All posts filed under: Miscellenia

Crab Attack!

So, apparently getting attacked and bitten by random not-particularly-threatening beasties whilst on holiday is my thing.  Last September it was the duck in Hawaii, and a decade ago I was bitten by an eel while feeding it. This latest one takes the cake though. We were in Golden Bay.  We were determined to go swimming.  Fabulous Parapara beach – the massive curve of sand stretching away into the distance.  Endless blue sky, the sun beaming down, seagulls circling, waves crashing. The picture was perfect, except for one minor detail – the tide was out, and the water was a bit shallow and murky.  As someone who grew up by the ocean, that’s not the best time to be in the water, but I kept my doubts to myself and we raced into the water. It was warm for once, which is always exciting and unusual in New Zealand.  So we forged out, walking metres and metres out into the water towards the deep water line. And then I screwed up.  I opened my mouth. “You …

Rate the Oscars 2013

Every year for the Oscars instead of doing my usual ‘Rate the Dress’ post I turn the tables and give my rating of all the best and the worst of the Oscars fashions.  This year is no exception.  So you’ll have to wait one more week for the final rating on Mister Embellishment. As always, I’ll start with my favourite dress of the year.  I think you may be a bit surprised. Yes, Fan Bingbing, I have no idea who you are, and I’d never in a million years wear your dress, and technically by all my rules that is a hideous frock, but it was the perfect dress for you.  Right colour for you, right makeup, right hair, you’ve got the figure to pull off the ‘just shove a bunch of fabric on her, pin it wherever you can and call it good‘ school of haute couture, and something about your smile makes me think you have a sense of humour about the dress.  It’s so right, and so not boring, that it is …

Celebrating the common man (and what he and she wore)

Next fortnight’s challenge in the Historical Sew Fortnightly is Peasants and Pioneers.  It’s all about making clothes for the lower classes – the most common group, but also the ones whose clothes were the least documented, and the least likely to to have survived. I’ve got a serious soft spot for the clothing of the lower classes across almost all periods.  They may not be as bright or sparkly as the clothing of the upper classes, but they often managed a restraint and elegance that the fancier clothes of the wealthy and fashionable of certain periods (*cough* *cough* *Elizabethan*) were sorely lacking in.  Their practical nature quickly weeded out any cumbersome additions which made work difficult. I think my favourite peasant outfits and images are those from medieval manuscripts and Books of Hours from the 15th century.  The details are just so clear (look at the beautiful torn and ragged sleeves on the white tunic in the first image below), and the colours so vivid, though the clothes probably weren’t so bright in real life. …