I started getting sick midway through the week, like everyone else it seems, but I thought I should dress up for New Years anyway. We don't go out for the occasion- it's sort of our last hurrah to the cuddliness of sitting at home together, watching a movie and ordering in. Well, any plans I had for current dresses were waylaid when I got home from work and discovered a long, awaited package had arrived in the mail...
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| Leifsdottir's Majestic Cypress dress, Anthropologie Spring 2010 |
A bit of a whim, but I love toile de jouy prints and was drooling over a similar Vivienne Westwood dress on Dita von Teese earlier this year.
I actually never saw this dress hit sale at Anthropologie from it's wild original list price- I must have cleared out my wishlist at some point when it sold out. I usually don't go for the whole corset look, but it gives some structure to the over-the-top Marie-Antoinette/ Fragonard frilliness. I was looking for a thin blouse to wear underneath and the colours in this one matched the overall tones of the dress (thank-you open wardrobe shelves!)
The only review I've seen for it online is a guest post by Ivoire at
Effortless Anthropologie. I was afraid the size 4 might be too big, given the sizing of things these days, but stupidly bought it anyway.* Fortunately, I am rewarded for my acquisitiveness, since it fits perfectly, which means these must run small, since I'm usually a 2 in dresses.
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| Majestic Cypress dress (Anthropologie), Staring at Stars blouse (UO), cheapo cardigan, vintage belt, Beene Bag shoes (Etsy) |
Toile de jouy is the french version of the chintz prints (printed calico) being imported from India in the 18th and 19th centuries- in this case the term refers to the textile mills in the town of Jouy (I always thought it referenced 'joie' somehow!)
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| Great Thames & Hudson book on the subject, well-illustrated as below |
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| toile and gingham- I'm sold! |
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| sigh...blue and white. glad I don't need the Catmint dress now! |
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| I need an architectural dress! |
While picking up some images I came across this customizable dress- the seller
Sarah Seven has moved on from Etsy into her own bridal line, but maybe she still does custom pieces...
Other toile inspirations, the good:
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| Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette- great potential to play with the genre, disappointing result, but fun visuals nevertheless! |
the not-sure:
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| Wunderkind, Spring 2010 |
and the frankly horrifying:
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| don't know where to look... |
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| really the garbage bin that kills me! |
*side note- what is up with sizing these days anyway? In high school, 15 pounds lighter, I took a size 29 in jeans. Now I'm down to 27 and sometimes 26? What's up with that? And that I have to size down to a 0 in pencil skirts from J Crew is pretty ridiculous. Most pencil skirts used to be tight in a size 4 on me! Egads.
