#HistoryOfFashion | Valentina Expressions

High Style | Valentina Cirasola | Designer

22 May 2015 4 Comments

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #20thCenturyFashion, #BrooklynMuseumCostumeCollection, #HighStyleExhibition, #HistoryOfFashion, #LegionOfHonorFashionEhibition, #RedVoyageIntoColors

I am taking some time off life, business and everything else, but not without feeding my soul with art and all the artistic expressions. Visiting The San Francisco Art Market last week and some museums have been a mind opening. Next, I will visit some culinary academies to experience food creations made by students and aspiring chefs.

The High Style Exhibition at the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco was a great visit. This is the Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection that will be in San Francisco until July 19, 2015. If you are in the area don’t lose the opportunity to visit such precious collection, sophisticated expressions of women fashion of the 20th century from 1910 to 1980.
High Style includes French couture houses of Jeanne Lanvin, Coco Chanel, Givenchy, Elsa Schiapparelli and American designers Charles James, Sally Victor, and Gilbert Adrian, among the others of the ‘30s and ‘40s eras.

High Style Exhibition is divided into three sections: Influence of Historical Fashion, Influence of Traditional World Couture and Influence of Art and Artists Movements.
In 1927 the fashion collection of Madame Grès was influenced by the chiton and the peplum, two popular women wear of the Roman Empire. Designer Worth Jean Philippe of the house of Worth was influenced by the high waisted dress of medieval era, which the Edwardian of the 1800s liked so much. In 1949 Gilbert Adrian imitated the Robe à la Française with the panier hips, (the cage under the dress that exaggerated women’s hips).
I adored seen the shoes of the Belle Époque echoing the 17th-century shoes covered with exquisite lace and velvet fabric, which Pietro Yantorny reinterpreted so well.

Lanvin-1923 Evening Dress

Louis Hills

Satin Shoe-Steven Arpad-1939

Elsa Schiapparelli BoleroDress

Zodiac Jacket Schiapparelli

Tigress Evening Dress Gilbert Adrian

Arnold Scaasi Spring

Arnold Scaasi-1961 – Evening Ensemble

Sorelle Fontana

Muslin Pattern – Charles James

Charles James Diamond Dress

Charles James Evening

Tree Ball Gown 1955 Charles James

(all photos were taken at the Legion of Honor Museum, San Francisco by Valentina Cirasola)

American designer Charles James was fascinated by the women derriere and emphasized it in all his dresses. He accomplished the provocative shaping at the back of a Victorian princess-line dress with a simple realignment of the princess seam and contrasting colors. He created a sensuous form of the female anatomy. In the section dedicated to Charles James the 3-D video representation of his dress construction is amazingly interesting. We can understand how a dress is conceived from paper to realization, piece by piece put together as an architectural building brick by brick and geometrically pleasing. Steven Arpad in 1939 created the satin shoes with the hill echoing the C curve of a Barocco bed, which Chanel picked up again so many years later. It is fun to see how inspiration can come from minute details everywhere even from a bed detail.

Picasso’s art influenced Gilbert Adrian in 1949 and Elsa Schiapparelli in the ‘40s interpreting the beautifully embroidered outfit of a torero, produced evening ensembles with a bolero for a totally different function. She was also inspired by nature and classical art when she produced dresses and jewelry with insects and butterflies, of course not real, but embroidered to perfection.

This is a must-see exhibition, but in the meantime, if you want to hear the curator presenting the collection High Style, watch the video below. Ciao,
Valentina
https://valentinadesigns.com/services#fashion-services

Valentina Cirasola is a trained Fashion and Interior Designer, working in the USA and Europe. Born in Italy in a family of artists, style surrounded her since the beginning of her life. Her many years of experience led her to offer consultations in both specializations and now she can remodel homes as well as personal images. To better help people in the world, she offers consultations online. She is the author of three books. Get your copy of Valentina’s book on colors: ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Sagging To The Knees | Valentina Cirasola | Designer

06 Feb 2015 2 Comments

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #Codpiece #Flappers #1800'sCorsets, #CulDeCrin, #HistoryOfFashion, #MaryQuant, #RedVoyageIntoColors, #SaggyFashion, #ValentinaCirasolaAuthor

Welcome to a new episode of my Friday Fashion!
It is so amazing to see how through centuries fashion shifts its attention to various parts of a human body and attributes a sexy role to those parts to keep us interested. In the Renaissance, for instance, a woman forehead was considered very sexy only if it was exposed really high. To achieve that look, women shaved the front hairline and then gathered all the hair in the back of the neck like a skein of wool enclosed in an elegant net.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, the attention shifted on the woman’s breast. Tight corsets pushed up the breasts to enormous proportions, reducing the woman’s torso into a funnel look with a tiny waist and bulging boobs, making breathing very difficult.

Piero del Pollaiolo – Portrait of girl 1467-70

Tight Lacing, or Fashion Before Ease, John Collet, 1770-1775

In the 1800s through the era of La Belle Époque, the “Cul De Crin” came into fashion to emphasize the woman’s derrière. It was a puffy cushion made of horsehair tied in the waist, laid on the derrière and worn under the skirt. Older women carried a larger and stuffier cul de crin. It threw the woman’s figure onward as if she walked on tiptoes.

