Leather and lace

I had originally wanted to post about Valentino's F/W 13 collection, because it was so full of wonderful details that remind me of my last post.... but when I went back through the collection I stumbled upon a dress I overlooked last time I watched the show.

I've been extra sensitive to leather garments since I started working for Dara, the designer of The Skin Sessions. Her collection is full of covetable, perfect-fit leather pieces (I have been loving my suede Bingo top, but more about that later...). Being exposed to so many wonderful pieces all the time made me stop in my tracks for this Valentino dress. Check out the little slits at the inner wrist to expose the bit of lace! 

This collection is all about the tailoring. I love how perfectly the shoulders are shaped, and a lot of them have special collar details that remind me of a Hans Holbein portrait.

Inspiration: Blackwork Embroidery

For a long time, I have felt that I can't really understand fashion unless I know everything, from the beginning. An impossible task, but I think I've found a way to fill in the gaps of my knowledge as well as moving forward in an innovative way. I'm going to recreate a historically accurate look every month and two accompanying contemporary looks that are inspired by the original. I want to use this blog as a record for research and to document the process.

 So that's the thesis, we will see how it goes.

Even though fashion technically begins in the Middle Ages (and I would love to go through the Medieval Sewing Guide from Reconstructing History someday soon!), the most intriguing portraits to me start in the mid-16th century when tailoring and structure become more complex. Corsets are first coming into popular use during this century, and fashion starts accelerating at a faster rate than had ever been seen before.

The look that I want to recreate for November is a c. 1540 portrait of Jane Small by Hans Holbein.

I love how striking the blackwork embroidery collar is, so I'm starting here. I got a great primer on how to do this from the Honor Before Victory blog, who put up an excellent pdf of the basics. I'm going to start on mine this week, but until then I'll leave you with some inspiration images...

(photo credits: top two are paintings by Hans Holbein, the third is a portrait of Jacquemyne Buuck (1551), and the last is an extant example from the Metropolitan Museum)

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