Friday, March 30, 2012

Fabergé Friday

The next Imperial Easter Egg in line is, yet again, one of the eight missing eggs - the "Royal Danish Egg" or "Danish Jubilee Egg". A picture remains of it though...


...and a description written by H.C. Bainbridge, published by The Connoisseur magazine in June 1924:

"Miniatures of the late King of Denmark and his Queen are framed as the surprise feature in the Imperial egg. The outer surface is in light blue and white enamel with ornaments in gold and precious stones. On the top are the armorial bearings of the Danish Royal Family, and it is supported by Danish heraldic lions."

This is one of the biggest Imperial Easter Eggs to have been made, and was created to celebrate that the Dowager Empress - Danish born Maria Feadorovna - returned to Denmark for the 40th Anniversary of her father's accession to the throne in 1903.

In 1904 and 1905 no eggs were made. But in 1906 came the "Moscow Kremlin Egg", or the "Uspenski Cathedral Egg"!


This is the largest of the Fabergé eggs, inspired by the Cathedral of the Assumption (Uspenski) in the Moscow Kremlin. This cathedral is where all the Tsars - including Nicholas II himself - were crowned.


Flanked by two circular, and two square turrets, sits the dome of the Cathedral of the Dormition in white opalescent enamel, topped by a gold cupola. The interior of the church, with its carpets, tiny enameled icons and High Altar on an oval glass plate is made visible through four triple windows. 


The square towers are based on the Spassky Tower, bearing the coat-of-arms of the Russian Empire and Moscow, and inset with chiming clocks (1,2 cm in diameter). The whole thing is standing on a crenelated gold base and an octagonal white onyx plinth, signed "Fabergé " and dated 1904. The walls of the cathedral are decorated with tiny enameled icons of Our Lady of Kazan and Christ Pantocrator.

The surprise in this egg is a clockwork music box with its original gold key at the base of the egg.  The music box plays "Izhe Khveruviny" ("Cherubim Hymn"), a favorite hymn of Tsar Nicholas II. 

This egg commemorates the return to Moscow by the royal couple Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna in 1903. They had been avoiding the capital since a riot broke out during the coronation of Nichols, that killed hundreds of Moscovites. As the date 1904 - engraved in the base of the egg indicates, this was the year the egg was to be represented, but this was delayed because of the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), and the assassination in the Kremlin of Nicholas' favorite uncle and brother-in-law, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. So instead the "Moscow Kremlin Egg" was delivered in 1906. Despite - or maybe because of - these sad memories, this egg was kept in Alexandra Feodorovna's own Mauve Sitting Room in the Alexander Palace.





Thursday, March 29, 2012

Made In China - And Made OF China

In some Mediterranean countries people have been breaking crockery to get rid of material goods, in order to receive the New Year, for centuries. The Chinese designer Li Xiaofeng got inspired by this tradition and started recycling glass and porcelain in his new line of artistic clothing.




Li - who originally was trained as a muralist - takes shards of traditional ceramics from the Song, Ming, Yuan and Qing dynasties, and then sews them together, like a puzzle, on a leather background to create these stunning garments. Each piece is hand shaped and polished. Then holes are drilled into each corner and linked together with silver wire.




Here is the master himself, with the unique polo shirt he created for Lacoste.


There's a slightly more confortable version of the shirt too!


These porcelain clothes are wearable though!


Not sure they're so very lightweight...


...But if Li Xiaofeng wanted me to wear one of his creations I would surely say yes!















Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Loose Women In Tights!

In the 1890s women who were burlesque performers were seen as little more than prostitutes - selling their bodies for sex - in "proper" society. On the other hand there were stories going around about men who were willing to kill themselves in fits of lustful passion after seeing these performances...

A professor emeritus at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, Charles H. McCaghy, has collected photos of these "scandalous" women for a long time. All the photos in this post comes from his collection.





As you can see curvaceous women were preferred before skinny ones. And even if these women hardly showed any skin at all, in their covering tights and long sleeves, it was just the fact that they actually showed off they feminine shapes that was so outrageous. 





