Tags
1950s, bbc, ben whishaw, blue, Burda, Burda Style, Burdastyle, circle skirt, collar, dominic west, dress, dresses, facings, fashion, inspiration, Jimmy McNulty, pintucks, pleats, romola garai, shirt dress, suez crisis, the hour, the wire, tv series, v9200, vintage, vogue 9200
Dear Blog,
How’s things? Apologies for the fortnight of solid neglect I have inflicted upon you, but first I was busy getting everything wrapped up for the Christmas break, and then I was even busier shopping, eating my own weight in Pandoro and tracing sewing patterns on Mum and Dad’s 14-seater dining table (since there is no machine at The Manor).
With regards to the sewing and the sewing alone, I have finished my fourth Vogue 9200, and this time it has sleeves and cuffs – real sleeves! Real cuffs! I really need to get on to that self-timer and post some pictures.
The other day I nearly traced Burdastyle 2012-11-109 but realistically, how many milk-snatcher blouses does a non-Prime Minister woman need? I really need to do a bit of SWAP (Sewing With A Plan) for next year. But not too much of a plan. Just like my life really!
By the time you read this I will be somewhere in the sky between Venice and Manchester, worrying about whether my fabric shopping haul is feeling lonely in belly of the metal sausage with the wings.
I have celebrated Eczemas (that’s how you pronounce Xmas in Italian if you’re British) by visiting the good (and expensive) market stall and the ace fabric shop that looks like a diner – going to be busy in the new year!
But enough blathering – back to The Hour. Series Two ended with a double bill two weeks ago. I am not going to spoil it for you but suffice it to say that the story finally picked up in the last episode (and about flamin’ time!) but there wasn’t an awful lot of new clothes to look at, and for this reason I am writing only one blog post about the two episodes.
One good thing about the last two episodes was the amount of turquoise. Teal. Petrol blue. Call it what you like, it was everywhere.
Here’s Bel Rowley pulling a face that say “Ugh, early morning”, while wearing a blue dress with some fantastic collar detail:
Now check out the scarf hanging on the left, and the cupboard on the right… turquoise overload! Reader, I die.
Here’s a shot of the back of the dress. The reason why I am including this is it shows the full extent of the under-armour. I do wonder whether it was vintage underwear or simply period-appropriate, but either way it makes me grateful I was born in the Seventies. Vain as I am, I don’t think I could suffer this much to look good.
The pièce de resistence for this series finale is once again a striped shirtdress for Marnie. Here’s a lovely shot of the front. Horizontal stripes on the bodice? Don’t mind if I do!
Here’s a couple of full-length shots of the back. The stripe matching on the skirt is nothing we haven’t all seen before, but check out the back of the bodice:
Here’s a better shot – the slightest ever chevron is made by a centre back seam. Talk about making a feature out of being economical with fabric!
Are you delighted yet? Can I delight you some more? Check out the chevron on the sleeves. Yes! The sleeves! This dress is completely awesome:
Honestly, I have no words. So in love with this dress!
Elsewehere, there was also a pink dress with black flowers and lovely details around the collars and sleeves:
Kiki wore a lovely black knit top with embroidery at the neckline. I am saying it’s knit because you could see pilling on it, which makes me wonder whether it was period rather than made for the show. Either way, it was lovely and simple:
And that’s a wrap for all garments of note in this series! I am tempted to revisit Series 1 and do the same, but I am already piling too much in my to-do list for 2013 and I want to be realistic.
I will try and have one last post before the end of the year, so stay tuned!
