Fall '19 Haute Couture Creativity
Paris custom-made elitist fashion, known as Haute Couture, lives in a world of its own, governed by a confusing calendar that schedules Fall ’19 shows in July ’19. Confusing because the more realistic ready-to-wear designers have leapt ahead and already have shown Spring ’20 collections in New York, London, Milan and Paris. Confusing? Nobody seems bothered. A handful of designers demonstrate the diversity that defines fashion today. Each and every designer executes his or her own ideas, sometimes coincidentally agreeing on “trends” such as similar color palettes, silhouettes, textiles and design details.
For the better-late-than-never Haute Couture Fall ’19 season color concepts, there is a pretty pastel story along with a few powerful brights as well as reassuring black and more black. The silhouette du saison is voluminous, except when it’s slender. Many designers reinterpreted the sumptuously sculptural ‘50s creations of Cristobal Balenciaga and Charles James. There are a few overall ideas that appeared again and again. Tailoring continues to be regaining importance as evidenced by the presence of sharply tailored pantsuits that just happened to open many shows. Somewhat sublime simplicity gives pared-down, serious styles a sense of gravitas while the attention-grabbing opposite attitude sometimes played as a ridiculous joke. It seems as if the purpose of the venerable Haute Couture collections shown in Paris these days is to play catch-up with the truly trend-setting ready-to-wear international designer collections. But wait! Pure artistry prevails in a few collections: Iris Van Herpen, Ralph Rucci, Valentino and Chanel. Possible surprise dark horse newsmaker is the ethereal transparent veiling causing a bit of old fashioned fashion buzz in more than a few collections…Vive, La Paris!
Pretty pastel story: Armani Prive, Armani Prive, Givenchy
Powerful palette: Valentino, Alberta Ferretti, Viktor & Rolf.
Reassuring black: All, Christian Dior.
Interesting color combos: Ralph Rucci RR331, Valentino, Valentino.
Slender silhouette: Ronald van der Kemp, Chanel, Ralph Rucci RR331.
Voluminous silhouette: Iris van Herpen, Valentino, Martin Margiela.
Recalling ‘50s flair of Balenciaga and Charles James: Ralph Rucci RR331, Ralph Rucci RR331, Valentino.
Serious simplicity: Ralph Rucci RR331, Valentino, Alberta Ferretti.
Sharply tailored pantsuits: Fendi, Chanel, Armani Prive.
Attention-grabbing jokes? Ronald van der Kemp, Valentino, Valentino.
Artful originality: Iris Van Herpen.
Artful elegance: Ralph Rucci RR331.
Artful classics revisited: Virginie Viard at Chanel.
Artful creativity: Piero Piccioli at Valentino.
Veiled transparencies, textile news: Armani Prive, Fendi, Elie Saab.
Paris custom-made elitist fashion, known as Haute Couture, lives in a world of its own, governed by a confusing calendar that schedules Fall ’19 shows in July ’19. Confusing because the more realistic ready-to-wear designers have leapt ahead and already have shown Spring ’20 collections in New York, London, Milan and Paris. Confusing? Nobody seems bothered. A handful of designers demonstrate the diversity that defines fashion today. Each and every designer executes his or her own ideas, sometimes coincidentally agreeing on “trends” such as similar color palettes, silhouettes, textiles and design details.
For the better-late-than-never Haute Couture Fall ’19 season color concepts, there is a pretty pastel story along with a few powerful brights as well as reassuring black and more black. The silhouette du saison is voluminous, except when it’s slender. Many designers reinterpreted the sumptuously sculptural ‘50s creations of Cristobal Balenciaga and Charles James. There are a few overall ideas that appeared again and again. Tailoring continues to be regaining importance as evidenced by the presence of sharply tailored pantsuits that just happened to open many shows. Somewhat sublime simplicity gives pared-down, serious styles a sense of gravitas while the attention-grabbing opposite attitude sometimes played as a ridiculous joke. It seems as if the purpose of the venerable Haute Couture collections shown in Paris these days is to play catch-up with the truly trend-setting ready-to-wear international designer collections. But wait! Pure artistry prevails in a few collections: Iris Van Herpen, Ralph Rucci, Valentino and Chanel. Possible surprise dark horse newsmaker is the ethereal transparent veiling causing a bit of old fashioned fashion buzz in more than a few collections…Vive, La Paris!
