12th of April.. Monday..
We had special industry lecture by Charlotte Smith, curator from The Fashion and Textile Gallery. She brought in some garments to show us from Victorian era till current international and local designers.
About 4 garments were from Victorian era. All garments were hand sewn, hand made and hand laced.... To give a perfect form and silhouette that they wanted, the inner structures were very complicated with lots of panels. All pieces were sewn close to perfect that the stitching were not torn apart and reserved in a very good condition for last 300 years.
The size of the garment was also very small.... pinched waist... almost unable to breathe... made me wonder... 'how is that possible...?? I wore tight high waisted belt for half an hour and almost fainted.. how did they live???' But obviously they survived through.. that's why we are here!!!!
Another interesting thing that she mentioned was that Fashion during that time was unspoken language. According to Charlotte, Victorians were secretive with everything. So to communicate with others without speaking, they expressed through their way of dressing. For example a widow or if some close die, the woman would wear 2 years of Black. First year would be completely black, Second year would be a tint of black to communicate with others that she had a lost within 2 years. The way they used fan were also communicating with others. I thought ;'Fashion is stronger than spoken language.'
This lecture was educational, interesting and enlightening of many new things. I was inspired with vintage items, i was seeing things differently. I always thought Vinnie's were full of things with unwanted things... but this morning, when i stepped into the Vinnie's, I started to appreciate things... 'Every piece has a story...'
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