A robe of one's own.

I love robes! I love a nice thin cotton robe that folds into next to nowt, for travelling, for lounging, and for doing housework and baking first thing in the morning. So glamorous!
My own current robe I've not blogged about, which is remiss of me. But when staying with amazing friend B in London, she commented how cool it was and I decided she needed one of her own. She's back here in a few weeks on holiday and it's waiting for her under my Christmas tree.
Right, my early onset NY resolution is to go into more construction detail about my makes. But I took no progress pics, so it might be more wordy than visual.

The finished garment on a too small mannequin. Fabric is a classic Jason Yenter print from 2018- butterflies in a secondary colour based pallet that makes me very happy!

Lying flat - the pattern I based it on is an old one, size 14, cut straight up and down. Women have curves, dumb pattern! When we wear straight cut robes the front curves open below the knee, and opens out when we sit down! So, I always angle the pattern pieces to create an A line shape. I added about 30cm to both front and back at the hem, starting at the shoulder. So, more bust and hip room.

All the seams are flat felled so no raw edges anywhere. patch pockets won out over in seam pockets for their strength.

The inside showing the front band. I have three different ways of applying these, depending upon the fabrics used. For this stable cotton, the raw edge is folded under.

It's quite hard to see on this busy print but this is the back neck  - with a reinforcing yoke on the inside and a loop caught into the band seam for easy hanging up.

Front of robe with sleeves folded inward. Shows the band. Gosh I love this fabric but more to the point I know that B will!

You know I've made satin robes and robes out of saris, and they are pretty but they don't stay closed. And those internal ties always bug me. I know there's a place for these lux fabrics but I like a robe I can bake in, even if I am wearing an apron! Easy to wash, cool to wear, breathes, washes and dries easily.

My own current winter robe is made of polar fleece but it bugs me. I think my next one will be corduroy. Maybe interlined with flannel...

West End Wonders and Ooobop!

With three days at large in London over the first weekend in November, I made the most of it!

OMG, this happened! Janene from Ooobop.com and I got to spend quality time together and it's like we'd known each other forever in person not just online. What a gal! We hit the West End and the red wine and I think the cabaret world has a new fangirl - just sayin'!

Yes we were THIS close to Patti LuPone. She is every bit as incredible as her reputation. And in an ensemble piece, she was equally Dive and One of the company (of Company by Sondheim), which is part of her magic.

Ah the West End - terrible and fabulous. I love finding ancient landmarks like Lillywhites - which to me is all about Bertie Wooster and golf clubs!

Excellent busker in Piccadilly Circus by the way. I had a good old sing along.

 I have such a love/hate relationship with the West End. One the one hand it is SO London - people, historically fabulous places - Jermyn Street! Piccadilly Circus! The theatres! The crowds!
But it is also a massive tourist trap with terrible service on overpriced food, souvenirs and shows. Twice that weekend I ripped one in a French Maitre D, including the one at the Waldorf who made such a scene, I pointed out to him that it wasn't a lover's tiff.
A major exception was the food and service at Tandoori Chop in Charing Cross. They do amazing platters of the best Tandoori cuisine. A lovely place to brunch!

The Tube

Nothing says London like the Underground. Apparently a billion people ride the tube every year - I think they mean individual rides not distinct people! I love the tube stations, although I've only been on the Piccadilly line.
Remember the very deep Russell Square station? Turns out the 175 steps are only 6 inches deep so it is a mere 27 metres, or 6 storeys, underground. Today I decide we should take these steps down, and so we did:

Down, down, down...

And then some more down...

And more...and this was a good idea, why?...

Finally! Loving the tiles!!!

..Into the tiny round pod that is the tube station - so unchanged since the 1920's, except for the advertising, the people and the actual trains! Oh, and the endless announcements reminding you to mind the gap....
Every station on the Piccadilly line has its own colour scheme and patterning.

Covent Garden in yellows and russets arranged elaborately. Stupid poster is in the way!

The bathroomlike order and crispness of white and navy for Leicester Square

The cheery simplicity of Piccadilly Circus itself

And my favourite, Hyde Park, in cream and chocolate. See the No Exit sign? All tiled in. Most stations still have these tilework signs but many are partially obscured by annoying new signs.
I love these stations in all their tiled splendour.

London, a city of Shiny Things

I did promise to bring back shiny things, but there are plenty that I couldn't fit in my luggage!

Isn't he gorgeous!

On a building facing the Thames. Very tasteful...

Weathervane on the London Aquarium, I think, hence the fishies.

