For her first appearance in American Vogue, Anjelica Huston flew to rural Ireland with Richard Avedon and fashion editor Polly Mellen. Mellen opted to use several Vogue Patterns on the shoot.
Mellen’s selections include designs by Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Cardin, all made up in leather, suede, and chamois. (Hats by Jackie Rogers and Ruza Creations; bags, Louis Vuitton and Karavan. Hair by Ara Gallant.)
Sláinte!
Pattern images: Paco Peralta, Fragolina, Anne Weed, Vintage Pattern Wiki.
Today is John Galliano’s 60th birthday. To celebrate, here’s Angela Lindvall in a Givenchy dress, made from a Vogue pattern and photographed by the great Paolo Roversi.
I’ve featured Galliano’s work on this blog many times, starting with the Empress Josephine-inspired, couture version of V1978 below.
Jennifer Connelly turned 50 this weekend.
Before she starred in films like Labyrinth (1986) and A Beautiful Mind (2001), Connelly was a child model. As confirmed in a contemporary children’s magazine, she played Princess Leia on McCall’s official Star Wars pattern.
Connelly can be seen on a handful of McCall’s patterns, as well as one or two Little Vogues from the early 1980s.
Happy birthday, Ms. Connelly!
Stella Tennant turns 50 today. In a Bauhaus-inspired, mid-’90s editorial, the British supermodel wears a minimalist trench coat made from a Vogue pattern.
Tennant’s trench is view C of Vogue 9345, made up in cotton twill from B&J Fabrics and, as always, “edited by Vogue.”
Happy 50th, Ms. Tennant!
Did you know? The first issue of Vogue Pattern Book was published in 1920, making 2020 the hundredth anniversary of Vogue Patterns Magazine. Bonus points if you know that the original title was Vogue Pattern Quarterly.
Happy new year, everyone! All the best for 2021.
President Joe Biden will reportedly be wearing Ralph Lauren to his inauguration. The fashion choices of the ceremony’s female attendees are shrouded in secrecy, but you can be sure the pattern companies are paying close attention.
Sixty years ago, Jacqueline Kennedy made Inauguration-Day history in Oleg Cassini and a Halston pillbox hat. Cassini may not have licensed any coat patterns, but dressmakers could soon make their own cloth hats with Vogue’s Halston patterns.
In 1965, Second Lady Muriel Humphrey Brown wore Balmain, made from a Vogue pattern. “For the inauguration itself, Mrs. Humphrey made her own dress of pale blue angora and wool broadcloth from a Vogue Paris original pattern by Balmain… The dress is semi-fitted, with simulated slot seaming along the bodice and down the front of the skirt, giving an empire line.” (“Mrs. Humphrey Sews Dress: Inauguration Gowns Will Be Red, White, Blue,” AP / Globe and Mail, January 18, 1965.) Her dress was probably this Vogue Paris Original:
In 2009, Michelle Obama wore custom Isabel Toledo. A Butterick pattern soon followed:
In 2017, the publication of this Ralph Lauren-inspired inauguration ensemble caused some controversy:
Any guesses which designer labels Dr. Jill Biden and Kamala Harris might wear on Inauguration Day?
Update: Dr. Jill Biden chose NYC label Markarian, while Kamala Harris opted for Christopher John Rogers.
Yves Saint Laurent’s landmark Spring 1971 haute couture collection, Libération, is 50. For more on the designer’s Libération collection, see my 2015 post here.
Saint Laurent unveiled the collection in Paris on January 29, 1971. Licensed Libération patterns were available from Vogue the next season, photographed by the late Frank Horvat.
The Libération dress pattern was also seen in this textiles ad:
But the most popular of the two designs was the signature suit. Gianni Penati photographed the pantsuit, made up in black velvet, at the Richard Feigen Gallery in New York.
Saint Laurent’s smoking, reenvisioned as as an embroidered evening jacket, even made the cover of Vogue.
