Manifesto: Dress


manifesto farm dress

Many thanks to Dottie who sent the Manifesto: site to me (I even don't mind their little opening animation — if you MUST do animation, a tiny movement is best and least likely to make me jump, scream, and drop the laptop). And yes, that is a colon there. It's part of their name. Hey, at least it wasn't an internal colon, like "Mani:festo". (Remember, only PEOPLE have internal colons.)

This is their "farm dress", and, although I really would prefer it with sleeves, I like the bands set on the bias. Am I going to "steal" that technique, now that I've been reminded of it? You bet.

Manifesto: also has a section of their site called "The World of Pants," which made me laugh and click — always a good sign. And the pants there were pretty darn cute (yes, I can't believe I'm saying this, either). Maybe I'm just a sucker for tuxedo piping.

25 thoughts on “Manifesto: Dress

  1. That should be: ‘only people and nouns that have been borrowed into Swedish and put into the definite or plural form have internal colons’. The colon makes the title of your entry seem more interesting, though. I really thought we were going to get a dress manifesto. I still hope we will.Lynneguist:en

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  2. Love the style and would look great in a tartan plaid ala McQueen. I’d lose the bias near the hem, though cuz it detracts from the neckline. Love your site and sense of humor!

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  3. (sorry for the Swedish digression, but…)Bani– on word-internal colons in Swedish. Take for example today’s headline in Dagens Nyheter:’Israel struntade i FN:s vdjanden’Not a great example because the word involves an acronym, which stands for more than one word…but you also see colons separating words imported from other languages from their plural/definite/possessive suffixes. (But that’s really hard to search for on the internet, since Google just ignores the colon if I search for “:en” so I can’t give you a real-life example.) English writers often INCORRECTLY (sigh) do similar things when pluralizing foreign words–but they insert apostrophes where Swedish writers would use colons. Right?(You could take the position that these colons aren’t word-internal, because they come between a word and its suffix, but, grammatically/orthographically speaking, that’s still word-internal.)Sorry…but Erin did bring up languagy things, so I can’t help myself.

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  4. Hi Erin, could you make a live link to the Manifesto: website? I tried typing it in several times and it didn’t take. Neither did googling it, as there a heck of a lot of manifestos out there, colons or no colons. Thanks!

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  5. Love the bias trim idea, but I agree with Diane about the hem. Either have just the bias material for the hem, or leave it out completely. Using straight of grain after the bias just takes away from design concept.

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  6. *continues hijacking*Ah, alright, I see now what you mean. I thought you meant in ordinary words too – I’ve only ever seen it used in abbreviations like FN, HD, TR, SVD, DN… And I think it’s actually okay? It’s a bit superfluous though, really. I can’t think of any plural examples though, so I remain sceptical to that. 😛 But yeah… in the possessive, absolutely.NB, click on the picture!

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  7. I know there’s a plural on an advertising sign on a particular corner in Lund, but I can’t remember what the word is. If you want to go to Lund to find out, it’s right near Lilla Hotellet! 🙂

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  8. I like it (ditto on losing the bias hem), and I’m sure it’s made with skill and care, but . . . on what kind of farm, exactly, does one wear a $166 sundress? A chinchilla farm? A pot farm? Certainly not the book farm where I work.I’m not saying that their dresses are overpriced, necessarily–maybe they’re so beautifully made that you can wear them inside-out without attracting stares–but they’re more than twice what I’d normally pay for a casual day dress. Who’s the target market?

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  9. Bani, thanks for the link tip! Click on the picture, of course! Duh, blush. Sometimes I overlook the obvious.I also agree with bbrug, now that have seen the site. Way pricy for casual wear, at least for my pocket. I am just not their demographic, obviously. But I like their style and it was fun to “window shop”!

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  10. Back when apron dresses were popular, I made one in tiny black gingham. Instead of making the ties in purchased or self bias tape, I used giant black gingham grosgrain ribbon. Now I’m wishing I’d made giant black gingham bias, instead (dress is long gone).

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  11. Back when apron dresses were popular, I made one in tiny black gingham. Instead of making the ties in purchased or self bias tape, I used giant black gingham grosgrain ribbon. Now I’m wishing I’d made giant black gingham bias, instead (dress is long gone).

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  12. Back when apron dresses were popular, I made one in tiny black gingham. Instead of making the ties in purchased or self bias tape, I used giant black gingham grosgrain ribbon. Now I’m wishing I’d made giant black gingham bias, instead (dress is long gone).

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  13. Back when apron dresses were popular, I made one in tiny black gingham. Instead of making the ties in purchased or self bias tape, I used giant black gingham grosgrain ribbon. Now I’m wishing I’d made giant black gingham bias, instead (dress is long gone).

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  14. this dress proves it IS possible to have too much of a good thing. gigham overload. the hem band is horrendous. bias band is fine but the rest of the dress should be solid or in a smaller check. looking at this dress makes me feel queasy.

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  15. I like this, except the band at the bottom. It makes it look as though it has a ridge. Bit expensive for my pocket, I’m afraid. Somehow seems wrong for gingham to cost so much.

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  16. When you click on “About Manifesto:” it says that the designers wanted to create clothes for curvy gals. So why did they stop at XL? They were just getting into the curvy range, according to my calculations.

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  17. I don’t get the pants sizing. How can pants only come in S-XL? I am used to pants being in an actual size. Weird.

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  18. Hey anonymous, do you think that’s why they called it “the farm dress”?As clever as the bias-cut bands are, it’s too busy, at least for me. I’d gasp, grab it, try it on, and hate it.

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  19. Of course you like it, Erin! It’s the Douro Dress, without sleeves.I’ve been away for a bit; has anyone else mentioned that Simplicity is also now carrying a version of the Douro dress?

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