On Friday I attended “Sketch to Screen: The 2012 TFT/ Copley Oscar Costume Design Celebration” at UCLA. This is the second year they showcased the industries top costume designers with a reel of collected work from each film nominated and a Q & A afterwards. In attendance were Mark Bridges (The Artist), Deborah Scott (Transformers), Sandy Powell (Hugo), Lisy Christl (Annonymous), Leesa Evans (Bridesmaids) and Wendy Chuck (The Descendants) amongst much talent in the audience. They shared their fears of really just wanting to be liked by others in the production, primarily gaining the confidence and trust of the actors. They also shared their secret undergarments to creating beautiful silhouettes such as rubber corsets for better posture in men and everyones favorite Spanx (www.spanx.com).
For Custo Barcelona’s (www.custo-barcelona.com) spring ready to wear 2012 collection he not only executed it well but created 3D fabric. One of his groups was called “Mirame” (Spanish for “look at me”) which with a pair of 3D glasses you could see the 3D fabric that made up beautiful long psychedelic motif dresses. His highly colorful and patterned collections continued with another group he called “Dual”. It had androgynous looks and both male and female models walked beside one another down the runway in similar pieces. As I saw the minute differences they really resounded with me because these examples are on everyday people in the streets such as in groups of friends, couples and work uniforms. They wear the same pieces essentially and then add feminine or masculine touches which is exactly what Custo mastered.
I finally finished watching “America: The Story of Us”, the miniseries which I caught on Netflix. I highly recommend it. On episode 4 they were talking about the industrialization of America and the invention of the power loom which was a loom that took raw cotton and made it into yardage. This was the start of the factory as we know it and employed mainly single women ages 15- 25 having them earn money for the first time. The clothing industry started here since fabric was more attainable and the increase in demand for it created a growth in employment. Long were the days where most families made their own clothes and now ready to wear was introduced along with more jobs. The most fascinating part of the miniseries was when they told the story of how they figured out to make patterns on the cloth through a series of punch cards. (http://www.computersciencelab.com/ComputerHistory/HistoryPt2.htm) Each hole in the loom would tell it to use a different colored thread creating a binary code. Binary code! The same code which aided in the basis of our modern day computers and has facilitated our navigation through life. Now tell me that’s not amazing. It would also introduce us to our friend the hanging chad.
As I looked for 60s jackets and wedding dresses at Western Costume (www.westerncostume.com) yesterday I couldn’t help but go through all the wonderful pieces and wish we as a society still dressed up for everyday outings. Such fabulous dresses, well constructed with rhinestones around the neck and perfect bows at your waist. In lime green and buttery yellows, bubble gum pink and scarlet red how could you not be happy just wearing it let alone go somewhere in it. They all still kept their structured shapes and all the buttons were still perfectly covered (at least the ones I looked at). And if that wasn’t enough a matching jacket either in the same fabric or even better with the same lining. A set. Who could believe it. We live in a society of mixing and matching. Mix this, match that. It’s kind of refreshing to see something that was build for another specific thing. Granted a Barbie pink ensemble may be much but that’s where an emerald green set saves your life.
I was watching America: The Story of Us on Netflix (www.netflix.com) and in season 1, episode 6, Sears (www.sears.com) was brought up. Yes, I grew up going there and now use it as a go to for necessary costume staples such as slips and their never-ending selection of Levi’s(www.levi.com). For a while you could even say I was living at the one in Glendale. But to hear the Richard Sears’ story was fascinating.
In 1883 with the wide development of railroads in the U.S. it was hard to keep a train time schedule since every town went by their own clock. The current four time zones started then as a means to facilitate this. At the time a train station agent, Richard Sears from North Redwood, MN bought a batch of pocket watches and sold them to other station agents. He sold all of them quite rapidly and ordered more. More importantly, he saw how it was now possible to sell products across the country with the ever linking railroads and made a mail order catalog (how we like those still) and moved to Chicago. Sears alone sold 100,000 sewing machines amongst other products but of course I was interested in that fact. In 1895 a Chicago clothing manufacturer named Julius Rosenwald became part owner (www.wikipedia.org). And Sears became the Sears we know today, well perhaps its popular cousin.