Dear Caulfield Op-Shop (Dress 170)

Dear Caulfield Op-Shop,

I found a cape in your dusty innards. Looking for shoes I found her, hanging amongst drab coats and pilled bed-jackets. Long and woollen, and fire-engine red. There’s a faded circle on the left breast. Turns out you’re not just gorgeous and warm- you’re a part of history, a relic from WW2, when nurses wore red capes. I cut you down 13” before I knew. I’m going to use your excess to make a hood, and now you’ve got pockets, and you’ll get arm-holes soon.

I get the feeling I’m going to wear you for a long time.

Here was one hypothesis as to the alterations:

All my love,
IP

Dearest Emergency Services (Dress 132)

Dear Emergency Services (c/o Di Munro)
You do awesome. Thankyou.
Di Munro took the first aid course I did last month. She was lovely, personable, informative and kind. We learnt things. We heard stories about what amazing work emergency services do. I could not respect those people more! Absolute saints, the lot of them.

This dress is a plain cotton base, two individual layers of mesh crepe with one painted circle on each. Attatched to the cotton base are two LEDs, which slowly fade in and out.

All my love,
IP

Dear 365ers (Dress 131)

Dear 365ers everywhere,

You're freaking AMAZING! Some of the things I've seen are bloody intense. Particularly entrancing is the work by Brock Davis: One piece of creative work made every day for 365 consecutive days. Exactly the spirit in which I started my project- to be constantly creative. Brock's work is varied, funny, interesting, and often breathtakingly beautiful.

Particuarly his work for Jan 3rd. This image played on my mind for ages, until I couldn't help but make it today's dress.

I know it's not intensely original, and were I to make this dress it would have to be with his permission; but I just thought it was such a gorgeous image it would make a lovely dress (although, due to penfail not a great drawing on my behalf.)

Done in ribbon on cotton fabric.

All my love,

IP.

P.S. A shout-out to the lovely Lucy, an old friend who I don't see as often as I'd like, who (when I bumped in to her in the city) said she reads this, and totally made my day! Which, considering the day I had was a mean feat! Time spent with Jorge, and the delightful Tess in City Hatters, nomsome soup, heavenly pistachio cupcake, cheap and pretty silver shoes, not having my bike stolen when I locked it to itself but not the pole, an Outsapopable stripy jumper, Heston Blumenthal on Masterchef (don't judge me! He's amazing.) and now, a cup of earl grey while I write the blog are just some of the reasons today was simply brilliant. Knowing that people are out there enjoying it is a wonderful feeling, (GoogleApps tells me there are people reading this in Russia! and France! And one lovely lady in the US!) Thankyou- to Lucy specifically, and to others, those I know, and those i'm yet to hear from. Please, if there is anything you'd like to see, anyone you think I should take a look at for inspiration or anything you're not happy with, let me know. I really appreciate the time you take reading, and voting, and commenting- it helps me keep this going more than you could know!

Dear AvantCard (Dress 128)

Dear Avantcard,

You're freaking awesome. I have a stack of postcards from you, and when I get bored with my room instead of doing huge alterations I just re-do my postcard board. Here in its' new incarnation, a rainbow(ish):

There isn't really an explicit link between the board and the dress, but I was trying to find a swimsuit (now that they are cheap) because I left mine behind in Israel, and I saw awesome monokinis (which is such a ridiculous name) and one of the postcards is a autumnal tree that looks like it's on fire.

The colours came out too bright- i wanted them much more muted.

All my love,

IP

Dear Darryl (Dress 122)

Dearest Darryl,

We used to go to your lifedrawing classes, my mum and I, every wednesday of my year 12. I don't remember his name, but there was a fellow there that did a lot of hypercolourful works in conte chalk and paint. I remember his teeshirts at the end of the three hour artwork extravaganza were covered in psychadelic smears of paint- the product of a brush absentmindedly cleaned in an almost feathery pattern from right hip to left shoulder. Why not make a dress a palette? I'd love to make this dress in plain white, and just let artists go wild in a range of them- have someone do action paintings, pollock-esque, or rennaisance oils, or dusty brilliantly coloured conte chalk.

This drawing is a little on the simple side in terms of colour, it's meant to be an example of what you could do with a white version of the dress.

