Fashion-Era:

"The Trapeze dress was a swinging dress almost triangular in shape and designed to be worn with low shoes and bouffant hairstyles. Over the years it too was modified into the short baby doll tent style making the 60's version. A shaped Tent dresses with cutaway armholes were an alternative look of the sixties."

This dress the dream of every pregnant woman and perfect for hot summer days and nights. It's also totally without sex appeal, unless it's worn really short, which is how it was originally worn, with tights or panties, not a thong, otherwise the wearer can kiss her dignity good-bye at the first gust of wind.

And you can be pretty darn sure that if Diane von Furstenberg is wearing a trapeze this week, Mrs. Jones will be wearing one next Spring.

Both of the dresses pictured here are DVF, but were multple trapeze dresses in most of the collections, many plainly referencing the 60s. The pink, white and orange DVF looks like it came out of a time-capsule from 1966.

There are always lots of vintage trapeze/tent dress patterns on e-bay. The Simplicity pattern pictured here is from Macojero's Sewing Patterns and she's got more, featuring tents that are little more than A-frames to tents full enough to hold the Ringling Bros. circus. I think older and larger women who want to test drive a tent dress should probably stick to a more tailored versions, to avoid those "when's the baby due," questions. And we don't want anyone to look like she's wearing a tent dress because she has no alternative. Otherwise I think we should all loosen our waistbands and enjoy!

Vintage Influences for Spring 2007, Part 2 -- The 20s in 2007

Thank the Gods of Fashion, designers have finally gotten over the plunging-v-neck, empire waist, totally unwearable by me, silhouette they've featured for the last few seasons. And seeking to stimulate business as all fashion designers do, they've dropped the waistline from right under the armpits to right at the hips so that fashionistas everywhere will scurry to the stores for the latest thing.

In the case of the drop-waist dresses, the latest thing is about 80 years old, but that's just fine with me. I'm a total 20s freak, and in particular, a 20s American ex-pat in Paris freak ("A Moveable Feast," YES! "Babylon Revisited," YES! "Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle," YES!) so I love any garment with a hint of flapper. And considering that most vintage garments from the 20s are too fragile or too rare to really wear (I can imagine myself now, dropping spaghetti sauce on the front of a 1920s silk frock, and subsequently dropping dead in shock) a modern reproduction is a great alternative.

The top white dress is from Tracy Reese. I'm a Tracy Reese fan; she always does colorful, feminine clothes, and they're fairly available online and at better department stores. Her collection this spring was full of 20s-influenced styles.

The embroidered black and silver robe de style is from Reem Acra, a designer of high-end wedding and red-carpet gowns, If she's making drop-waist dresses, we can expect to see some on celebrities soon, and I hope they get a pass from the tits-and-ass obsessed fashion police.

The apple-green dress is from BCBG. This dress is kind of 80s (off the shoulder) meets 20s, but I was attracted to it because of the color. I'm drawn to bright apple greens like a moth to flame, and like flame, they're no good for me. Not for nothing is that color also called poison green -- I put it on and I immediately look like a victim of liver failure. But still I it calls to me, like Nimue calling to Merlin. Cooooooooooooome . . . touch the greeeeeeeeen . . .

Vintage styles at New York Fashion Week, Part 1

There have been lots and lots of vintage looks at the Spring 2007 shows in New York this week. There are many 20s-style drop-waist dresses and there's been wholesale plundering of 60s styles in the form of trapeze (aka tent) dresses, neat little Jackie dresses, and ethnic-style tunics, two of which are shown at left -- the paler one is from Nicole Miller, the bottom one is from Diane von Furstenberg.

I love the tunic look -- what could be nicer than a neat little pull-over shift? They're versatile, too: tunics, unlike dresses, can be worn over pants without making the wearer look like a doofus, because after all, that's how tunics were meant to be worn. They'd look equally good worn over leggings (I hate footless leggings, but I know when I've lost the fashion battle), and as shown, they make nifty little dresses. I would wear mine longer, having worn it short the first time around, but I think this is actually a style that could be recycled in spite of the admonition that if you're old enough to wear a style the first time around, you should wear it on its revival. Tunics have been worn for thousands of years, after all.

