So without stopping to choose my way, in the sure and certain knowledge that it will find itself–or if not it will not matter–I begin: the first memory.

This was of red and purple flowers on a black ground–my mother's dress: and she was sitting either in a train or in an omnibus, and I was on her lap. I therefore saw the flowers she was wearing very close; and can still see purple and red and blue, I think, against the black; they must have been anemones, I suppose. Perhaps we were going to St Ives; more probably, for from the slant of the light it must have been evening, we were coming back to London. But it is more convenient artistically that we were going to St Ives, for that will lead to my other memory, which also seems to be my first memory.

From "A Sketch of the Past", by Virginia Woolf. In The Virginia Woolf Reader.

Jilli sends this stunner our way, with the caveat that it doesn't play nicely with petticoats. If this makes no sense to you, understand that Jilli is the proprietress of Gothic Charm School.

Obviously, what this dress *is* suitable for is riding on Vespas–but then, what isn't? If I had a Vespa I would ride it INDOORS. I would live in a warehouse just so I could ride it from my bedroom to the kitchen and back. Forget that "when I am old I shall wear purple" nonsense; I figure that as soon as my odds of having a ministroke top my odds of being in an unfortunate Vespa accident, a Vespa I shall have.

I suppose the Vespa here is some kind of semiotic shorthand for "I am La Bella Italienne! See, I wear the fabric of brown to set off my skin of olive!" but the problem with using a Vespa in fashion ads is that NOTHING is as cool as a Vespa, so people think, "oh, yeah, nice dress but–LOOK AT THAT VESPA!"

Anyway, this dress is on clearance (well, $99, reduced from $198) at Barrie Pace, a catalog I have not seen much of since I left the Southland. There are lots of other things on clearance that all seem very wedding-friendly, not only for guests but for bridesmaids-sans-butt-bow and mothers of brides and grooms. In fact, there were a couple other dresses that I liked a bit more than this one. Why don't they get pictured? No Vespa.

Thanks to La BellaDonna, it looks as if I will have to run out to the fabric store tonight and pick this up — McCall's 5137. I'm pretty sure, though, that I'll have to make it in a size much smaller than my usual one, because the online catalog gives the finished bust measurement at a size 6 as 44 inches. There's a difference between "easy and flowy" and "Barnum & Bailey", you know.

I'd also lengthen the sleeves in view C and shorten the skirt. You know, god forbid I make up a pattern the way the drafters intended. I'd totally never be confirmed as a Supreme Court justice, at this rate. (Get it? "strict constructionist"? Oh, Supreme Court humor, why don't you ever work?)

Also, the neck bands do not continue to the back (chintzy!) and there are (in my opinion) completely superfluous back center seams — I'd get rid of those by cutting those pieces on the fold.

Anyway: product cycle time. I first posted about Duro Olowu on 11 November 2005; this pattern was probably released in the last few weeks, so a six-month turnaround time isn't too bad! So, McCall's, if you're listening, by November of this year I want a pattern for a pencil skirt with a very wide, reinforced waistband. No front seaming, no fancy hems, just skirt + waistband. Front scoop pockets okay. (I know I could draft it, but I'm lazy! And anyway, don't you want my $5?) Kthxbye!

Check this out — this dress was actually sent to me on a postcard inviting me to a Trina Turk trunk show in Chicago. (The postcard was addressed to "Mr. E." but that's okay.) The site tells me that this dress is called "Siam" and is $278, available in May (and also available in turquoise, but no pictures of that, sadly).

Somehow I feel that by the time I figure out how to make my ideal version of this dress, the whole Duro Olowu moment will be over. I better get crackin'. Good thing I won that pattern I posted the other day — now if it will only come, say, tomorrow, I can begin to make some progress of one kind or another.

Speaking of progress, with any luck I'll be posting a few interesting things in the next few days, including a DRESS GIVEAWAY CONTEST. Yes, two lucky readers will get a free dress. A hint: the name of the brand giving away the dresses anagrams to "stripe".

Yesterday I was lucky enough to get a copy of Blueprint magazine, the new magazine from Martha Stewart. I got it right from the source — someone at MSLO — and she said, as she handed it to me "This is a magazine for YOU!"

