Thank You One and All for a Wonderful
Conference of Passionate Pattern People!
Flowers and a toast to the stars of the show and to everyone who made it possible by sharing their knowledge and experience, most of all, to those who supported our efforts and our professions with their attendance.
Josh Jakus explaining his ingenious UM bags.
|
The New Now
What was unpleasantly new is now normal -- it is the end of a tough year and we are finding the silver linings, taking time to re-access our path and our resources. Personal and professional are more of a blend now and in lieu of money, the world is trading on relationships, common interests and collective strength. New values and raising the priority of old values is now breakfast conversation and most of us are rating craftsmanship, materials and origins the way we used to rate brands and price and celebrity. We want things to last and work. Welcome to Fall 2009.
So, cut a better pattern for a better product -- one measure of a better world. |
|
New at the Center
 The Vionnet Way
For a small thrill - check the Paris photos of the Vionnet, Puriste de la Mode, exhibition from Chic in Paris. When you read this, I'll be there in a week and will return with lots of info. If you would like to feel like you were there and learn as much as possible about how Vionnet worked, please let me know -- a lecture/presentation/workshop with full scale samples, patterns and working experience in developing your own designs in the Vionnet way, (on the half scale, as she draped) The class can be scheduled for large or small groups or college classes or just a bunch of Vionnet fans!
Vionnet Identique:  Members of the Association of Sewing and Design Professionals are recreating 42 of the models in Betty Kirke's book, Madeleine Vionnet, and they will be on display at their Conference on October 18 at Hilton Indian Lakes Resort near Chicago. It was a wonderful experience facilitating the project and there is the possibility that it will go on tour. I'll have photos in the next issue of Cutting Cloth. The photo is of one of the half scale toiles, #32, recreated by Brenda Breitenmoser. Each model was done as a muslin toile and also in the fashion fabric.
- New Class: Draping for Design - Sat/Sun, January 23 -24 in St. Helena, CA.
 Back by popular demand! As the popularity grows of the new Dutch draping book, Draping, The Art and Craftsmanship in Fashion Design, we are re-ordering on a regular basis and also scheduling another draping workshop based upon the iconic designer models in the book -- everyone's work results in couture level designs using the methods in the book. This next class will focus upon the shaped jacket and will include working with the Pli de Souplesse and other techniques that distinguish a professional level 'modeliste'. Registration will open in mid-December -- please send an email if you would like to be notified. The
first ever annual is a collection of in-depth articles, scholarly essays and
interesting pattern approaches in the field of pattern design. It is
published each year and distributed to conference attendees and members. It will be available to non-members in our store in approximately one month -- printing now. Members not at the conference will receive one by post shortly thereafter.
- New Pattern in Production: The Paris Folding Skirt
A vintage wrap and tie concept from the Paris designer original (who made a come-back in her 70's) which folds over twice to form a deep center front pleat. Using only two pattern pieces for the whole skirt, its sash closure allows for infinite adjustments for ease and/or size and it can be made in street or full length in a wide variety of fabrics, lined or not. We are aiming at a January debut and will have photos up in the December issue here.
- New Way to Work: ArtCoat II, A Pattern Process, Not a Pattern
Also coming up soon is another new product: A half scale paper dress from that you assemble. It stands on its own and can be used to display samples of your work or check first patterns. It was developed for ASDP's Vionnet Identique Exhibition in Chicago and will be tweaked and ready around the first of the year. This is a rough photo of the form. |
|
Esthetic of Poverty
From Speakeasies to Fashion, the Dirty Thirties are Back by Joanne Sasvari, reprinted from the Financial Post, Published: Saturday, May 09, 2009
A recession, yes. A global credit crunch, certainly. But a depression? Not by most expert accounts. Take a look in our closets, though, and our style choices are starting to tell a different story. For the past few seasons, fashion has been taking its cues from the 1930s, whether in last fall's Depression-inspired pieces at Gap, the ongoing craze for costume jewelery, the focus on a higher waistline, the passion for patterns, the return of the goddess gown to Hollywood red carpets --or, indeed, the sudden renaissance of Hollywood itself. Read more . . . and remember 'chic' is free; it is your own!
