So the first SECRET LIVES OF DRESSES event is scheduled for Thursday, February 10 (the release date), from 6-9 PM at Ver Unica, 526 Hayes St. in San Francisco.
In case you can't read the small type, if you buy a dress at the event, I'll write a one-line Secret Life for it (and you)!
Needless to say, dressing up in vintage is encouraged. 🙂 Hope to see you there!
[PS There will definitely be an East Bay event as well, I'm still putting that together.]
I love that the women here are having a dance party, in their jumpers and cloches, complete with clutches and pearls. I am also trying hard to believe that they're dancing to "It Takes Two" (but I understand if you are not able to).
The woman with her back to the dancers is, of course, the DJ. Her name is DJ Schnee, and she always wears all white. It's a thing. (She's huge in Japan — has her own energy drink, and line of sneakers, and everything.)
This pattern is from Sheila at Out of the Ashes, and she is having a 15% off sale Friday thru Sunday — use the coupon code GLAMIS.
So do you remember The Uniform Project? Woman wears the same dress every day for a year, raises money for charity, great idea, yadda yadda.
Even cooler, she made a pattern for the dress, and is selling the pattern … except: by buying the pattern (for $25, including $2 extra to her charity) you agree to this wackaloon EULA:
I acknowledge that the designs and patterns (the "Dress Patterns") offered for sale on this website are protected by copyright, trademark and other intellectual property rights controlled by Uniform Project. I agree that I may use the Dress Patterns only for personal, non-commercial purposes. For the purpose of clarity, I shall not use any item of clothing created through use of the Dress Patterns (the "Dress") in any commercial advertising, film, television, print or online media, nor shall any Dress be sold to third parties without the prior written consent of Uniform Project. For the avoidance of doubt, no prior written consent shall be required to post photos or videos of any Dress on a non-commercial website.
There are so many things wrong with this. Where to start?
— First, this agreement would prohibit you from donating a dress to Goodwill or selling it at a yard sale. And IANAL, but I think this is permitted under the right of first sale: in other words, once you buy something, especially a physical object, it is your right to sell it as you choose.
— It's pretty standard for commercial sewing patterns (Vogue, etc.) to say you can't use the pattern to make garments commercially, but — you don't want to anyway. But saying you can't wear the dress on TV? Why not? Do they seriously think that if someone shows up wearing this dress in, say, a Mentos commercial it infringes their trademark? What if you are photographed for a "man on the street" segment? (And the founder of the project works in advertising, or did, which makes this all the more head-scratchy.)
— Again, IANAL, but as far as I know, you cannot copyright a fashion design in the US (in fact, Diane Von Furstenberg has been trying to change that for years, in part to protect her iconic wrap dress) but only the printed pattern (or you can trademark a logo, which is part of the reason why huge logos are so prevalent these days). (And I'm not an expert in using the USPTO site, but I didn't even see a trademark registered for the Uniform Project, under that name.)
— And what makes something a non-commercial website? I run ads, is this site commercial? (That's why there's no picture of the dress or pattern here, although I think their restriction makes no sense.) What about someone who makes butter-and-egg money from Amazon affiliate links? Who gets free products for review?
Does anyone (perhaps someone who is a lawyer) know why buying a dress pattern would be saddled with such a restrictive agreement? I can't imagine the possible "tort" that would necessitate this kind of heavy-handed protection. Does someone wearing this dress in an ad really injure the Uniform Project in a substantive way?
Needless to say, they lost my business.
So there's now Scrabble fabric available at eQuilter, who knew? (Well, Monique and Mary Teri did, thanks for the link!)
I'm notoriously bad at Scrabble, but maybe a shirtdress made of Scrabble fabric will give me magical powers? Worth a shot. With wooden Scrabble tiles as buttons, of course. (I couldn't find those on Etsy, which completely surprised me. You'd think someone was doing that, wouldn't you?)
What a great pattern by studiofibonacci. It’s almost that time of year again …
So the latest issue of Bazaar is a bit on the bizarre side (can we please try not running long stories about the sex lives of rock stars or other celebrities for a while? You know, just as a change of pace?) there was this dress in it, which I love.
This dress is from Callula Lillibelle—and while we're talking about moratoriums, I think that names that evoke either the French Quarter demi-monde of the turn of the last century, or overly-petted pedigreed show dogs are getting a bit overused.
This dress was in the "Style at Any Age" feature, in the 70+ section. I am always thrilled by the 70+ section, because it means you often get a picture of Carmen Dell'Orefice, who is a goddess (according to Wikipedia, she roller-skated to modeling assignments to save the bus fare!), and also because I always think "Cool, I have 30-some years to get around to wearing [whatever it is that catches my eye]". Plus, they usually throw a low-heeled shoe in there as a sop to all their fragile osteoporotic readers.
I would love to use a pattern like this for my brown roses fabric — any suggestions for a similar vintage pattern would be much appreciated!
Floral: Look. Look into my midriff mandala. Lose your "self" and become one with creation.
Yellow: I represent the Sun, and thus life itself.
Green: I represent all other living things, given life by the Sun. Or, possibly, avocados. It's hard to tell. I mean, my midriff triangle could represent the avocado seed, right?
Floral: Focus, ladies!
This pattern—and everything else at ZipZapKap—is 50% off (today only! Coupon code GL400YAY50 will get you 50% off everything in the store, from 1 a.m CST Friday to 1 a.m. CST Saturday. )
I love this (admittedly blinding) vintage cotton numbers fabric from Etsy seller thoroughbredthreads, but there's only a yard of it. What to do?
There is no excuse to ever be bored, by the way, if you have internet access and can type "novelty fabric" into Etsy's search window. You are sure to find stuff like this:
and this:
My favorite thing about Etsy is that it seems to run to quilting-lengths, which I'm hardly ever tempted to buy (my fabric-buying philosophy being "go big or go home"). So it's pure window-shopping. Even when confronted with stuff like this.
When did the "imprudent vain purchases" trope stop being so prevalent in stories intended for girls? I seem to recall quite a lot of it in Alcott (Eight Cousins, Little Women) but I don't think I've seen it in modern YA books. Is it the credit culture? Too many vampires? People having actual sex? Or have I only been reading apocalyptic–YA? Not too many descriptions like this in those books:
Now Grandmama is a very prim old lady, sweet and neat, and dainty as can be, but still rather precise and severely plain in everything; and this frivolous, fussy little costume, with its low-cut neck, trimmed with many rows of dainty lace, and little more than a few flounces of lace to serve as sleeves — no, nothing about the little dress seemed at all like the Grandmama we know.
Anyway, this image comes from a story called "The Pink Gown" in an issue of St. Nicholas.
So, if you haven't noticed, the US edition of The Secret Lives of Dresses is coming out February 10.
I thought it would be fun to have a vintage-themed dressup party for the launch that day (it's a Thursday night), but I need what they call a "venue"! Does anyone know a friendly Bay Area [CA] vintage-store owner who would like to help me out?
The idea would be that I'd show up with copies of the book, invite folks to come in their vintage finery, match-make vintage from the store for customers (as Dora does in the book) and make up mini-Secret Lives for things on the spot.
If you have just the right place, please email me and let me know — I'd love to get this set up sooner rather than later as things are getting really busy, all of a sudden! (Aren't things supposed to be SLOW in January? So far, that's Not Happening.)
A Dress A Day 