Boy, was she right. I'm their target demographic, their ideal reader. In fact, it's so dead-on I'm a little worried that they've had a team of crack magazine planners following me around. The magazine is only 160 pp, but I dogeared about every other editorial spread to go back to … that's nuts!

However, two things made me think that I had to recommend it to all of you: first of all, the bio of the Blueprint fashion director, Katie Hatch, reads, in part, "Katie took the Singer into her own hands when she was 7 to make clothes for her Barbie … she became Blueprint's fashion editor, a job that's as tailor-fit as her wardrobe, most of which she sews herself. 'I like one-of-a-kind things,' says Katie, who is still finishing three new dresses." And the quote above her name reads "I believe a woman can have a rich inner life and still love clothes."

The other thing is — the magazine contains a pattern (well, a link to pattern that is on the Blueprint website) for a DRESS. A dress you can MAKE. (It's the undarted column dress with a drawstring/tie closure at the neck pictured here.) It is super-easy and can be made by hand, without a machine. Considering I cannot remember the last time a mainstream consumer magazine (I'm not counting Bust or ReadyMade here) offered a dress pattern, I was pretty impressed.

Other highlights — a double spread of fancy notecards (is there anyone who doesn't love notecards?), a couple of pages on how to make your own charm necklaces and bracelets, eight day-to-evening dresses (I *will* be knocking off the Sari Gueron dress, only not in putty, thank you, I'm thinking more a deep turquoise), and their guide to shopping in Paris included a listing for a fabric store. Oh, yeah.

Some of the price points on the items featured are pretty high (one of the notecard sets was $1,034, for *100*) but there were also more budget-friendly pieces, such as how/where to blow up a digital photo into an inexpensive (yet really cool) poster-size piece of art. (Of course, this makes me think again of poor, doomed Budget Living which I loved … of course, they were always doomed, how do you attract advertisers to a magazine where the whole concept is "People! Don't spend too much money!"? But it was great while it lasted.)

The only thing that could make this magazine better is a girly gadgets column. Oh, wait, they had one about portable scanners. Cool.

You can go to their site for a free trial issue. It's $18 for 6 issues. If you want the direct link to the dress pattern for the dress shown at left, click on the image.

Melissa, who sent this, swears I've shown it before, but I can't find it (I REALLY need to add those pattern number tags).

This is a Butterick reissue, so you can buy it in your size, instead of altering the vintage version. (If you wait for the big-box fabric store sales, you can probably get it for $2. In fact, all Butterick patterns are on sale at Hancock Fabrics this week for $1.99.)

I think this would be an excellent pattern to help you use up your stash of smaller pieces — if you make the two-tone version, the contrast part is less than 2 yds, and the main body is about three. Since most of my patterns fall about laughing if I try to make them up with less than four or five yards of a single fabric, I'm seriously considering this one. I have to start using up those smaller bits … of course, what I saved in using up fabric I would spend in trying to find interesting bias binding! I have two complementary pieces of cherry-print quilting fabric that would be adorable in this dress, if I have enough. Or maybe that bright pink seersucker I keep pulling out and putting away again …

Here's the line drawing, and my question: Where would you put the pockets? Obviously, it needs pockets, but where? Patch ones are such a pain. I think I would do two small in-seam pockets hanging from the wrap waist seam — just big enough for a lipstick, a driver's license, and a couple folded bills.

Here's the first of the several photos taken of the dress I made for and wore to the GEL 2006 conference … thanks very much to Laura (of 15secondpitch.com) for taking it and sending it to me! (I especially like the obvious #2 pencil sticking out of my yellow Luella-for-Target bag.) There's another picture, too, taken by Martin Hardee of Sun, up at his blog.

This dress is is the same dress, in a different fabric, that I made in late March, which is a slight variation of the original pattern, which I blogged about in early March, which is the the pattern I bought in January, after swearing I wouldn't. I am nothing if not obsessive. (Thanks to Francis for egging me on to buy the pattern in the first place.)

Also, today is my one-year blogiversary! Yes, 366 posts ago, I started blogging about dresses. And then you started reading! I originally thought that about five and a half people would read this blog (which was fine by me) but as many as THREE THOUSAND folks have come by on any given day … thanks so much for all the great comments, all the links to breathtaking dresses, and especially for all the kind words and encouragement over the past year.

