Tuesday 1 March 2011

Dress Up March 2011

As a child of the '60's I read the theme of March's Dress Up challenge and smiled... now this is my era!! Pop Art or Popular Art started in the UK in the late 50's and then later took off in the States with people like Andy Warhol.  Sadly, I think a lot of people think it all began with Warhol and it is his images of Marilyn Monroe that come to mind when Pop Art is mentioned.  Well, I am English so I thought I would use Peter Blake as my muse for this month.  Peter Blake is best known for the Beatles' iconic album cover Sargent Pepper's and England was the place to be in this period of history... we had Twiggy, Mary Quant, and Carnaby Street, we had The Beatles and Cilla Black.  Music, fashion and design were at their peak and we embraced it with everything we had.... no more post war rationing, no more austerity...
Paper dresses were actually sold and worn, people looked at different materials to produce even more outrageous (and ever shorter) dresses!!  (Unlike today's youth with their mutton muffin tops hanging over their hipsters, we were skinny and fit)!! LOL, now corrected... blonde/senior moment!! Dresses were made from weird and wonderful things and this is where my dress up idea came from:
Known as the 'dirty dirty dress' it was made up of photographs of men's bodies which were laminated and then joined together to make the dress.  I'm not saying it was the most comfortable thing to wear, as I can imagine it was not, but it would certainly have got you noticed, wouldn't it? LOL
I used chipboard circles in two sizes and covered them with paper, sanded the edges and then inked them. (and that was a labour of love, let me tell you)!! I then sat for an entire day and added the links to each piece and joined them into the dress shape (that was not a labour of love, it was sheer torture and one of the first times I have had to resort to using my reading glasses for close work and you have no idea how many of those little links litter the scrap room floor because they had a life of their own and kept pinging off my desk).  I then went on and made her a shoulder bag to match and my 'dedicated follower of fashion' just had to have a copy of the Beatles' LP, didn't she?  (Anyone now humming the song by the Kinks?  I had it going round in my head for days)!!
This is the back of the dress....
and this is the little Beatles' album, I even made the little white sleeve that protected the LP!!  LOL
I would like to think I would have worn a dress like this but the reality is that my Mum wouldn't have let me leave the house!  It was bad enough when my best friend, Sherre, gave me my first pair of jeans with the fly zip.  Mum was horrified and said I could only wear them indoors!!  Anyone reading this who is under 30 is probably scratching their head about now, but really, ladies trousers always zipped at the side on the hip, it was deemed pretty racy to wear them with the zip at the front like men!! Aaah, the memories.... 
If you want to look at all the other dresses, pop over to Angela at Sew Loquacious and check them out.

11 comments:

  1. Oh My Gosh this is adorable,...and great work too.....I love it..

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  2. This is fab Annette...and yes, I had the tune buzzing round in my head LOL

    I noticed that our PCs are talking to each other at last - thanks for following c",)

    Toni xx

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  3. This is just an extraordinary effort! Memorable creation!

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  4. LOL! It's muffin tops, not mutton tops! (You're not thinking of 'mutton chops', are you? Very steampunk!)

    This is stunning, a fantastic idea and it looks amazing, great piece!

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  5. Your dress is spectacular! It truly is an amazing piece of art..the bag, too. Simply awesome. Thanks so much for participating.
    Angela
    PS..is the naked man photo dress for sale somewhere? Really drool..I mean cool.

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  6. Hello Annette,
    I loved Twiggy...when my husband and I married in 1973 I had hair so long I could set on it...one day while he was at work I got a Twiggy haircut...I thought he was going to faint when he saw me.
    The labor you put into your dress and the purse to match is unbelievable...what a stunning job...I had never heard of the dirty dress until now and I don't think the men of this generation would want their girl wearing photo's of mens body parts...it would make them insecure and jealous.
    It was quite a time back then...you brought back a lot of memories.
    Have A Sugar Sweet Day
    Simply Debbie

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  7. Where to start!?! I love the dress and bag, it's marvelous and you put some serious time into making that (now hanging head in shame at my ensemble - lol). I love the background story and yes, I am over 30 and watched my sisters trying to get away with miniskirts and my parents losing it! Yes, the teenagers were fitter I think and what seemed sooo racy then is sooo tame in comparison to today.

    Without reading your description, I also paid a bit of homage to the Beatles (ala Sgt. Pepper) with my outfit for this challenge.

    Anyway, I just love this creation - BRAVA!

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  8. Really cool! I love how much work you put into it and the composition and colors are great. Thanks also for sharing some of your past with us! Looking forward to next month's submission
    Liza

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Thank you for taking the time to leave your comment, it is truly appreciated - sort of confirms that it is more than my Mum and husband that read this thing! :)