fashion | Michele Roohani

So I am crazy about my new Pantone app; it helps me find the colors that make me happy like these red/tangerine/persimmons on this sexy koi:

This gorgeous Dior hat is in my favorite color, RED!

And this wine palette has all the colors of your favorite Bordeaux and Bourgogne:

Let’s go to the pinks now with this “femme rose” from 1959:

or this tangerine/ochre skirt that reminds me of Veuve Clicquot, my favorite champagne:

I love the combination of pink and orange like a romantic sunset:

and all shades of soft peach puffs,

and this pretty tan/rose:

with its paler pastel cousin, rose smoke:

But let’s go back to happy cherry blossoms from Christopher Kane,

or these crimson cherry lips from 1950:

or these irreverent Louboutin shoes in pink flambé,

stunning mimosa socks, from Meadham Kirchhoff:

or this ultramarine green and pink combo. (All of these pictures and their sources are on my Pinterest page)

Funny but only after I made this following palette, I came to appreciate the necklace and its moca/turquoise/rose palette:

Now let’s explore the realm of moss/sage in this apparitioin by Elie Saab:

Look at this mint princess here:

The periwinkle fairy:

and the wisteria goddess from Marchesa:

I love the steel blue on her,

A little detour into more serious and warmer colors:

and back again into the flashy seafoams from Blanka Matragi:

and royal blues:

Blue being my other favorite color, I end this post with this quiet blue palette on a rainy afternoon in China photographed by Eric Lafforgue:

“Blue makes no noise.

It is a timid color, without ulterior motives, forewarning or plan; it does not leap out at the eye like yellow or red do, but rather draws it in, taming it little by little, letting it come unhurriedly, so that it sinks in and drowns in it, unaware.”

“Le bleu ne fait pas de bruit.

C’est une couleur timide, sans arrière-pensée, présage, ni projet, qui ne se jette pas brusquement sur le regard comme le jaune ou le rouge, mais qui l’attire à soi, l’apprivoise peu à peu, le laisse venir sans le presser, de sorte qu’en elle il s’enfonce et se noie sans se rendre compte de rien.” Jean Michel Maulpoix

I loved the LACMA exhibition, Fashioning Fashion, which tells the story of fashion’s aesthetic and technical development from the Age of Enlightenment to World War I in Europe. I had the feeling of being in a toy store that sells giant Barbies!

I couldn’t help adding the masks (above) or the Barbie to the boxes! The mannequins are life size.

The show’s byline is European Dress in Detail, 1700-1915, and they go to great length to show that you had to wear this underneath:

to be able to wear this on top! By 1750’s, the hoop petticoat or Panier (french for basket) measured up to 6 feet to display wide skirts made of expensive textiles like this one with this fabulous chinoiserie:

A hundred years later, the skirt is bell shaped and crinoline supported; Scarlett O’Hara, here I come!

“This exhibition examines sweeping changes in fashionable dress spanning a period of over two hundred years, and evolutions in luxurious textiles, exacting tailoring techniques, and lush trimmings.” The LACMA show highlights how each era emphasized a different part of the anatomy.

You had to endure these auxiliary bustles (the hinged-wire one in the middle is collapsible):

to be able to go around in these:

How far would you endure to please? Things kept getting more complicated (skirts with folds upon folds and trims galore) with the invention of the sewing machine and the evolution of corset and bustle:

The variety of textile was a feast for the eye—warp-resist dyed silk, taffetas of infinite plaid patterns, embroideries, moirés, etc…

Just look at the tassels on the “horizontal shelf” bustle on this baby!

I was surprised to see the a pair of fetish boots (Belgium 1900) that would take forever to tie and untie and open drawers! Judging from his paintings of the brothels, Toulouse Lautrec must have known these with details…

Even the non-X rated ones are super sexy; the corset on the left is made of whale bones or baleen and the one on the right is decorated with gorgeous metallic-tread embroideries:

In mid 18th century Europe, a great collaboration among the weavers, the braid makers and the fabric dealers produced these dazzling masterpieces of fly fringes and tassels:

The french revolution brought the neoclassical style of ancient Greece and Rome—Napoleon changed it to the Empire Style: thin white muslin dresses with short sleeves, high waistline and low neckline. Shawls from India were the perfect match to add color and warmth:

Bling Bling Bling! The gold and silver embroidery was omnipresent in European courts—the more the merrier…

By the end of the 19th century, women liberated themselves from all this hassle; this riding habit from 1890 is made by a tailor (for men) instead of a dressmaker, the Tea Gown being inspired by traditional Asian garments is free flowing—their makers, Liberty & Co., are still in existence in London.