Clothing

Post #116 Monday 19 August 2019 – A new coat

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Letters from America

Monday 19 August 2019

I posted this selfie on Twitter last week. This is my new coat. I had to concede my favourite old pale trench coat was finished. Such a lovely, quality thing I bought in Double Bay ages ago, I had finally worn it out.

All this sentiment reminded me of the improbable scene in La Boheme where the old coat gets serenaded before being pawned to buy medicines for the rapidly declining Mimi, who is flushed with TB.
Caruso’s version of the song – The Coat Song:

https://tinyurl.com/yxomvnps

It’s a little while since I went to the opera.  But it’s a much longer while since I bought student rush tickets for $5.  In those days the opera theatre was often half empty.  The audience always included elegant Hungarian women in mothball furs though.  It’s great the opera is so popular now but it’s so sad the days of student rush are over.  Those heavily discounted tickets gave impoverished students the incredible privilege of going to the opera several times a week when the season was on – what a life!
xx MG

Post #52 Wednesday 18 October 2017 – Melbourne, Canberra and Parsley Bay – part 1

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  Letters from America

Wednesday 18 October 2017

In the last week I have been to Canberra and Melbourne and locally, to Parsley Bay, and also to the country and it’s been a pleasant time though busy and a little mixed too, with recurring flu.

Melbourne is a favourite place. I had planned to visit the National Gallery of Victoria*
to see the exhibition there of prints by the Japanese print maker Hokusai and had bought my ticket on line in advance.  I also ended up going to see an exhibition of 70 years of creation by the House of Dior.
(*does anyone else think it’s odd to have a National Gallery  _of_ Victoria? I mean it’s a National Gallery of Australia…).

Here is a very splendid gown from the Dior exhibition, designed by John Galliano whose work is the only dress designer’s work I ever instantly recognise – because of the striking audacity of the billowing sculptural forms he created.  I have just never get tired of them:

The other exhibition I went to, was of the Hokusai prints.  It was beautifully curated, whereas so many exhibitions are dumbed down.  This  presentation by contrast, was a challenge because the subject matter was rich and the Japanese cultural context always so different.  Some of the images have been heavily commercialised over the years, but even so, seeing them “in the flesh”, they didn’t seem old.   These well known images include a series of Mt Fuji images, and here is the print of Mt Fuji with lightning:

 

xx MG

Post #49 Monday 7 August 2017 – Charming dress made with light

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  Letters from America

Monday 7 August 2017

I am going to a festival at the end of September and camping in the bush (yes! your glamorous aunt does camping but only for a very good cause).  I want to create something special for the event, preferably something I can share.
I was inspired ages ago by a photo of a beautiful piece of clothing created with optical fibre.  This is the inspiring photo:

It’s lovely isn’t it?  I wanted to make something like this for the festival.

I may have left it a bit late for this year’s festival, but I will see what I can do all the same.  Progress reports will be posted (that’s  if there is any progress lol).

I really wanted to make a piece of clothing that I could easily share – like a cape which might be made to  look like a set of wings.  May be too ambitious.  With the constraints of time and knowledge I thought perhaps  I could  get an el cheapo version of  the fibre optic creation from ebay or etsy,  wear it for this year’s festival,  and then reverse engineer it to discover how I can make creations myself for next year.  Once I have that practical knowledge I can make the clothing to share that I originally wanted to do, and slope off to the next festival laden with treasure.

So these are the el cheapo versions I have been looking at online.  Any preferences?  Recommendations?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MG xx
Looking ahead to a luminous experience over the October long weekend – in the forest – with a few thousand hippies
but hippies who can actually do things – not hippies who just lie around smoking dope.