Dear Wineglasses (Dress 139)

Dear Wineglasses,

I have a confession to make: I don't really like wine. I've tried, I promise, all types, and just 'drinking through the taste' trying to find why it's so appealing to others- I really can't get it. At most I'll finish one glass, but it's really tough. I think I have to come to terms with the fact that I'm missing out gastronomically, maybe my tastebuds will refine. Until then I will be content to drink fruit juice (as long as I'm allowed to drink it out of a wineglass.) There is something classically beautiful about a well made wineglass, and the new varieties of stemless ones are stunning! It's really irritating when a restaurant won't let you drink out of the wineglass, it's one kind of glassware or another, and i'm not going to miss out on beautiful design just because my tastebuds are low-tech!

Today's dress has a silver 'hoop' in the outline of a stemless wineglass, to which a white (synthetic) material is affixed. over the white, synthetic black threads are bound around the bodice, and then zigzagged down the front of the skirt part of the dress. another clear fabric is fitted over that layer, and they are fused together on a mannequin specifically designed to be warm, and therefore ensure even warmth and shrinkage.

(NB: this technique was made up for this dress, and may or may be physically possible... Oh well!)

All my love,

IP

Dear Pentel (Dress 138)

Dear Pentel,
Without you I would have no mechanical-pencil-lead. Something about the tube- a black rubber cap on a case in a brown no-one else would ever dream of using, has become a part of my keys-wallet-phone-diary-drawingutensils leaving-the-house checklist. For all it's pigment-related-shortcomings, it really is a rather pretty shape. And today, as i sat down to design the dress, it seemed fitting.
All my love,
IP

Dear Dianne Wynne-Jones (Dress 137)

Dear Dianne Wynne-Jones,
Your books were such a focus of my childhood- You were the author (along with Roald Dahl) upon whom I could always rely to transport me, sick, home from school, into another world without the mild headache or minor stomach upset (that, to a child seems plaguelike in proportion). One particular image (among many) that remains embedded is that of a tribe of strange elfin creatures that wear the (traditionally Gaellic? Welsh? English?) neck-jewellery, the Torc. Today's dress is in honor of that forgotten necklace.
(The drawing on the left is a view of the back. The Torc itself is made of silver, as are the balls at the end of the ribbon at the back. The ribbon is knotted around the Torc, and is part of the plain backless sheath dress part.)
All my love,
IP