Do we love this as a name of a pub? Apparently the spot it is built is where it happened. The letter is very shiny...By the way, my favourite pub name to date is The Slug and Lettuce...

 On Oxford Street. So cute!

I LOVE this! Not gold shiny but tile shiny. The steps to a hotel in our street.

And lastly, a rampage of Popes in white Satin down in Picadilly. For a moment there I was back on Cuba St during the Sevens!
There is so much more that is shiny in London. The streets may not be paved with gold, but plenty else is there. Or bronze.

London - Day one waking up in Blighty

We wake up in a city that doesn't sleep much, especially the people in the room above! Up and at 'em however, and my first job is to find Evans and buy a lot of clothes. We end up in BHS on Oxford St,about a 2k walk from our hotel, through quintessential Londoness. Pubs on so many corners, and not just any pubs but Oak panelled pubs with stained glass windows! I took a photo of this one but soon realised that if I took photos of them all the camera would melt.

So many pubs, so much oak and stained glass!

Had to take this pic for you, Joy - it's like they saw your birthday cake!

The Evans in BHS is not that big and really, the clothes were a let down. Very like Kate Madison at the Warehouse. But a gorgeous Ghanaese lady called Alice helped me and I bought about six things. HOWEVER, next door is a shop called Ann Harvey, of which I had never heard, and it is everything I was expecting Evans to be. I spend 350 quid in there and come away with clothes the like of which I never thought I would wear let alone be able to buy! Including a catsuit!!!  Afraid? Be afraid! LOL!

 James Smiths of London, Umbrellas and hunting sticks etc since 350BC or some such. Had to snap it as of course Wellington lost its own James Smiths many years ago

Afternoon and we decide to take a bus tour. A great way to make sure we see everything and get a ready recc of the places we want to visit properly. The one we went on stops everywhere anyway and you can get on and off, however by the end of it, it is 7pm and dark. The tickets are valid for 24 hours so we are resuming in the morning and also doing a Thames boat tour. 

Shaftesbury Avenue with its famous theatres was a feature and I snapped a few. Gave up taking photos, again because most of the places we saw are snapped to death already, and Google image search will show hundreds. Am just enjoying the whole thing.

Impressions? WOW. The streets are so busy, the buildings are so fabulous. Architecture crowded together from 11th C to 21st C, most of the stuff we see however is 17th-19th. A city built upon itself time and again.

The bus trip gave us a chance to decide what shows we'd like to see, having gone past so many theatres. We settle upon Blithe Spirit starring Alison Steadman as Madame Arcati and Hermione Norris as Ruth. It is in the Apollo theatre, a wee jewellery box of a place seating 780 people but with three tiers! So elaborately worked in plaster painted gold, rose madder and sage green it's almost worth the ticket price just to get to see it! Also we are excited by this as we think a 4-600 seat theatre is just what Wellington needs and it's clearly possible to do a show in a smaller theatre and make it pay. I assumed all west end theatres would be enormous!

The show was delightful, but the production values really shocked us. Costumes not right, lighting bad, set pale green, the worst colour for on stage you can choose, and so on. All the things I find difficult to negotiate as a director they too struggle with. But still it is thrilling and bless Noel Coward, it is as funny today as it would have been then, in spite of the heavy misogyny.

Home by London Cab as it's a long 4k walk, and I wanted to try one just once. I reckon there's a market for London cabs in Wellington. Anyone game?

My parting shot is a bit of nonsense - Darling Eileen who is forever known as The Duchess of Texas to me, will be thrilled to know that in London, her home state at least is well represented:

 Much more fun than the American one!

Korea-London and London!

Korea to London

Another 12 hours in the air – this time the end of Black Swan (I think it’s one of those movies I am semi glad I saw and never want to see again) Morning Glory, Love and other Drugs (both very enjoyable and slightly deeper than a puddle), a delightful English movie called Tamara Drewe starring Tamsin Grieg, and 30 minutes of Scott Pilgrim Saves the World. Sorry, I didn’t get it at all, and didn’t want to. My top score on Tetris was 25,000. I am razzed royally by Mr Eyelashes whose top score was 77,000. Most of our flight is over China and Russia but we keep the visor shut and time seems suspended.

We get off at Heathrow and I cannot wait to get out of Generic Airport Architecture into something that really tells me I am in London. It happens on the tube, which on the Piccadilly line is as above ground as it is under it. Out the window we see terrace houses, even allotments! The tube is crowded but people are chatting to one another and when I make conversation with a couple of locals, they smile and join in. Not like I was expecting at all. How to describe the impact of this landscape on me? It is something so familiar from TV and films, suddenly come to life. I cannot stop grinning and I just want to WOOT! For joy!!