1800’s Dress with a concealed cul de crin

Cul de Crin – circa 1820 – Found on: http://www.abitiantichi.it/collezione/biancheria/crinolina12.html

In traditional Japanese culture, the nape of a woman’s neck held a strong attraction for many Japanese men. Face, hands and nape were the only parts of the body left uncovered.

Gaisha-Bitai – the willowy – Found on http://kienthuc.net.vn/phong-thuy/huyen-bi-nghe-thuat-lam-dep-cua-geisha-266620.html

Flapper Dresses- 1920-30’s – Found on http://www.cafepress.co.uk/+paris+postcards

Mary Quant ‘s Mini Skirt

During the ’20s and ’30s legs came into full attention, women got rid of corsets, shorten the dress and exposed the legs for the first time. Mary Quant, British designer conquered the world in the 60’s with her new invention: the Mini Skirts. Legs are now in plain view from top to bottom, often starting as high as the crotch.

I could go on and on with these examples on how fashion extrapolate parts of the human body and turns them into the subject of sex from era to era.
Don’t think for a minute that men are not subjected to the ferocious scrutiny and volubility of fashion. Men have had their fair share through times, although men’s dress style has not changed much in the last 100 years.

Going to the Renaissance Fair last Autumn I was reminded of the “Codpiece” worn during the 15th and 16th centuries. It was a time of economic and territorial expansion, a period in which the display of virility exaggerating the masculine attributes in any form of public life played a major part in a competitive culture. A codpiece (braguette in French) is a covering flap or pouch attached to the front of the crotch of men’s trousers to accentuate the genital area. Men enlarged the codpiece with padding, it served as a protection of men’s precious jewels and as an accent of their best points. Basically, they advertised what nature gave them.

Henry VIII in codpiece

Giovanni Battista Moroni – Portrait of Antonio Navagero 1565

Lanzichenecchi Soldier

The men’s jewelry is still in great attention, just the wrong attention, now we have the sagging pants. The sights of young lads wearing sagging pants down to their knees, showing their boxers in plain view overwhelm us. When are they going to understand this dressing style is not sexy and their walk resembles more the walk of troglodyte cave men. The worse part of this trend is to see women showing their undies through a low-cut jeans.

Girls if you think to be sexy looking like that, think again! The art of showing and not showing, to see and not to see, the art of making yourself mysterious is sexy, revealing everything you have is cheap. Make the mirror your best friend.

Guys, when you go to a job interview with your undies showing and your pants sagging to your knees, do you really think you will get a job? Kings and nobles did not need a job, with their power they did what they pleased and if that meant wearing a large stuffed up codpiece to magnify their virility, they did so and set the trends for others. You are not in the same power! Ciao,
Valentina
https://valentinadesigns.com/services#fashion-services

Valentina Cirasola is a trained Fashion and Interior Designer, working in the USA and Europe. Born in Italy in a family of artists, style surrounded her since the beginning of her life. Her many years of experience led her to offer consultations in both specializations and now she can remodel homes as well as personal images. To better help people in the world, she offers consultations online. She is the author of three books. Get your copy of Valentina’s book on colors: ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

The Ridicule, A Piece Of History | Valentina Cirasola | Designer

28 Feb 2011 6 Comments

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #HistoryOfFashion, #Masks, #Ridicule, #ValentinaCirasolaFashionDesigner, #XIXCenturyFashion, Costume

When a woman of the XIX century was getting ready to go out had many things to coordinate for her outfit. The parasol, a pair of gloves and a hat, a shawl and the fan to disguise her blushing at the compliments from a man.

By then, the woman’s dressing ensemble had become a little less complicated than the previous centuries, nonetheless, feminine frills still continue to exist. One accessory she couldn’t forget to take before leaving the house was the “Ridicule”.

Silk Ridicule

It was a small purse in the shape of a sack with a long silk decorative cord, worn hanging from the arm. Inside the Ridicule, the woman used to put a lipstick, a handkerchief and a mirror, which by that time was a popular item to carry in the purse.
If the woman of the XIX went dancing, one important item was kept in the Ridicule: a little book where she noted the names of the men who asked her to dance. Each man had a number on that list, she would accept their gallantry as she went through the list and took the center floor.

Last night going to the masquerade ball, you know is Carnevale at this time of the year, I wore a Ridicule with my costume. I found it a few years ago in an antique shop in Italy. I wanted it so bad, but the price was so high that I had to let out my bargaining skills in order to get it somewhat at my price.

Pompadour

Back to the masquerade ball of last night, I was wearing a beautiful Pompadour purse in my hand and the Ridicule hanging from my rhinestone-studded belts. Of course, a few people were curious to know what was that thing hanging from the belt. Telling the story of the Ridicule last night was an experience all by itself.

It was a bit like a lesson on the history of costumes, a bit of story-telling, quite a few laughs, but the important part was that my Ridicule became an icebreaker with people I met for the first time and a conversation piece. The modern woman (me) was carrying business cards and cellular phone in the Ridicule, no name of any man waiting to dance with me. How times have changed!

If you are interested in creating a fashion statement for yourself and for your home décor, I am here to help you, just leave your name and comment in the box below. Ciao,
Valentina

Fashion Services
https://valentinadesigns.com/services#fashion-services

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian Interior Designer in business since 1990 and a Fashion Designer. She blends well fashion and interior in any of her design work. Being Italian born and raised, Valentina’s design work has been influenced by Classicism and stylish, timeless designs. She will create your everyday living with a certain luxury without taking away a comfortable living. Author of three books available on:
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w