As Vogue Patterns was settling in under its new, British ownership, two seasons have gone by without my usual pattern report. I’ve been busy with the campaign to save the beautiful, historic St. Giles church here in Hamilton, Ontario. (If you want to help, please sign the petition here!)
Vogue’s spring cover look is a Rachel Comey dress from the Fall 2019 collection.
A loose midi dress with front pleats, the Tempo dress was shown in stretch poly-rayon suiting and a silk scarf print.
For summer, there were two more Rachel Comey dresses, both from Resort 2020. The Lurie dress is silk-blend taffeta with metal mesh trim, in black or Citron:
The New Cardiff dress is a longer, topstitched version of the Cardiff dress, which features unfinished hems:
The long, denim New Cardiff dress made quarantine-dressing trend lists early in the pandemic. As seen in Sky or Sherbert denim:
From Guy Laroche by Richard René, a one-sleeved jumpsuit with attached half-jacket from the Spring 2020 collection. If I’ve translated my Russian right, it is cotton:
Playing with grain and stripes is the focus of two recent Zandra Rhodes patterns. For summer, a dress with bell-flounce sleeves and handkerchief hem:
From the Winter release, there was this long-sleeved maxi dress from Rhodes’ Victoriana-inspired Fall 2019 collection, entitled The Golden Hour and exclusive to Liberty.
Vogue has gone silent on their #SewTheLook designer adaptations. But in the Spring-Summer patterns, one inspiration is very recognizable — from SHOWstudio’s Spring 2020 free McQueen pattern.
Finally, could the new Vintage Vogue be a Schiaparelli knockoff?
Add a high collar and lace trim, and you have a New Look-era Schiaparelli blouse, as seen in Vogue.
Last month, the inimitable Grace Coddington turned 80. (Read her reminiscence in British Vogue here.) To celebrate, here is a selection of Coddington images featuring Vogue patterns, created in collaboration with Peter Lindbergh, Ellen von Unwerth, and Helmut Newton.
Happy belated birthday, Ms. Coddington!
From Diana Vreeland’s Vogue, a mid-1960s Franco Rubartelli editorial featuring Françoise Rubartelli in two white jumpsuits made with Vogue patterns — or as Vogue puts it, “Two jumpsuit patterns with lean moon-shot lines, cut for action in pale moon-coloured jersey.”
I previously featured this Young Fashionables hooded jumpsuit in my Jill Kennington post, but American Vogue made it first, in Heller double-knit Celanese acetate:
The Courrèges-inspired two-piece jumpsuit uses two patterns for a tunic and custom-fit pants, both made up in Wamsutta Orlon double-knit jersey.
Happy Labour Day!
Pattern images: mbchills, Sew As It Was Patterns, Vintage Pattern Wiki.
Happy World Dracula Day! Today is the 125th anniversary of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Here’s a roundup for #Dracula125.
My posts on gothic or vampire-inspired sewing:
Did you know the house of Pucci is celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2022?
Today is also Emilio Pucci’s birthday, so to celebrate, I’m sharing some publication news:
I’m pleased to announce that I’m among the contributors to the Spring 2022 issue of DRESS: The Journal of the Costume Society of America. My piece is called “Pucci (Paper) Patterns, 1956–73,” and it’s about Pucci’s licensed couturier patterns for Vogue and McCall’s.
DRESS has both print and digital editions. (Preview the Spring issue here.) DRESS 48.1 is out now and available to order from Routledge / Taylor & Francis.
Happy reading — and happy birthday, Pucci!
Vintage Vogue recently turned 25. The popular pattern line, which offers updated reissues of vintage Vogue designs, was first introduced in fall 1998. To celebrate, here’s a look back at Vintage Vogue’s journey since the last millennium.
Images promoting the earliest Vintage Vogues show a straight-up take on vintage style, with lots of fur stoles and black and white photography. Perhaps the Forties were back that season with the success of Alexander McQueen’s Fall ’98 Blade Runner collection for Givenchy.