Stay tuned for more dresses, fabric, Jack Purcell sneakers, and Secret Histories … watch this space.

Gidget Bananas, over at Clothesaholic, is running this week's Carnival of the Couture, and the topic is Clothes on Film. (And yes, I've been earwormed with Duran Duran's "Girls on Film" ever since I saw the topic.) Here's her question:

What movie, TV show or video featured clothes that made an impression on you? What movie, TV or video wardrobe did you try to emulate? How many times did you dress up as Emma Peel (or for the mens, John Steed) at Halloween, and if not, why not? 'Fess up, I know you have at least one vest a la Annie Hall, or torn sweat-shirt a la Flashdance, stuffed back there in your Closet of Shame.

I have made no secret of my love for Doris Day, but I don't think I have ever articulated WHY I love her, or at least her Pillow Talk/Touch of Mink film persona, so madly. I think it boils down to this: the basic plot of a Doris Day movie, at least the ones that I have seen, is that she is happily living her life, doing her job, getting up in the morning and going to sleep in the evening, all in a state of contentment. She's not pining. She's not waiting around for something, or somebody — she's doing stuff! She is active, not passive. And this, I think, manifests itself in the clothes for her movies — it has always seemed to me that her characters dress to please themselves first. If Rock Hudson likes the dress? Bonus. But it's not her focus.

I googled around for some pictures from her movies, and found plenty — but this one is the one that called to me. Look how perfect, how clean and unfussy her dress is. Look how happy she looks, how relaxed, how comfortable in her own skin. She's not dressing "sexy", but she looks like a woman, not a girl.

I want to start a "What Would Doris Wear?" movement. To qualify, a dress would have to be wearable — comfortable, practical, with pockets, easy to move in, and suitable for a day's work. It would have to be pretty, but not juvenile or infantilizing. It would be feminine–womanly but not vampy. And most of all, it would have to make you feel happy, cheerful, comfortable, ready for anything and optimistic about what the day will bring.

There's been criticism, I know, of Doris Day's movie persona as "overly virginal" or prissy. I think virginity was really a metaphor for agency. It wasn't really her body that she was reluctant to surrender — it was her independence. Which would have been a much more radical idea for the time; easier to make the conflict about sex than about autonomy! (Film critics, feel free to jump in here.)

Okay, one more picture, this from an earlier film:

C'mon, don't you want a red & white dress with polka dots, accordion pleats, and Western detailing? I know I do! And I'd be this happy all day in it.

If you do not yet have a copy of this little book of dress quotations by Tobi Tobias, I'm not sure what you're waiting for. I mean, if you're waiting for a giant flaming hand in the sky pointing towards the nearest bookstore, that's one thing. If you just haven't gotten around to it, that's another. I suggest you remedy that by clicking on the cover image, the one there to your left.

(I have to say that I am fond of books of quotations in general; they're like tasting menus of ideas, or collages, or kaleidoscopes. I can spend hours with them. I think I would cheerfully read a book of quotes about the great highways of the world, or bottle tops, just for the faceted view …)

Here is the quote that seemed apt to me today:

I should like my dress to be a poem about myself, my persona, the outward and visible presentation of my individuality. And that particular mode and fabric and manner which I should choose might not at all recommend itself to my next-door neighbour. Indeed, I hope it would not. For the loveliest and most human thing about humanity is the infinity of its types and modes of manifestation.

From "A Girl Graduate," Pall Mall Gazette, 1884, quoted in Obsessed By Dress.

Forgot to add — no fewer than FIVE kind people took pictures of my dress at the conference yesterday, so I hope to have one to post here soon!

Quickly, because I'm at a conference (and if I can get a good pic of the dress I'm wearing today — new for the conference, natch) I will post it tomorrow — here is another Duro contender, sent to me by Amy!

(On first glance, I thought the guy in the picture was a midget! How about y'all?)

Thank you Amy! This one's not my size, so bid away. If you bid on the one that is my size, I will kill you. Messily, and with no concern for minimizing your suffering. Thank you for your kind attention.