The 'hole' on the right is meant to be a hole to the skin, but I think I drew it a little to large, if it were smaller i'd like it to show just a little of the under-breast.

All my love,

IP.

Dearest Irit (Dress 97)

Dearest Irit,
You are adorably frightened of ferris wheels.
You are also my aunt. There may or may not be pictures of six-year-old-ip holding your hand and smiling as you scream your lungs out at Luna Park....
I ought to toddle off to bed, but just a quick update:
Onto book 4 of the 365series.

It looks like there will be 12, maybe 13? depends on how many 10dress penalties I have to do. So exciting to line them up like this! It really looks possible.
All my love,
IP

Dear Beautiful Red-Head Girls, (Dress 90)

Dear Beautiful Red-Headed Girls,

You're some of the most gorgeous specimens of female loveliness walking the earth. There's something about cascading russet hair, next to that beautiful milky skin that is the designer's dream: think Lily Cole or the (admittedly bottle-red) Christina Hendriks. (Also: My best friend and fellow sewingmachinemistress Alice.)

For those lovely lasses also blessed with the equally rare and gorgeous genetic trait for green eyes, there's this:

Lightweight green polyesters, twisted and under-pieced together, zip on the left side.
All my love,

Dear Red Fox (Dress 89)

Dear Red Fox,

A friend of the family (an artist, painter, sculptor, and CFA volunteer) used to have the nickname 'Kenny the Fox', his favourite subject for oil paintings. I stayed at their house one night at their young daughters' insistance, a lovely home in the mountains with a wood fire, and I just spent the night staring at this painting of a fox chasing his tail. I'd love to do this image I have (but cannot upload b/c of size problems) of a fox chasing a mouse, with the body of the fox slinking from the top of the right shoulder to the waist. Painted in oil paint, and photographically printed on.

All my love,
IP

Dear Valentine's Day (Dress 73)

Dear Valentines Day,

In my attempt to make you an exercize in affection and not a work out for my bank account last year I made about one hundred paper roses and covered the house I was housesitting with my boyfriend (at the time). I went Massively overboard, ah; the follies of youth!
I still love making paper roses, and last night, wonderng how they would look in reinforced fabric, I came up with this:
(creme brown lattice, with green mesh inbetween, dark brown ribbon for the 'rosebush' and burgundy rose at the top left. I'll ink the drawing and colour it later Dress 71 has been inked! go check it out.)
All my love,

To Sir Duncan Campbell, Bart Esq. (C/O Henry Raeburn, Australian National Gallery.) (Dress 64)

To Sir Duncan Campbell, Bart Esq.

you cut a dashing figure in your military regalia, a style which I feel has been (in my personal opinion, alledgedly, with all due respect) tainted by the late M.Jackson. I say we bring back the fresh tomato red, mustard yellow and charcoal combination! Gold buttons FTW.

I'd like to take a moment to mention the gorgeous frame on this- I'd love to do some architectural work to create that kind of impression in upholstry fabric...

Dress Specs: Gold braid, red wool on yellow cotton, and black cotton.

All my love,

Dear Winter, (Dress 59)

Dear Winter (well aware that it is still technically Autumn, but the weather says otherwise.)
You're the only reliable season in Melbourne. You're rainy and freezing and drizzly and haily and all sorts of damp and cold but at least I know that when I leave the house wearing a scarf and a wooly jumper I won't have to carry them around all day while passing out from dehydration...
What I'm saying is that consistancy is key. And that when people know that they can shake out the mothballs and go all out with winter clothing they really go for it and the results are lovely.
Today I saw a split-zipped hoody on the bus: if: then: therefore:

(Black wool blend with a rose-tinted cotton lined hood. zip up the back,)

All my love,

Dear Melbourne Dandy (Dress 56)

 Dearest Melbourne Dandy,
You're a lovely addition to the range of pseudo-indie subcultures cropping up in this wonderful town of style freaks- a welcome visual distraction from the black-grey uniform of the'cultured' Melbournian. The specimen that drew my eye in today wore a lovely ensemble of pinstripe shirt in red, the everpresent black skinny jeans, and a pair of the most stunning tan brogue(ish)s.

(Dress Specs: Luxury cotton for the shirt/coat aspect; and heavy polyester shorts with a satin lining. rubber reinforcement for the epaulettes.)