There are often vintage tunic patterns for sale, some of which look darn similar to the dresses shown here. There are contemporary patterns for kurtas available too. So it's fairly easy for you sewists to get a current look at a fraction of the price of a designer dress, and that's always a good thing, isn't it?

Following New York Fashion Week

There's going to be lots of coverage, of course, but I recommend the Fashion Week coverage in New York Magazine. Nice, big, clear pictures from the collections. The orange outfit at left is from Verrier, who, according to NYM, is going "back to the 40s," which in my book is not bad at all. And that's not all -- the Fug Girls are contributing to NYM's column Show & Talk. Whoo hoo! Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a funny ride!

Project Runway -- sweatin' like a whore in church.

Whew! Episode 9 was another entertaining installment of PR, even though its required "uncomfortable moment" was perhaps the most uncomfortable of the season. That moment occurred when Vinsane, whom Laura aptly dubbed "a legend in his own mind" hit on French judge Catherine Maladrino in the most spectacular demonstration of poor judgment in PR history. She not only had the power of PR life or death over him but she also looks like she could knock him into the middle of next week. Unfortunately, while she exercised the former course of action (by writing "no, no, no, no, no" all over his evaluation card) she refrained from the latter, thus depriving reality TV of one spectacular smackdown. The end result was satisfying, though, Vincent, at long last, was auf'd.

Vincent's EW exit interview is a riot. Can you say clueless? I knew you could!

The challenge this week took place in Paris. The designers were instructed to make a garment using couture techniques -- i.e., hand finishing (Vincent used glue, but he DID do it by hand) -- in two days. The Paris runway show took place at a party on a boat traveling the Seine, truly idyllic except for the kid who threw an egg at the designers and beschmirched Michael's dress. We weren't told whether that was a political statement or not.

Po' preggers Laura (sweetie, there's a reason they call it Planned Parenthood) was almost auf'd for producing a dress Nina called "old St. Laurent." Oh, you've got it wrong again, Nina! It wasn't old St. Laurent, it was rather recent Chanel from the 2006 Resort Collection. (The top black dress is Laura's, the bottom, Chanel's). Whatever, it was another breast-bone exposing, pneumonia-inviting v-necked black sheath Laura dress. Bor-ing.

Jeffrey won by making a yellow plaid dress that looked like the bastard couture child of Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen. It was a dress that only fashionistas could love, and the judging group of fashionistas did just that.

Kayne made an asymetrical strapless gown that looked like a very good version of Wendy Pepper's Season 1 wedding dress, right down to the corset with curvature of the spinal lacing. (The gold dress is Kayne's, the dress that looks like it's made out of bedsheets is Wendy's.) I'm surprised that I haven't seen any other comments about the similarities, but of course I haven't read every. single. PR. post. yet, and I probably won't. The fact that Kayne's dress was actually fit his model and didn't fall apart when she walked down the runway probably obscured the resemblance, too.

I liked Uli's dress the best. Sure it was another one of her signature flowing empire-waist dresses, but it was pretty, and I'm a slut for pretty.

Poor Michael had his first crisis of confidence during this challenge: it was he who announced to all that he was "sweatin' like a whore in church" during the final runway show. The dress he produced reflected it. The garment was a clunky ruched dress that featured what I can only describe as cinnabon-shaped breast lids. This, after Malan's disaster, should be a lesson to all future PR contestants: NO MORE RUCHING, EVER!

I thought it was too bad that Angela couldn't participate in this challenge, since its focus was hand-crafting and finishing. She could have fleurchoned the ass out of some dress -- and ruffly flower-like ornaments actually seem to be a trend, as the white Armani Privé dress at left shows -- and her excess would have been completely appropriate. But then I would have had to put up with her perkiness for another week or two. Damn the fleurchons! Full speed ahead!