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April 22, 2023
So going on with what I was talking about last week with all this great classic quiet luxury or stealth wealth...one of the coolest outfits was this outfit from the "court collection" (my name, but it is apropos)!!!
And although I don't like the proportions on this....it reminds me a little of "Keep on Truckin"
Been there done that, so that look doesn't appeal. Besides the proportions work so much better on a more balanced shoe
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Both of these are in proportion and they still have that clunky chic look. This is one feature of the really wealthy, is that they may follow a trend, but it's so classic and modified that it can last decades after the trend has come and gone. The more dramatic (see the top photo to see a dramatic interpretation of clunky shoes), the faster it goes out of fashion. Mrs. Clooney is a very classic person
Part of what we have to remember about various styles is that the style comes into fashion and immediately every designer piles on thinking they have to outdo the year before or the designer before them, so the style gets over exaggerated. Now the business with Grunge is a total other phenomenon, and I covered that in a blog (the link is below). But suffice it to say the trend has gone on long enough and we're about to
change.
Perusing through some of those photos of the wonderful change that is happening, I figure that if Ms. Gwyneth can have a cardigan, so can I only I can make my cardigan of the right color, the right shape and look that will flatter me cause I'm going to use my core pattern to do that.
It's so refreshing that when I come up with an idea I don't have to go through the whole fitting process all over again. Enter the core pattern!
 So here's my rough sketch.
You'll notice that I have this great collar on it - I'm into collars these days, and that this may look eerily familiar.
Here it is. I love this top, but the collar really doesn't stand up like I want. I would rather have something stiffer on here, and I'm not above taking this collar off and putting that stiffness in there. I need to figure out just what would be the best for this collar.
This time I get to correct that. When I made the garment on the right, I thought I would need to have it stretch to get over my head. I don't actually have to do that. And since it doesn't have to stretch, I can put some solid interfacing in there. The same is true of the sketch above. I will button and unbutton to get this one and that way I can make it shape exactly the way I
want. On the dotted lines above, that really isn't top stitching. That's a signal to me that on the inside, I will use a nice grosgrain ribbon. This will do two things, act as a nice stiffener to help the front lay correctly, and as a nice backing for the buttons. I might even put this on the right side if I find the right colored ribbon.
So you can see that I'm trekking a bit off from a traditional cardigan. I do better when I can do something asymmetrical on my body, and I'm not above messing with this design a little more to see if I can tweak it a little - moving some lines over more toward the side, or making it more centered...there are a lot of options here.
 
Then I completely went off the edge of the Earth and into the rabbit hole not doing anything close to a cardigan. This is something I've been wanting to do for a like time. Do an artistic rendition of woven with knit so that I could keep the comfort of knit, but have the structure of woven.
Why? I LOVE something structured around my neck and face to frame it. To be able to manipulate the collar and yet have total comfort with the body of the garment.
In the version above on the right though, that would be totally gorgeous and doable in scuba knit - in a solid, so that the lines would show, but maybe something with an iridescent shimmer or something woven into the fabric that would add a little pizzazz to it. Maybe something like this.
 Alas it's time to come back to the cardigan idea - and this particular is something straight forward yet very doable in the woven/knit combo. The inset is obviously woven and the body is a knit.
What's interesting about doing woven/knit combos is that you can always take a knit and make it act like a woven, but you can't take a woven and come close to making it do anything like a knit - well, you can - it's called the bias, but it doesn't work as well as the knit does.
Looking at this a little longer, and I'm really seriously considering dropping that placket inset bottom seam even with the bust darts, and creating a line across there to make it look like a design mechanism, but in it would be the bust dart. That's enough different that I would have fun messing with the design, and yet not go too far afoot, by staying classic with my weight up right now.
This is probably something I'll do right now. It's classic, straight-forward and no-nonsense. I'm up in weight, so this is something that would probably suit my taste better right now. I need that face-framing, dramatic structure around my neck to pull attention away from my hips.
This is a common design feature that we can all use - accent either the face or the asset part of our body while we let the less attractive part fall back and recede into oblivion hopefully. Sometimes with color, sometimes with design - in this case the dramatic structure should be enough to take away from the hips and bring all the attention up to the face which is where we should want it anyway.
 This happens all the time in the movies, but we simply don't see it for what it's really doing.
Although folks were having a major kerfuffle about the lack of authenticity in this costume, it was doing exactly what it was supposed to with a very apple-esque figure - making it look very hourglass which was the style at the time. Receding around the neckline (where Kate Winslet carries most of her weight) and receding the waistline (making it look smaller) with horizontal stripes at the hips (making her hips look larger, and therefore her waist even smaller). This dress
accomplishes everything it's supposed to accomplish.
So don't scoff or think you can't use these same techniques to make yourself look slimmer, more professional, dapper, or whatever you're wanting to look like. If they work for movie stars, there's no reason we can't use them.
At the same time, if the likes of Ms. Paltrow wishes to go out and spend thousands for a cardigan, there's no reason we can't have the same thing, only more attractive, the color we want, the look that's more flattering for us and without having to spend thousands, but looking like we did.
You can see how the classic designs, thanks to Ms. Gwyneth's court appearances, can really lead to some remarkably creative ideas with your core pattern. Hopefully too, you all are following #stealthwealth and #quietluxury on Instagram, but #quietquality doesn't seem to deliver the fashion ideas the other hashtags do. It's even fun to go to your profile icon, and click on following, then hashtags to see how any following is piling up fabulous ideas for future
projects.
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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