Coca Cola is a soft drink and beverage company, right? They have and hold no place in the fashion industry, let alone the sewing world, correct? Those were my exact sentiments when they reached out to me last year to be a contributing writer for their blog, Journey. I’m very particular with the guest posts, collaborations and partnership I undertake. It has to be a right fit for both parties in order for me to sign the dotted line. If it isn’t, it’s like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. It just ain’t gonna work. I was close to saying no, so close in fact, but then I hopped on a call with Ruben and Elizabeth just for the hell of it. Turns out, it was a good decision. The philosophy of Journey is to highlight individuals who are doing something different and being innovative in their field or hobby. I’m not sure if I achieve that with Madalynne, but it’s what I strive for. So, I thought about the proposal for a few days and then agreed. I said yes for one reason and one reason only, so I could be the bridge between sewing and the rest of the world. Through my articles, I would bring the gospel of sewing to the others and revel who we are, what we do and how much fun we have creating and connecting. Who are we? The sewing community.
So today, I share with you a snippet of my piece for Journey, which discusses a subject I’ve become very passionate about – constructing a wardrobe. Because of Sarai’s series, The Wardrobe Architect, I am constructing a wardrobe that reflects my style, my history, my silhouette, my color and everything else unique about me. I use constructing in a present tense because my style is always and will always be evolving.
And a big thank you to Sarai from Colette Patterns for helping me put this piece together.
“What a deformed thief this fashion is.” Words written by William Shakespeare.
The fashion that takes my heart captive and steals my breath away are the styles of the early 1960s. In 1961, a fashionable woman usually left the house wearing an elegantly styled bouffant and a simply cut dress known affectionately as “little nothing.” Almost always sleeveless and slim, the “little nothing” recalled the flapper dresses of the 1920s. Also in this year, skirts rose above the kneecap, and designers created “the look” by selling not just garments, but hats, shoes and make-up. Princess Margaret, Jacqueline Kennedy, Grace Kelly and Brigette Bardot were muses of laywomen. A year later, in 1962, not much changed. Audrey Hepburn’s Hubert De Givenchy dress in the movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Yves Saint Laurent’s show-stopping collection dominated fashion news. Then, from 1963 to 1965, the sartorial world turned modern and young. Knee-high skirts, vivid prints and lower heels became popular. In London, a fashion revolution broke out, and for the first time, the British were the most vogue folk. Yet, throughout these 5 years, women carefully considered their outfits knowing that it spoke volumes about their station in life and what face they wanted to present to the world.
Call my soul bygone or dated, but what happened to this type of dressing? When did we lose sight of the fact that our outfit states who we are in the eyes of others and ourselves? Luckily, there exists a hamlet of women and men bringing the art of dressing back. They, or I should say we, called ourselves the sewing community and by creating “me-made” garments that fit our bodies, flatter our coloring and suit our lifestyle, we are resurrecting an old, but not dead, trend.
Head on over to Journey to read the rest…