- Why retailers are launching retro collections
Sir Stuart Rose, executive chairman of M&S. "You only have to look at the M&S business now and over our entire history to see that the values .. are still as relevant and important to us and our customers today as they were when Michael Marks set up his market stall in 1884." After all, when the future is uncertain, why not rely on the stability of the past? The whole article. . .
|
|
Resources  Pattern.Stringcodes.com
Stringcodes sells Stringcodes' Standard-Sized Slopers which are "fully balanced and trued" slopers that "fit well to the figure's dimensions" All slopers are well researched and tested. Interesting idea!Download their FREE Pattern-Making Calculator,
The only available calculator specially designed and made for Pattern-Making purposes.
- Dress Right Half-Scale Forms:
The Dress-Rite Co. in Chicago sells half scale dress forms in addition to their full scale line. The great thing is that the half scales can be purchased in your size which means that you can drape an interesting design, enlarge it at a commercial copy place by 200% and have a full scale pattern in a standard size -- yours! - Books: For those who love to decipher the Japanese pattern books for cut clothing and also knitting, a good place to start looking is YesAsia. While you're there, also get: Making Clothes -Converting 2D Cloth into 3D Works- (with paper pattern), left -- and you will be all set to make magic.
The Dynamics of Architectural Form,
Film as Art, Toward a Psychology of Art, and Art and Visual Perception For
thirty-five years Visual Thinking has been the gold standard
for art educators, psychologists, and general readers alike. In this
seminal work, Arnheim, author of The Dynamics of Architectural Form,
Film as Art, Toward a Psychology of Art and Art and Visual Perception,
asserts
that all thinking (not just thinking related to art) is basically
perceptual in nature, and that the ancient dichotomy between seeing and
thinking, between perceiving and reasoning, is false and misleading. An
indis-pensable tool for students and for those interested in the arts.
|
|
Events: There & Here
 Cut 2 On Fold
is a
multi-faceted textile-led project running throughout 2009, including an
interactive installation, a contemporary dance piece, and a
wide-ranging educational programme. The project explores the process of
making a garment - the journey from flat pattern to calico toile to
finished piece, and finally to the movement created by the wearer. Watch three videos and please start planning one here!
- Made to Measure Competition in the UK
Someone has the right idea -- An organization called Skillfast to be specific! They encourage the teaching of technical trade skills, like pattern cutting with an award called Made To Measure. It's aAnother idea that we should do here. The winner of Made To Measure will have the chance to be part of WorldSkills London 2011, the biannual Olympics of the skill, trade and technological professions. This is the kind of initiative that will make a country competitive in this new century. More details . . . - The American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity
The new exhibition at the Metropolitan in New York for spring 2010, opening in May -- more on it in the December issue.
 American Beauty: Aesthetics and Innovation in Fashion
November 6, 2009 - April 10, 2010 at the Museum at F.I.T. in New York. "The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) presents American Beauty: Aesthetics and Innovation in Fashion,
the first exhibition to explore how the "philosophy of beauty" is
allied to the craft of dressmaking. Each of the 75 looks on display was
chosen to exemplify the relationship between technical ingenuity and
artistic excellence. "
Maria Cornejo, One dress in felted grey wool, 2003. Photograph: William Palmer.
Definitely looks like the focus is on American women and their style -- let's do our best in 2010!
|
|
What You Need to Know
- Fashion Copyright Bill Analysis
A new law is being proposed to limit the copying of designs, including clothing. Read the details -- could be important to your business. - The Golden Mean in the Human Body
For a great look and further understanding about how the Golden Mean is everywhere including ourselves: A little gift of interesting paper -- for scaling patterns and experimenting with forms and folds. You can choose from all grids, colors, sizes!
|
|
|
If you have the familiar clothing problem of one part fitting and the other part not, then it is time to try this process and create your own pattern for a multi-purpose garment that fits great all over. It yields a fabulous coat/robe/beachcoat/shirt/peignoir/sweater -- and skirt! that is custom designed for each person's 
dimensions -- it can't not fit. 
It will also be out in January. I have made it 5 times over the years and here is the latest version, a coat done in heavy wild silk. The 'skirt' is the same coat, wrapped around the the waist with the collar tied in the back and the sleeves inverted a