All my love,

Dear Homer C/O Aristotle (Dress 49)

Dear Homer,
We had the Iliad on tape when I was little- I think the language was somewhat altered for the sake of modern listeners, but the form and content (to my memory) were the same. The stories (for, as the 'stot tells us, Epic poems are but collections of stories... -can you tell i've been doing my theatre readings?-) captivated me, all passion and bloodlust and battle and honour and other such over-the-top sentiments.
What always stayed was the image of thousands of ships setting sail at the conclusion of the battle- bedraggled and exhausted, but nevertheless enthusastic to be on their way.

All my love

Dear Law Lounge (Dress 45)

Dearest Law Lounge,
The lights on the Law Lounge Ceiling are switched on in a random configuration, sunk into square sockets- it's pretty without being intrusive, I wanted this dress to have patches of warm light (the spots are mesh/see through when lit) without being intensely radiant.

(LEDs in removable round attatchments, cotton and elastic-underdress.)

All my love,

Dear Red Wheelbarrow Books (Dress 39)

Dearest Red Wheelbarrow Books,
I've never been happier to work than I am amongst the mustyish smell of books. Tomorrow night you become something more than that, from a church of literature, to a (nondenominational) place of happiness when two people get married there. I'll be bartending the reception- and when I was thinking of what I could wear that was both pretty and splatter-safe it seemed inevitable that they become one item of clothing (now with 20% free splatter.)

Dye-washed cotton with a pieced-in black cotton/something stain resistant blend apron. 3D bow fixed at the back, zip down the side.

All my love,

Dear Matthia (Dress 38)

Dearest Matthia,
You used to tutor me in German conversation when I was in high school- you'd come to my house, sit down to tea and a biscuit, and patter away at whatever topic intrigued you- no matter what, you'd always have something interesting to impart, wheather it be about the traditional german mugs we had, and the history of their design, or the politics of teaching in the modern world. Always in German, and always so fascinating that I never realised how much you were teaching me. You had a very precise aesthetic, clean-cut suits and always a silk scarf, a broach, and on the last finger of your left hand, a gold set signet ring in royal blue. The idea of you carrying around the history of your family always mesmerised me, the object's memory of the letters it had sealed when that was all the rage- so when a co-commuter this morning had a similiar ring, more delicately set- It seemed natural.

(Dress specs: heavy linen for the front piece, modeled with corset underlay to hold stiff over the bust area, light cotton (undyed) for the waist/back piece. Resin brooch for the wax seal.)

All my love,

Dear Mondrian (Dress 34)

Dearest Mondrian,
I meant today's dress to be a subtle tribute- it turned out just kinda silly; but I think it'd be a nice summer staple. Light cotton with white lining.

All my love,

Dearest Google Books, (Dress 32)

Dearest Google Books,
Now in 3D? WTF?
(Read: you got me. Complete article on google's april fools planks here)
Dress!

All my love,

Dear Joan Holloway, (Dress 27)

Dearest Joan Holloway,

An inspiration to curvy gals everywhere not to dress like those stick figures they (rather annoyingly) get to advertise clothing lines inspired by your look....

(via: this is london.co.uk, L-R, Paula Ke, Victoria Beckham and Marks and Spenser.)

All my love,

Dear Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin (Dress 11)

Dear Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin,
One of you, I think is hilarious. The other- not so much (could have something to do with the cruel and unusual massacre of one of my favourite plays ever... Cruelty to Rostand: IP says no.)
My point: 1/2 awesome, 1/2 awful, to the power of Academy Awards= pure butt-kissing-hollywood-schmoozing-BOREDOM. We get that Meryl's amazing. We get that you hate Zac Efron and Whatsisface Lautner because they're youthful. We get that ABSOLUTELY EVERYONE who got nominated needed to be mentioned and fauxcomplimented... Even Neil Patrick Harris, song and dancemeister extrordinaire was boring. How is that possible?
But it gave me time to look at the pretty dresses, and the bending motion of the song-and-dance number Vegas Showgirls' fans inspired the corset-boning in the back of this dress.

Off the shoulder burgundy crepe with architectural (metal) boning to enhance the curve of the back.
Now: Alec, man up. Stick with 30 Rock, that's your forte.
All my love,