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October 28, 2022
You can get ideas from lots of places and sometimes from unexpected places.
For many, many decades designers have taken historical looks and made the fresh and modern for a whole new and often other type look.
There's the classic of shoulder pads from the 40s to the 80s
From Joan to Joan
 
Believe it or not, it's the same pattern construction is the same for both these looks but the style is completely different.
The Mary McFadden became a star for her Fortuny pleated look.
 
Although the Fortuny look is only slightly dated, the Mary McFadden version of the Fortuny Delphos dress is very elegant.
The most recent and notorious remake of a style is what Karl Lagerfeld did with Coco Chanel's famous quilted jacket.
 
The first version was a completely wonderful style (which was based on another historical style - see below), it was seen as hugely innovative and very fashionable. But the style had grown old, especially after Mme. Chanel died. In comes Lagerfeld, and immediately jump starts the whole House and once again it becomes a huge success.
Even cartoons have been published honoring M. Lagerfeld. Obviously Lady Astor with her demure little package from Chanel is horrified at the conspicuous consumption of the Beyonce-like update of Karl Lagerfeld. But Lagerfeld brought the House from the grave yards with is masterful versions of the Chanel
jacket.
So it was a lot of fun when I picked up this top from an Instagram account on historical costumes. The lines are so deliciously elegant, that I couldn't resist playing with this design to see what could happen with it.
  
The original dress - more of a historical look, but you can see why it was so popular as it made any figure look svelte. Of course it was with the help of corsets that would hold a dam from breaking. But the same lines are in the other two garments, and suddenly they take on a whole new look. It's fresh and those lines are downright fabulous. The middle is a jacket with that elegant line
through the bust point (so it's going to fit the bust and the waist - AND a bonus the shoulder), with an attractive asymmetrical closing.
The view on the far right is a fun play on a biker jacket with the zipper for the asymmetrical closing with a nice pair of pants, looks more dressed up than any biker could imagine.
Taking this historical look apart, what makes this so special is that that line in the middle of the front, goes right through the bust point, then it slightly bows inward. This inward bowing gives a line of illusion that the waist is smaller than it really is.
 Further the almost peplum like bottom of the top, makes the waist look even smaller. This was Dior's great coup in the Bar Suit -
notice how large the hips look. There is actual padding in the hips to make them look larger so that the waist will look even smaller. Dior's whole idea was to overly accentuate the hourglass, girly-girl look after decades of androgynous austere looks in fashion, Dior wanted something that would take a lot of excess fabric and be totally different than what was in the past.
BTW, if you look closely at the Dior suit, a very similar seam is in the jacket from the shoulder, through the bust point, through the waistline to the hem. Although it's not the same shape as our other historical example, it's still a comment on how that seam can shape in a way that's flattering shape wise, but also make a very stunning visual statement.
It's fun to experiment with this. The next time you see something with dramatic lines in the bodice, look closely:
- Does it cross any dart points?
- What dart points are crossed and how?
- What are the lines of the seams and darts?
- How do they elude to smaller or larger by their angle or other shape?
Pinterest and Instagram are two of my favorite sources of visual graphics for ideas. You can even do hashtag searches on these to see different ideas: #Chaneljacket #victorianfashion #jacobeanfashion #1950scouture #dartclothes #dartjackets #darttops - you can go on and on. Actually I have to be careful on Pinterest and Instagram because I can go into a graphic black hole and not return for
days later! But they are excellent ideas for visuals, and of course excellent ideas for variations on your core pattern.
The SewingArtistry Resource Library is designed to contain information to not only make your sewing better, but to aid you in fit and flattery of your shape, size and style. Check it out.
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