Finally we are at Russell Square tube station, our exit from the line. It is straight out of a book –green and cream tiled walls curving overhead, I almost expect to see Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter huddled on a bench. I bet there were a few sing-alongs on this platform during the war.

There is one flight of stairs and then to our surprise, three huge lifts. The original stairs are marked for emergencies only. Having fared so well in Chinatown, I suggest we take them instead even with our luggage but David points out the sign that warns there are 175 of them!! We are about 40m below ground, which is about 10 storeys. We burst forth into a chilly evening in Bloomsbury, and head off along Marchmont St, which is flanked on one side by a hideous newish apartment block already turning to tack, and redeeming little shops in the bottom of four storey terraces complete with area steps. I swear I have walked into a set or maybe a dream, but it smells, sounds and even tastes like somewhere I have never been. Eventually we find the Goodwood Hotel, which is everything we hoped for! Our room is about 10 feet square with a chunk out of the corner, it has a bordered up fireplace and a hand basin in it, and a double bed. It is neither clean nor comfortable, but the sheets are real cotton and the shared organic bathroom is newly fitted out even if the paint is peeling off the ceiling. It’s a house of nooks and crannies, and I say organic because there are virtually no right angles anywhere, and ceilings curve in the stairwells as if they have had so many layers of paint, plaster and paper, the lines have been blurred into extinction. The floors and stairs are soft and nailsqueaky, and again no spirit level would register between the lines. It has CHARACTER, the kind you don’t have to pay for. At around 50 quid a night it’s all we could have hoped for.

We dump our bags and go for a walk – maybe for a drink. But the pubs while adorable, are filled with people and the noise is too much for our travel popped ears, the people shouting over music or televised football. We stop for a coffee at a Costa, which is like a Starbucks, instead. The girls serving are surly Eastern Europeans and we get the giggles thinking of Harry Enfield’s running sketch about such girls and the hapless middle-aged gentleman they exploit. Their service ethic is even worse than Harry’s Russian sisters! The coffee is a bit pricier I suspect at Costa than elsewhere, at 2.65 for a huge one, and 1.35 for a banoffee cupcake, yumyum. Same as Starbucks, even a bit cheaper. But the coffee is AWFUL; tasteless and weak. We were warned that the Brits haven’t got our coffee ethic, but we’ll keep looking!

So, impressions? I am so damned excited stepping onto a London Street, I just want to burst into song and dance! I can hardly believe I am really here on the other side of the world. WOOOT!!!

The REAL Laurel Dress and its award-winning twin!

Before embarking on a journey through the real dress, here is a link to ours in its glory. So different! Just goes to show what a pencil sketch can do for ones interpretation of a gown.
Anyone out there who knows the Patterns of Fashion books by Janet Arnold will know that all the dresses are real, and in museums around the UK. The dress we call the Laurel Dress is in the Museum of London  but there are no photographs of it online at this time. Not being one to be put off however, I emailed and the wonderful curator of things frocky responded with an amazing story of a student called Jordan Bentley, who had recreated the laurel dress for the UK Costume Society's "Patterns of Fashion Award". She was highly commended in 2008 and has gone on to work as a free lance costumier.
While researching her dress, Jordan was allowed to photograph the original and she has VERY kindly allowed us to put the photos on this blog, as well as a few of her reproduction.

Jordan Bentley's exquisite reproduction of Lady Maud Warrender's "laurel dress"

Stunning from the back too!

Look at that detail, it's absolutely beautiful

The original dress, back view.The original dress, front
Original, bodice and sash front detail shot. The ruching in the bodice just makes me want to cry, it's so delicate!

Overskirt detail shot. I was amazed to see that the sequins are sewn on in an even pattern - in the drawing they looked quite random.
Sash end detail. The contrast is all down to sparkle isn't it.Smaller sash end. Notice how the end is not truly rounded. And the long leaf-shaped sequins, beautiful.

Seeing the inside of the bodice like this shows just how close Jordan's dress is to the original. And how delicate this 100 year old dress is today. So precious too!
I don't even know which bit this is but again, so delicate!
The maker's name "Madame Hayward" and address in Bond Street. I wonder what the fittings were like - did they make creative decisions on the go like we sometimes do, or was the dress completely designed in a sketch and came out exactly as she intended?

Thank you Hilary and Jordan for your time and experience and for allowing us to share these precious gowns - the original and the reproduction.