YSL: A Liberal Education

[meri_weather]

I love going to museums and to see beautiful and finely crafted things, whether they are paintings, fine silver, statues, or pottery. A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend the Yves Saint Laurent exhibit in San Francisco. The exhibit displayed his designs from the late 1950’s to the mid 2000’s. I have a love of haute couture and costume

Comments

[pammalamma]

I have this really cool book called "Couture Sewing Techniques" where they let you see the inside of some couture garments and how they're constructed. It's really like engineering fabric, on the inside of the garment, whereas the outside can be like an embellishment work of art.

I like costumery, too. The most fun I had last year was making all the costumes for the Christmas pageant. I only had 2 weeks, but I calculated that I used about 150 yards of fabric! I started making embellished pillows from upscale after that and selling them on ebay, but now the economy is so bad, there is little market left for them.

[meri_weather]

Thank you for the book recommendation. I put it in my Amazon shopping cart. I was so curious to see inside some of his clothes but they didn’t show anything which, of course, makes sense since the exhibit wasn’t about haute couture technique, but I think it would have added to the exhibit anyway. However, they did display a long, double tiered cape in which you could see the hemmed side. The fineness and regularity of the stitch was incredible. I wondered how fast the seamstress’s hands must have been moving while sewing that hem. Did they work slowly and methodically or did they work fast and precisely like something mechanized? Also, the Shakespearean wedding gown had a sash that was bronze lamé on one side and copper lamé on the other side. The pressing and turning over of the fabric along the joining seam was perfect. They must have had a tool that helped in the pressing process so that the fabric from one side didn’t sneak over to the other side. If you enjoy couture, you would have enjoyed the show. His designs were beautiful. I

[misspinki777]

Wow! I love the pictures you posted! The clothing is beautiful! I admit that I'm not as big a clothing lover as you are, but you do have great taste! ;D

The kind of clothing that I just don't get are ones with handlebars and side mirrors. I mean...what's that all about?! Who would wear stuff like that? *giggles*

[meri_weather]

Well, I’ll explain it to you. The kind of woman who wears handlebars and side mirrors also wears garments like this:

[misspinki777]

OMG!!! It looks like she ran into a stop sign! LOL

[meri_weather]

And designers who design garments like this are motivated by…here, let Anatole tell you.