Today I republished the first part of the’dreaming of dior’ story. ♥

The reason being, the rest of the story is what made the beginning of this year so inspirational, sending me on a whirlwind of design and research into my fascination with past styles and detail.

As I said at the time, my fashion history cycle was about to come full circle. ♥

If you have read the last post about the stunning book ‘ Dreaming of Dior’ by Charlotte Smith, you will now know I had read this book cover to cover, wondering if one day I would ever be able to see such a collection first hand. Well in a twist of fate, I had an impromptu catch up lunch with my friend and colleague Kate (of K&Co). We chatted as usual about fashion, work, people and places and some how ended up on the topic of vintage fashion. The conversation shifted to a story about a recent project Kate had completed with a women named Charlotte and namely a collection of vintage clothing. Kate had mentioned on many occasions that I should meet this Charlotte and that the two of us both had an obsession with Ferragamo shoes and that we would get along well.

We put two and two together and worked out that this was in fact Charlotte Smith and I would be only days away from meeting the most historical collection of fashion in the flesh.

We set a date and I showed up In Surry Hills in Sydney (Im not going to disclose the actual site as it is confidential) and headed off to where the entire Darnell collection was being stored.

As we walked up stairs and through corridors I started to get nervous. Im not sure why but sometimes history is daunting, it makes one realise the lack of quality in todays world of fashion bringing one stunningly back to earth. We entered the room and the smell was of history… in a good way.

Charlotte handed me a pair of white cotton gloves, smiled and started to pull the large drapes of canvas off the racks.

There it was, rows of history, fabric, dresses, skirts, jackets. The colours were stunning, a few long dresses draped below the shorter ones and pucci geometric patterns came to life. The colours and definition are like nothing you will see in todays textiles. I always wondered if confronted by true couture pieces, would I recognize their craftsmanship?, and would I know who the designer was?  And to my surprise I did. True Chanel is easy to spot.

Its the neckline and the structure of the jacket. ♣

The textiles are incredible, simple yet a heavily structured weave like no other. A Black Chanel suite is anything but simple. Its heaven. Pucci was easy to spot and Dior as well.

Some of the collection is from unknown designers and a whole rack was dedicated to turn of the century wedding gowns and under garments. I was shocked at the swimsuits, its like a history lesson.

What stunned me most was the definite change in the weave of fabric and textiles through the last century. Fabrics have gotten lighter in weight and looser in weave. Corners are being cut in regard to sewing and construction and as we know this is to preserve cost, I do wonder if it is at the cost of preserving a garments life span.

My grandmother on my mums side (Babcia – Polish for Grandmother) always told me that it was better to have one amazing well made pair of shoes than a hundred pairs of poor quality shoes. To this day her and I still share shoes, she often wears my vintage 9AAA fitting black ferragamo flat pumps and I wear her circa 1969 ivory T bar heels with a fine wooden heel, handcrafted in Italy and still in perfect order. They seem to have not dated as do most ferragamo shoes. ♥

My other grandmother – Nana (Of Russian Decent who grew up in China) made most of her gowns and clothes. We often look through her photo albums, all in black and white. But when describing her dresses and outfits always referring to the colour and type of fabric. Its incredible how she remembers everything down to what bag and shoes she wore and how her hair was styled. For my year Twelve formal a million years ago now I wore an aubergine floor length silk taffeta hand crafted couture dress with a halter neck collar made entirely of tiny beads. This dress was hand made and beaded by my nana. I remember my art teacher saw me at the formal and said ‘ Oh my goodness its like the academy awards’ I had a laugh to myself and said, well at least no one else would have this dress on. I always liked to be that bit different.. and yes always had the thirst for vintage. Proper vintage and usually couture. ♥

Stay tuned for my interview with Charlotte Smith ♥

It was December 2009 Leah (my Bluebird & Honey) collaborator organized a late afternoon meeting followed by a pre christmas gift exchange. I had purchased a hand drawn artwork from The Netherlands and framed it for Leah’s gift and Leah had searched for the perfect book for me and my undying love for vintage fashion.

As I peeled open the gorgeous coordinated gift wrap, a magenta coloured book with a velvet feel dior dress adorned women appeared… namely the book Dreaming Of Dior by Charlotte Smith. The title alone spoke to me, as Leah said ‘I saw it on the shelf of recommend reads at the book shop and it simply was made for you Dani’.

Who would have thought that this book would turn into a dream come true for me.

That night I took the book to bed with me. I straightened out all of the sheets and pillows on my bed and put my glasses on. I propped myself up and proceeded to open the book one page at a time. As it was the end of the year I had been preparing for my holidays where I was going to catch up on my reading and sort out my wardrobe and do all those things that one just doesn’t get to during the busy working year.

I read the book cover to cover that night.

I read every word, every single word, from the year of publishing and the who where and what of how this book came to be.

I went to sleep that night… dreaming of dior…… literally.

What happened next can only be described as magic……..

♥ stay tuned to find out what happened in the first weeks of January….. and how my dream found its way through this book..