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06-03-2012
At Museum of Vancouver, a dalliance with art deco dresses
Imagine time-travelling back to depression-era Vancouver just as rum runner and millionaire George Reifel opens the Commodore Cabaret, now the Commodore Ballroom, for the first time. It is the biggest nightclub in Vancouver,Plus size mother of the bride dresses and its art deco design and sprung dance floor have been the talk of the town for weeks. The December 1930 grand opening features an 11-piece orchestra and sumptuous full-course dinner for a sold-out crowd of 1,500 people. You are one of them. What will you wear?
With the economy in a tailspin, you can't afford a new dress so you pull out one you bought two years before. It's a flapper dress embellished with thousands of shiny black sequins and glass beads machine-stitched onto silk mesh. It is classic art deco style very fancy surface on a simple shape. The beaded fringe hem draws attention to your legs as you dance and the beadwork presses against your frame, hinting at the beauty beneath. It's a bit short for the year, but it still feels stylish.Now this dress is part of a 60-item exhibit of art deco fashion spanning the 1920s and 30s. Curated by fashion historians Ivan Sayers and Claus Jahnke, it opens this Thursday at the Museum of Vancouver.
And were it in better shape, you could easily wear the dress to the Commodore or an art gallery opening today. Many of the other exquisite dresses with labels such as Chanel, Lanvin, Vionnet, Patou, and Schiaparelli would fit with red carpet styles of this season.It could be that everything in fashion comes around again. Or it could be pop culture's influence 1929-based period film The Artist just won best picture, and a remake of The Great Gatsby comes out later this year but art deco styles, be they bead work or geometric designs, are showing up everywhere. Even the backdrop for the Academy Awards was in the genre.
With today being 29th February, that special leap year day where traditionally ladies can propose to their lovers, we are sure there will be a flurry of women out there tomorrow looking for plus size mother of the bride dresses! However finding those plus size mother of the bride dresses isn't always easy it's a fine line between finding an outfit which won't upstage the bride herself, but also isn't frumpy. Luckily we're here to do all the hard work for you, and have found some absolutely stunning dresses to help give you some ideas for the special day!
Our first find in stunning plus size mother of the bride dresses is the lovely Simply Be Georgette Pleated Maxi Dress ($33).the floaty dream comes in a choice of black or toffee colours, and is available up to a UK size 32. It has a cleavage showing v-neck which is balanced out by it's demure length with an elasticated detail at the waist to really nip it in and show off those curves.The vertical raised seams ensure that the dress is both slimming and elegant and is perfect matched with a silvery-grey shrug or bolero.
Our final favourite in our search for plus size mother of the bride dresses is the pretty Simply Be Long Beaded Maxi Dress ($90). Available in black, cinammon and mink, the dress is a stunning maxi-design with a sequin bodice and georgette layered skirt. It's back tie detail defines your shape, whilst the stunning bead-trim makes this the ultimate in wedding chic.Yesterday, Mets relief pitcher Tim Byrdak crashed practice at spring training dressed as wrestling icon Hulk Hogan circa 1980s. The lefty was dressed in yellow boots and red underwear topped off with the trademark feather boa and Hogan's signature red bandanna.
Yes, winning leading lady, Meryl Streep, arrived at the red carpet in a dress resembling ghastly, golden drapery. Its true that Sandra Bullock proved that even Marchesa gowns can go wrong. And sure, George Clooneys girlfriend Stacy Kiebler walked the carpet in a dress that made her look as if she had a large golden tumor growing on her hip. But for the most part, Oscar 2012 dresses were notably glamorous. Strapless and sedate ruled the evening.Message in a Mini-Dress. Neutral hues and classic shapes dominated the ranks of the best dressed. The relatively simple cuts of the best gowns harkened back to an old Hollywood glamour that (at least I!) hadnt seen in a while.
Milla JovovichFor her first time at the Academy Awards, this actress absolutely killed the red carpet. Her one-shoulder, beaded Elie Saab gown was stunning. The red lipstick and classic updo completed the glamorous and polished look.Rooney MaraClad in a white Givenchy gown with a classic, but structurally interesting look, Mara shined on the red carpet.Jennifer LopezIm shocked to be including her on this list. Im never a fan of Lopezs normal ill-fitting, overly revealing, somewhat trashy dress choices. Tonight, however, hers was one of my absolute favorites! She wore a sparkling, neutral Zuhair Murad dress.
Gwyneth PaltrowAdmittedly, I was at first skeptical of the cape. However, the more I observed the actress in her white Tom Ford dress and matching cape, the more I realized how flattering and elegant the look was. The cuff added to its sleekness and sophistication.Angelina JolieJolie gets yelled at for wearing too much black, but I have to hand it to her. She looks awesome in it. The black Atelier Versace piece exhibited a shocking slit that showed off Jolies long leg.Michelle WilliamsThe star of My Week with Marilyn rocked in a red strapless Louis Vuitton dress. One of the riskier dresses seen tonight, the Vuitton gown featured complex crepe detail that took it from average to unique, from just another red dress to fabulous Oscar number.
My colleague Elissa Strauss, in this Sisterhood post, asks why I focused on the way author Deborah Feldman is dressed in recent press photos promoting her memoir Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of my Hasidic Roots.As Elissa notes, I wrote in my Sisterhood post that Feldman seems somehow immature, that in photos she looks like nothing so much as one of the 13-year-old girls I see on the bat mitzvah circuit who wear super-high heels and super-short dresses. These girls look like they are playing a sexy version of dress-up.Elissa observes, correctly, that Feldman is dressed no differently than countless other young women today, including herself, and writes: Never did it occur to me, and I assume, to many of them, that dressing like this in 2012 would cause anyone to think of us as childish and therefore take us less seriously.
