March 9th Today, I am...

...this gorgeous Valentino dress!

I'm Le Gardin d'Eden dress, "a zirconium-colored tulle dress, embroidered in silk threads, with a scene of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden inspired by the painting "Adam and Eve" by Lucas Cranach in 1526, taking 2,200 hours to hand embroider"  from Valentino spring 2014 couture collection. The whole fashion show was inspired by opera - fifty-five looks for fifty-five operas. The designers, Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli went for a different approach this time, the show opened with a nod to Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata. Chiuri explained, "we wanted to describe the character of each [opera's] protagonist in a primordial way." The connections were sometimes tenuous, but that didn't detract from the austere beauty of simply draped silk marocain dresses in earthy shades of sienna, green, and mahogany. "The surprise was all the animals—a veritable menagerie of them, or as the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns would've had it, a carnaval des animaux. A swan, a snake, and a peacock made from feathers that wrapped around the waistline of ballerina tutus…lions and elephants on a double-face cashmere dress and a coat (not embroidered, mind you, but built into the fabric of the garments, like a puzzle)…even a gorilla and its baby were spotted tucked amid the leather floral appliqués of an organza cape."
(from Style.com)

other Valentino S/S14 couture collection dresses:

interesting Valentino facts:

* his first job was with couturier Jean Desses in 1950 – he was just 18 years old
* Valentino launched his first collection and salon in Rome in 1960; he was famous for his full-length skirts, which stood out from the minis that were popular at the time
* a serious dog lover, Valentino owns six pugs: Milton, Monty, Maude, Margot, Maggie, and Molly
* he designed the dress that Jackie Kennedy wore to marry Aristotle Onassis
* he made a cameo appearance in The Devil Wears Prada, alongside Meryl Streep who played fictional American Vogue editor Miranda Priestly

(facts found at College Fashion and  Vogue)

March 5th Today, I am...

...Queen Maud of Norway's dress!

Queen Maude of Wales was born in 1869. She became Queen of Norway in 1905. She was a daughter of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom. Maud of Wales was the first queen of Norway since 1380 who was not also queen of Denmark or Sweden. As for the dress, I am a gorgeous example of Art Nouveau Fashion of late 19th and early 20th century. A square silhouette (broad, padded shoulders and straight body) was typical. New inventions like the zipper (for shoes) and rayon (for hosiery) found their way into fashion. Women's clothing softened, sleeves became more modest, and a soft, triangular silhouette developed. Later the triangular skirt became cylindrical, producing a narrow, rectangular silhouette. Bodices and skirts were more commonly combined into one-piece dresses, and lighter construction was used. Tailored looks became more popular. Top fashion designers such as Paul Poiret experimented with unusual silhouettes. Soft fabrics like crepe, charmeuse, chiffon, and batiste were popular for tea dresses and evening gowns. Dresses made of lace, or embroidered cotton combined with lace, were fashionable for warm weather. Firmer fabrics such as wool and cotton duck were used for tailored wear.
The House of Worth (a French house of high fashion) sold these designs throughout Europe.

other Queen Maude's dresses:

interesting Art Nouveau fashion facts:

* this was a period of immense social upheaval, particularly for women
* after the war (WW1), there was an explosion of exhuberance in style, as a youthful generation took center stage amid a decade of prosperity
* the excitement of Jazz Age life, prohibition, and the idealization of college men and coeds in the US gave a youthful emphasis to fashion
* knits, leather, and rayon for the first time became important fashion materials
* during the depression years of the 1930's fashion was driven by the fantasies of Hollywood, and by a desire to return to a more traditionally feminine image for women
*  in the late Art Nouveau period movie stars like Marlene Dietrich and Katherine Hepburn made it acceptable for women to wear trousers in public
* the war (WW2) provided an opportunity for American designers to establish themselves; previously fashion ideas had emanated mainly from Paris

(all facts found at: Art, Design and Visual Thinking)

March 2nd Today, I am...

...this lovely vintag-y like dress!

I am a Chotronette dress, which is a Romanian fashion brand. They are inspired by ballerinas and circus music, they love insane photoshoots. The brand consist of two designers, Silvia Chiteala and Laura Cazacu. "We’re obsessed with Frida Kahlo, retro punk music, Art Nouveau architecture, Wes Anderson’s movies and Victorian glasshouses. Our artistic goal is to make timeless dresses that would have looked great at Gatsby’s parties, but that would still look exquisite 50 years from now. We don’t believe in trends, but we do believe in style./.../ The characters we create in the Chotronette imaginarium are the seemingly-perfect suburban housewife, the Russian princess, the Audrey Hepburn wannabe, the goth Tim Burton muse and Mexican Lolita. We create these imaginary universes, because the world needs stories and we consider ourselves visual story tellers.
/.../Chotronette was featured in Vogue Britain and Vogue Italy, Playboy Romania and many other local magazines. We’ve collaborated with some very inspiring people, and we’re always searching for artists who share our aesthetic values."

other Chotronette dresses:

 interesting dress facts:

* up until the 19th century, children were dressed as miniature adults
* up until around 1910, it was totally common for little boys to wear dresses until they were around 5 or 6 
* during the 1860s, dresses were so wide that women were often stuck in doorways 
* South Korea used to have actual fashion police who would go around measuring the miniskirt length of women; if skirts were deemed too short, they could be fined or arrested 
* the world’s longest wedding dress has a train that’s 1.85 miles long; it required approximately three miles of taffeta and 18 feet of lace to produce
* Marie Antoinette was actually super modest and wore a high-cut flannel gown while bathing so nobody could catch a glimpse of her naughty bits 

(all facts found at Buzzfeed)