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| Pretty pastel story: Armani Prive, Armani Prive, Givenchy |
 |
| Powerful palette: Valentino, Alberta Ferretti, Viktor & Rolf. |
 |
| Reassuring black: All, Christian Dior. |
 |
| Interesting color combos: Ralph Rucci RR331, Valentino, Valentino. |
 |
| Slender silhouette: Ronald van der Kemp, Chanel, Ralph Rucci RR331. |
 |
| Voluminous silhouette: Iris van Herpen, Valentino, Martin Margiela. |
 |
| Recalling ‘50s flair of Balenciaga and Charles James: Ralph Rucci RR331, Ralph Rucci RR331, Valentino. |
 |
| Serious simplicity: Ralph Rucci RR331, Valentino, Alberta Ferretti. |
 |
| Sharply tailored pantsuits: Fendi, Chanel, Armani Prive. |
 |
| Attention-grabbing jokes? Ronald van der Kemp, Valentino, Valentino. |
 |
| Artful originality: Iris Van Herpen. |
 |
| Artful elegance: Ralph Rucci RR331. |
 |
| Artful classics revisited: Virginie Viard at Chanel. |
 |
| Artful creativity: Piero Piccioli at Valentino. |
 |
| Veiled transparencies, textile news: Armani Prive, Fendi, Elie Saab. |
Colored Pencils for Antique Coloring Books
I learned early to stay in the lines and I have always been hopelessly devoted to happy hours spent coloring. Of course, my favorite coloring books always depicted the lovely ladies of the silver screen. In my opinion, the best movie star coloring books were printed in the ‘40s and ‘50s and as a kid, I hoarded a big collection that disappeared in the mists of time when I relocated to London in 1968. Decades later, as a nostalgic old guy back in America, I accumulated a big collection of vintage books and merrily colored a few pages left uncolored in the precious collectibles. I usually used Crayola crayons and I switched to colored pencils, but I soon discovered that the inferior quality paper was endangering the lifespan of the treasured coloring books. Nobody ever expected that the 15 or 25 cent books were to become valuable one day. Rare, uncolored books can today fetch hundreds of dollars (although almost impossible to find.) Unfortunately, many of the most collectible books are reaching the end of the paper’s lifespan, many seventy years old, or older. Not only are the pages yellowing, but the paper is dry, brittle and disintegrates when crayons or pencils are used. I color the pages very gently and lightly when what I really want is lush, vivid color (like Technicolor used to be!).
You can imagine how excited I was when by my friend, Kevin Wilkins introduced me to the colored wax pencils produced by a cool Australian company, Black Widow. Offered on amazon.com (very reasonably priced) is a 24 pencil set and two smaller sets packaged for light or dark skin shades and accents. I couldn’t wait to see if these new colored wax pencils would allow me to achieve the intense coloration I yearn for. Alas and alack! I had just acquired a mostly-uncolored “Ann Blyth” coloring book and when the point of the wax pencil tore right through the first page, I had to admit that my treasured coloring books are going, going, almost-gone. But like Molly Brown, I am unsinkable and I’m now going to try duplicating uncolored pages on a copier and I’ll try coloring the black and white copies with my new Black Widow colored wax pencils. If that doesn’t work, I may start collecting coloring book Covers (sadly discarding the disintegrating interior pages.) The covers were usually masterpieces of fan art…hmmm. What an interesting idea!
Black Widow 24 colored wax pencil set and Skin 12 colored wax pencil set.
Ann Blyth 1952 Coloring Book cover and colored title page.
Two pages from the book, colored by me using Black Widow colored wax pencils.
I learned early to stay in the lines and I have always been hopelessly devoted to happy hours spent coloring. Of course, my favorite coloring books always depicted the lovely ladies of the silver screen. In my opinion, the best movie star coloring books were printed in the ‘40s and ‘50s and as a kid, I hoarded a big collection that disappeared in the mists of time when I relocated to London in 1968. Decades later, as a nostalgic old guy back in America, I accumulated a big collection of vintage books and merrily colored a few pages left uncolored in the precious collectibles. I usually used Crayola crayons and I switched to colored pencils, but I soon discovered that the inferior quality paper was endangering the lifespan of the treasured coloring books. Nobody ever expected that the 15 or 25 cent books were to become valuable one day. Rare, uncolored books can today fetch hundreds of dollars (although almost impossible to find.) Unfortunately, many of the most collectible books are reaching the end of the paper’s lifespan, many seventy years old, or older. Not only are the pages yellowing, but the paper is dry, brittle and disintegrates when crayons or pencils are used. I color the pages very gently and lightly when what I really want is lush, vivid color (like Technicolor used to be!).
You can imagine how excited I was when by my friend, Kevin Wilkins introduced me to the colored wax pencils produced by a cool Australian company, Black Widow. Offered on amazon.com (very reasonably priced) is a 24 pencil set and two smaller sets packaged for light or dark skin shades and accents. I couldn’t wait to see if these new colored wax pencils would allow me to achieve the intense coloration I yearn for. Alas and alack! I had just acquired a mostly-uncolored “Ann Blyth” coloring book and when the point of the wax pencil tore right through the first page, I had to admit that my treasured coloring books are going, going, almost-gone. But like Molly Brown, I am unsinkable and I’m now going to try duplicating uncolored pages on a copier and I’ll try coloring the black and white copies with my new Black Widow colored wax pencils. If that doesn’t work, I may start collecting coloring book Covers (sadly discarding the disintegrating interior pages.) The covers were usually masterpieces of fan art…hmmm. What an interesting idea!