The next year, a look from the new line was chosen for the cover of Vogue Patterns’ millennial Holiday issue. Inside, a Forties noir Vintage Vogue editorial features what is still the only men’s Vintage Vogue to date — a ’40s zoot suit.
For many years, illustrator Lamont O’Neal created the envelope illustrations for Vintage Vogue patterns, as well as more than one catalogue cover.
A quarter-century on, today’s Vintage Vogues have come of age, speaking to a more contemporary take on “vintage” that reflects current trends.
Happy 25th birthday, Vintage Vogue! For more on the Vintage Vogue pattern line, see my earlier posts, or click the Vintage Vogue tag below.
How Do You Take Your Vintage Vogue? | Vintage Vogue Search | New Year, Vintage You
The Diane Von Furstenberg wrap dress is 50! Vogue Patterns is marking the occasion with a first for the company: a reissue of a licensed designer pattern. Vogue 1549, the collar-and-cuffs DVF wrap dress, was reissued for the anniversary in January. A second reissue is due in May.
![A model in a black and white printed wrap dress by Diane Von Furstenberg. WRAP [heart] 50: The DVF Wrap Dress. Celebrating 50 years of iconic style.](http://patternvault.files.wordpress.com/2024/02/dvf-wrap50-voguepatterns.png?w=720&h=399)
“The wrap dress, which DVF created in 1974 and at that time sold for $80, has had generational staying power and a timeless style. It has made continuous comebacks over the past five decades. In fact, in the ’90s, DVF saw a revival when a younger generation of women began discovering wrap dresses in vintage stores. Today, through rewrap.com, DVF’s new preloved marketplace, the wrap dress has found a place with Gen Z’s home-sewing, vintage-loving audience.”
“[We have] a dress that’s celebrating its 50th anniversary. I don’t think it’s happened to a dress before.” — Diane von Fürstenberg
Happy 50th birthday, DVF wrap dress!
Read my post for the 40th: DVF Wrap Dress 40th Anniversary
Vogue Patterns turned 125 this year. To celebrate, here’s a slideshow of highlights from over twelve decades of the storied brand.
* indicates a pattern was licensed; ** means a design was recreated by Vogue Patterns
Click to view slideshow.Happy 125th, Vogue Patterns — and Happy New Year to you all.
Glam rainbows play across this Vogue Pattern Book illustration of two t-shirt dresses, circa 1970.
Happy Galentine’s Day!
Have you heard? There’s a new museum devoted to sewing patterns, and it’s featured in the current issue of WWD Weekend magazine.
West Coast Executive Editor Booth Moore visited the Couture Pattern Museum in Santa Barbara, California for her article, “Preserving Fashion Piece by Piece.”
(online: “How the Couture Pattern Museum Preserves Artifacts That First Democratized Fashion“)
Curator Cara Austine-Rademaker founded the Couture Pattern Museum in 2022, with an emphasis on the Golden Age of couture. The museum aims to preserve sewing patterns as cultural artifacts, recreating couture designs for display (think Balenciaga and Galanos) and granting access to its carefully digitized patterns for educational purposes.
“Besides the feminine culture that these patterns represent, there’s also the couture culture that’s captured in these patterns,” Austine-Rademaker says.
Just as an artist’s sketch records the process of creating a work of art, she says, so a couture pattern provides invaluable insight into the finished couture garment:
“[T]hey have become more like works on paper. And the final piece you can almost see as the oil painting. But to get to that oil painting, the artist has to go through sketches or renditions and outlines. With patterns, not only do we have architectural plans of these designs, but also the instruction.”
Congratulations, Cara!
Read the article here. View WWD’s gallery here.
Visit the Couture Pattern Museum website
Vogue’s new patterns for Summer include two formal gowns in Easter-egg hues. A mint goddess gown evokes red-carpet glamour, while Badgley Mischka’s lilac confection is fit for a fairy queen.
The “secret gardens” of Savannah, Georgia were the inspiration behind the tulle gown with rosettes at the shoulders — a design from Badgley Mischka’s Spring 2024 collection.
The original is still available at the Outnet:
Belt not included…
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