Francisco de Mendieta y Retes 15th Century Millinery.

Hats like pastas, pastries, ship sails, snail shells, horns, and cathedrals. At least 40 different 15th century headdresses - a smorgasbord of millinery... I found in a book -  The Life and Times of Columbus. There too, in 1476, are Ferdinand and the Royal Guard of the Castile - painted in detail by Francisco de Mendieta y Retes, but the white draped and bundled millinery is what I keep studying... because of the variety. Perhaps each hat represents a particular location - or order. I can't find a thorough explanation for these millinery marvels, but feel the image is worthy of a look at least.

Too, see the baby - his wee face framed by a ruff.  

Francisco de Mendieta y Retes, the constitution of Biscay, 15th c. hennin/headdress.

Francisco de Mendieta y Retes, the constitution of Biscay, 15th c. hennin/headdress.

1942: McCall's: Fashion Illustrators

McCall's Fashion Illustrations from salvaged 1942 magazine - illustrators: Marian Blynn, Blanche Rothschild, Jean Des Vignes, Fitzwater.

So Right Sarong.

Hattie:  July 2010:  Art Fashion Creation.

model - hattie, sarong toile and photo - toile la la

L'Oeil Creatif a L'Avance A/H F/W 15/16 Collection.

A/H F/W 15/16 RTW, Toile La La model Fleur.

Inspiration: The aesthete's eye for color, shape, and movement - concepts of futurepast and perspective - and rainy-day Cezanne brights.

Pre-Fall 15/16 Womens RTW Preview.

Toile La La Apple Sweater and Tartan Skirt - A/H F/W 15/16 RTW, model Fleur.

Cezanne apples and rainy-day-brights, magnified plaid, a bateau neckline tops a shawl-collar.

A/H F/W 15/16: Spotlight on A Muse.

Model Bat in an A/H F/W 15/16 ensemble from Toile La La.

With her passion for art and architecture, fashion model Bat is also an aesthete.  Her everyday style hints of Goth, Grunge, even the Beat Generation.  Her eye for shape, color, and movement inspired the A/H F/W 15/16 collection - to the extent that this specific ensemble was created especially for her.  The cap is a striped version of her plain one.  The red neckerchief is her own.  The dolman sleeved bateau sweatshirt is similar to one we often see her wearing.  Bat is mad for plaid... so this magnified tartan A-line is dedicated to her.  Best of all, we like the way the silk hi-lo underskirt accentuates Bat's speedy gait... trailing behind her as she winds her way through museums and bookshelves.  Just add Bat's signature long black gloves and tall black boots and you've got the complete picture!  More photos of Bat in her favorite places at this Art Fashion Creation post.

Here, Bat in the Tres Petit Trianon Jardin as she appeared in the A/H F/W RTW Toile La La Romantic Souls fashion show last summer.

Leon Bakst (stststst's) Cat in the Form of a Woman.

Leon Bakst - The Supper.

I like everything about this painting, mostly though - that the woman reminds me so much of a cat.  From her coy, sly, feline smile - to the way her sleek arms are resting sphynx-like in front of her - to the train of her dress, trailing tail-like and curved.  Plus - if you're familiar with cat behavior... it seems the moment you dress a table - perfect and pristine... that's the exact time a cat wants to rest upon it!

The contrast here too - of Bakst's supping sitter - is lovely, the distribution of dark and light patches, interspersed with intermediate grey.  It isn't just the clever placement of dark and light, but the way in which they nestle against each other - boundaries, yet companions.

Those oranges, I love that touch - the roundness, the brightness, the way there's just a bit of orange-ness near the face of this feline woman... and some orange shadow in the cloth.

This is a painting I would like to study in close detail, wanting to know if these really are orange oranges - or are they just apples which look like oranges through my monitor.  And, with closer examination I would know if there were faint hints of color within the neutral areas of grey or brown.  Are they dull greys and browns - or are there smidgeons of blue or maroon within those neutrals.  The brushstrokes too, are something I like to study.  However, for now, I will just have to enjoy observing this cat-like lady, her kitten-mitten paws, and her rather Schiap Shoe-ish hat from a distance.

Kind of Time Travel-Freaky Friday.

You may have felt a feeling similar to the time travel-Freaky Friday feeling - if you are patient enough and curious enough to look through old photo albums of the type which have been carefully assembled over the course of many years -  

Reading a diary, travel journal, or autobiography might convey the same transferred feeling.

What would it be like - I often wondered - to be inside the mind of my cat... but I've yet to experience that.  For that matter, what is it like to be of any frame of thought other than one's own.  Too, there's the subject of recall - and how well you are able to remember even your own experiences.

In offering you this idea, my point is - it's an interesting sensation to even briefly understand someone else's perspective.  Hence, the Freaky Friday reference:  it was one of my favorite pre-teen reads; a mother and daughter completely switch places (something else I've yet to experience).

My Freaky Friday-time travel feeling transpired thanks to my archiving/pack-ratting ways - which preserved a smorgasbordic-cornucopic-encyclopedic collection of drawings/tearsheets/thoughts and observations from my teen/young adult life in the 1980s. 

I cannot convey to you what it would be like to live the life of my cat, or even my mother, but I can let you have a peek inside my 80s brain... via a book.

Toile La La 80s Fashion Design Book 1: Drawn.  Book or Zine Available.

The link takes you to Etsy, where you'll see a book and a zine.