During the Victorian era women were expected to be modest, conservative, and take care of their homes. The women of burlesque broke completely with these norms, some even donning male outfits on stage. But by exaggerated humor these performers addressed political issues of the day, defying the place society had dictated for women. From the stage they could speak freely and challenge the men in the audience.





When the moving pictures arrived, together with vaudevillian theatre and Broadway revues in the 1920s, burlesque became less popular. With the new competition from all these new forms of entertainment the burlesque dancers had to start taking off more clothes to keep as much of their audience as they could. By the 1930s they were down to pasties and a G-string - which is where we still are in the burlesque of today!




























Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Things I DON'T want right now

Wow! I must be psychic! Yesterday I said a Things I DON'T want right now post would follow the post I did yesterday - and here it is! Amazing...For all of you who weren't reading this blog when I did one of these posts about what I DON'T want right now before, I can just tell you that here is where I show you pictures of outfits that really make me wonder what the designers thought about when they created these...um..."things"...If you're suffering from epilepsy or easily fall into a nervous breakdown, I strongly advice you not to continue reading! Here we go...

Alexis Mabille

Hm...Maybe if you use a belt...Or...No...

Blumarine

Oh, I'm SO sorry! I forgot to tell you to have a barf bag ready too...

Burberry Prorsum

That a big fashion house like Burberry can make a dress and a jacket like this, and then put them together, seriously makes me wonder if the end of the world might be closing in...

Christopher Kane

Cute...Very cute................................And there my barf bag received it's first content!

Christopher Raeburn

I just feel so sorry for this girl! I just can not look at her without starting to laugh! THAT LIPSTICK - Ha, ha, haaaaaaa!!!! And doesn't those pants remind you of one of those topography maps you got to use in school when the PE teacher forced you to run around in the cold rain orienteering?!

Comme des garcons

If you ever want to dress up as a giant tampon for a masquerade, Commes des garcons has the perfect outfit for you!

Givenchy

This might not be that bad. The only problem with it is that the second I saw it I thought of the female reproduction organ...Can you see it? So if one person goes to the masquerade as a tampon, I guess it's only fitting her friend goes as a c...

Isabel Marant

And this is what happens if you haven't got enough fabric for the last dress, and have to use small scraps you find on the floor. To try and cover it up with that shirt does not make it better though!

Isabel Marant

No comment...

Jeremy Scott

Same comment as above...


Issey Miyake

"Hi, I'm calling to get an appointment with Dr Snuggles. It seems my head has gotten stuck in an egg...".

Now, after looking at this, I think we all should go to YouTube and search for "cute kitten videos"...


















Monday, March 26, 2012

Things I want right now

Time for a Things I want right now post again! It was a long time since I did one of these...I know the F/W collections are starting to walk down the runways now, but this is about what I want right now, and right now I want warmer weather, and the clothes to fit it! So my choices come from the S/S 2012 ready to wear collections! Starting with...

Alexander McQueen

Alexander McQueen! The perfect spring suit. And look at the belt!

Alexander McQueen

And another one from McQueen - minus the mask I might add...I love the contrast between the powdery pink sheer fabric, and the spiky, bat-like ornaments.

Anna Sui

Anna Sui romantic lace dress...

Anna Sui

...And Anna Sui high-waisted pants and floral blouse. Lovely creamy colors.

Antonio Berardi

Silver appliqués and flowy train...

Badgley Mischka

And now for some color! 40s-style shorts and sunny blouse!

Jason Wu

Same clothes as above, but still very different.

Christian Dior

Oui merci!!!

Dolce & Gabbana

Playsuit...

Dolce & Gabbana

...with matching sundress!

Dolce & Gabbana

Black always works - even in the summer! Want those net-shoes/socks too...

Elie Saab

Love this green color! It looks like a mermaid-dress!

Emilio Pucci

This I would wear on a hot, lazy summer day, so the soft breeze could play with the fabric...

Just as before, after one of my Things I want right now posts, a Things I DON'T want right now post will follow! Stay tuned...
















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