Elissa continues: Your assessment of Feldman did tap into some of the same fears about a woman's body and how it should be hid, to some degree or another, in order for the world to take us seriously Why bring in the skinny jeans?I understand Elissa's point, but it is not quite the one I was attempting to make in my post about Feldman and Unorthodox.It's true that I described the way Feldman was dressed when trying to convey my sense that she is, in some way, immature. But I really got that impression, at least in part, from the way she poses in the photos, and the expressions on her face, and the way she is holding her cigarette in one of the pictures. There is something in them that conveys to me that this is not a woman who is centered and confident.
I wasn't making any general point about grown women who wear sparkly mini-dresses or skinny jeans (which I wear myself. The jeans, I mean). Or to suggest that women who dress that way ought to be taken less seriously. There is a discussion that could be continued about the messages sent by what we choose to wear, since of course everything about the way we present ourselves sends messages, whether they are intended or not.
Rachel McAdams dresses ten years younger than boyfriend Michael Sheen as the pair enjoy a low-key pizza date
They share a 10-year age gap and it somewhat showed in their wardrobe choices today.While Michael Sheen looked ever the 43-year-old dapper Welshman gentleman in a pair of tan trousers, a navy coat and flat cap, his leading lady Rachel McAdams went for a more youthful choice.The 33-year-old Vow star slipped into a pair of bright orange jeans paired with a black puffer jacket as the pair grabbed some take-away pizza in Toronto.The pair who strike a darling couple on the red carpet at premieres, often avoid Hollywood at all other times to play house in McAdams' home city of Toronto.
And they are obviously grateful to finally be spending some time with each other following McAdams promotional tour of her latest film The Vow.Last week they were pictured kissing one another as they walked down the street.'Michael and I never spend more than three weeks apart - we rack up a lot of air miles - but you have to be quite adaptable in this business whether you are in a relationship or not,' McAdams told Stella Magazine recently.'Trying to establish roots somewhere is a bit of a joke. You need to trust each other and be able to talk to each other and be best friends.'
Rachel added that she was thankful that she and Sheen developed a strong friendship before becoming romantically involved, and waited until after filming Midnight in Paris to become romantic.'Michael and I didn't get together while we were filming Midnight In Paris, Before the Dresses, the Ideas which I feel strongly about not doing when I'm working,' she revealed.'We became quite good friends, which I think is a great way to start. I felt very blessed to have made a Woody Allen film in Paris together.'
The high-fashion designer, known for his pricey gowns, is launching a digital inspiration board and opening it up to the masses. For the next three months, anyone can upload an image or a video to appear on a 27-inch screen in Mr. de la Renta's office to inspire his resort collection."The Board," as the brand is calling it, will be open after its runway show Tuesday evening through May, when the collection will be shown to retail buyers and editors."We like the idea of trying to collaborate with our fans," said Alex Bolen, chief executive of Oscar de la Renta LLC. "There are people who love our brand and have ideas about what would be beautiful."
That said, fans won't get paid for anything they submit, even if their ideas are found useful.The move piggybacks on the surging popularity of Pinterest, an online pin board where users swap photos. It also is the latest chapter in the increasingly intertwined worlds of fashion and technology. Once-secretive design houses are using social media to let the masses peek into their exclusive circles, cultivating fansand would-be shoppers.At New York fashion week, happening now, dozens of runway shows are streamed in real-time online. And brands are posting behind-the-scenes photos, with glimpses of makeup application, model rehearsals and even full ensembles shared before the show starts.
The new Oscar de la Renta initiativewhich will be found online at TheBoard.OscardelaRenta.commakes the designer-fan relationship one step further, giving outsiders a potential say in the creation of a collection.Most designers use an inspiration board for a collection, typically just a bulletin board pinned with photos, swatches or even phrases. In this case, the inspiration board will be digital and interactive. At the beginning, everyone will be invited to upload anything they choose. Submissions need only be visual in some waymaybe a painting, a vintage photo, a graphic design or advertisement, a beach sunset, a dog, a chair fabric.
Barbara Tfank shows lush feminine frocks fit for Betty Draper and 1st lady too at Fashion Week
Barbara Tfank wants to correct all those "Mad Men" references to her clothes after all, the designer says, "I was doing this five years before the show came on."Point taken. But it was still hard not to imagine Betty Draper truly rocking the delicate, feminine, and yes, seemingly 60s-inflected dresses on display at her fall/winter 2012 presentation Monday in a Manhattan art gallery.One creation in particular, a luscious pleated frock in blush embroidered jacquard with a tulip motif, seemed perfect for Betty, but also for anyone wanting to look seriously pretty and just a little retro.
For evening, there was a luxurious satin-lined fox jacket with a blush skirt, an outfit that Tfank seemed particularly fond of as she wandered among her models.Posh & Pink dress sale back this year.Asked her goals for the collection, Tfank, whose designs have been worn a number of times by Michelle Obama, replied simply: "To find enchantment and beauty."She was inspired, she explained, by what she called "the magic hour" "that moment that happens every day when the sun sets, and the lovely colors come out there's a lot of glow and sparkle, and a sense of joyfulness."
There was certainly joy in Tfank's own home when she turned on President Obama's recent State of the Union speech and saw Mrs. Obama enter in a shiny cobalt blue dress from her 2012 resort line. The dress won raves."It always comes as a great surprise," she said of the first lady's patronage. "It was a thrill to see."One dress in the new collection seemed ideal for the first lady AND Draper: an emerald green number with cap sleeves and a balloon skirt.But back to that "Mad Men" thing Tfank does not see her designs as connected to any particular time period. "They're not vintage," she said. If anything, "They're futuristic. They're an amalgam of all periods of time."