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| Black Widow 24 colored wax pencil set and Skin 12 colored wax pencil set. |
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| Ann Blyth 1952 Coloring Book cover and colored title page. |
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| Two pages from the book, colored by me using Black Widow colored wax pencils. |
A New Paper Doll Book is Born
Sometimes the creative process is not the shortest distance between two points. Case in point: Recently, I was chatting with Jenny Taliadoros, the owner-publisher of Paper Studio Press. We were discussing our favorite subject, paper doll books. We came up with the idea for a book devoted solely to stripes. We thought it would be a perfect subject for Brenda Sneathen Mattox. Wrong! Brenda was not at all excited by the subject. She had another project she wanted to pursue and Jenny approved. Meanwhile, I had roughed out an idea for the stripe book cover-- a woman in a backless black dress trimmed with a giant bow and streamers in rainbow colors.
I suggested to Jenny that I’d like to do the book myself and she gave me her blessing. I wanted to rework my cover idea and make the ribbon wider, which was not an easy thing to do. I devised a grid to figure out the stripes but there were too many lines and would be weeks of work. I simplified the stripes and sent it off to Jenny who disliked the rainbow color scheme and suggested I come up with a more sophisticated color story. So it was back to the drawing board, one more time. I decided to reconcept the entire project, making the dolls and the clothes look more modern, more doll-like. I realized that my usual, vintage-style approach would not have the look I was after. What to do? I conferred with Jenny and we came up with a surprising twist. To be continued in next month’s blog…
Left: very rough idea in color. Right: Grid guide with far too many lines!
Left: Mis-guided crayon test that failed. Right: Wider stripes deemed too "rainbow-y" by Jenny.
Left: Back cover in the works with doll. Right: Sophisticated stripes in shades of pink. Rejected!
Sometimes the creative process is not the shortest distance between two points. Case in point: Recently, I was chatting with Jenny Taliadoros, the owner-publisher of Paper Studio Press. We were discussing our favorite subject, paper doll books. We came up with the idea for a book devoted solely to stripes. We thought it would be a perfect subject for Brenda Sneathen Mattox. Wrong! Brenda was not at all excited by the subject. She had another project she wanted to pursue and Jenny approved. Meanwhile, I had roughed out an idea for the stripe book cover-- a woman in a backless black dress trimmed with a giant bow and streamers in rainbow colors. I suggested to Jenny that I’d like to do the book myself and she gave me her blessing. I wanted to rework my cover idea and make the ribbon wider, which was not an easy thing to do. I devised a grid to figure out the stripes but there were too many lines and would be weeks of work. I simplified the stripes and sent it off to Jenny who disliked the rainbow color scheme and suggested I come up with a more sophisticated color story. So it was back to the drawing board, one more time. I decided to reconcept the entire project, making the dolls and the clothes look more modern, more doll-like. I realized that my usual, vintage-style approach would not have the look I was after. What to do? I conferred with Jenny and we came up with a surprising twist. To be continued in next month’s blog…
 |
| Left: very rough idea in color. Right: Grid guide with far too many lines! |
 |
| Left: Mis-guided crayon test that failed. Right: Wider stripes deemed too "rainbow-y" by Jenny. |
 |
| Left: Back cover in the works with doll. Right: Sophisticated stripes in shades of pink. Rejected! |
Join us at the 2020 Paper Doll Convention!
Another fun time is planned for our paper doll family! Jill Kaar Hanson and her husband Jerry are hosting our next convention, July 1-5, 2020, in Milwaukee, WI. Visit OPDAG's convention page for more information. Hope to see you there!
Another fun time is planned for our paper doll family! Jill Kaar Hanson and her husband Jerry are hosting our next convention, July 1-5, 2020, in Milwaukee, WI. Visit OPDAG's convention page for more information. Hope to see you there!
I greatly enjoyed your run-down of the Haute Couture offerings, I love how you break them down into categories. I have to tell you that I would 100% wear the kooky yellow get-up from Valentino that's in your "attention-grabbing joke?" category. For whatever reason it pushes the right buttons for me. (Could it be the clown / circus button? I think I might secretly have that leaning - big stripes, polka dots, pom-poms, obnoxiously large fringe, bold oversized patterns in bright rainbow colors, colorful wigs...all these are things I gravitate toward, sometimes to my own dismay)
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