You know how daydreaming can take your mind down a twisting, turning path, until you end up thinking about something completely different? This often happens to me when I play around online. I love to click on embedded links, and sometimes do this until I've drifted to a far different shore, with no memory of what I started out looking for.
So, today I was looking at a list of companies that turn 100 this year (I don't remember why I was doing this), and I somehow went from Prada to Miu Miu (a reasonable jump), which reminded me of muumuu, and so I thought of Hawaii. I collect vintage hula girl pinups and sheet music, which for some reason brought to mind Dick Van Dyke (no idea how this jump happened). This made me think of
Fitzwilly, a fabulous movie co-starring Barbara Feldon. I remembered that Ms. Feldon famously portrayed Agent 99 on
Get Smart, so I decided to look at images of her back in the 1960s. While doing this, I came across a blog with the iconic picture of Tippi Hedren and a crow that came out as a promotional item for
The Birds. I Googled Tippi (and doesn't that sound weird?), and then I found this:
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| bombshellbettys.com |
Wait...are those lapels painted on? Is that even a real belt? What about that stitching detail? In 1952, Tippi Hedren was photographed in this trompe l'oeil dress. Hermes had come out with an entire collection of painted (or screen-printed) clothing, which was copied in the US by Herbert Sondheim (legally) and sold at a lower price. Now, I generally hate trompe l'oeil clothing. Why paint on fake pockets? I want real pockets! But, not surprisingly, vintage Hermes won me over. So, I just had to find more of these gems....
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| pinterest.com |
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| pinterest.com |
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| flickriver.com |
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| eattarantula.blogspot.com |
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| tumblr.com |
And this got me thinking about what other sorts of vintage trompe l'oeil clothing I could find, like these adorable John Carr Doughty knit ensembles from the 1960s:
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| www.vads.ac.uk |
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| www.vads.ac.uk |
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| www.coutoureallure.blogspot.com |
For those who prefer colorful clothing with fake details, here are some Roberta di Camerino designs:
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| di Camerino velvet coat; pinterest.com |
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| di Camerino gown, 1970; 1stdibs.com |
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| Roberta di Camerino exhibit, Palazzo Fortuny museum in Venice |
Of course, nobody is more famous for trompe l'oeil clothing than Schiaparelli, who captured hearts in the late 1920s with her cravat sweaters:
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| ayalfillette.weebly.com |
Of course, she was also a bit weird. Here are some positively creepy Schiaparelli gloves from the 1930s, complete with snakeskin "fingernails":
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| http://alagarconniere.files.wordpress.com |
Also weird, this Surrealist collaboration with Salvador Dali, called the "Tears" dress:
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| "Tears" dress, Salvador Dali collaboration |
I did manage to bring my strange train of thought back to fashion, at least. Plus, not only did I manage to waste an afternoon on Google images, I learned that every now and then, trompe l'oeil is kind of cute. Except for those Schiaparelli gloves. Creeptastic. Seriously.
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