Petal & Pins

Category: Fashion Designers

July 30, 2016

Fashionable Flowers

dresses in an exhibitionmannequindress detail

On a recent trip to Melbourne I saw the 200 Years of Australian Fashion exhibition at the NGV and this wedding dress (circa 1952) designed by Beril Jents was just one of the dresses that not surprisingly caught my eye.

Over the years I’ve made a garden full of flowers from fabric myself – from evening and wedding dress embellishments to adornments for lapels or hats. Just lately I’ve been making ‘spring blossom’ out of paper for part of our petal & pins display at our second trade fair appearance.

We’re launching our new Garden Party card collection, a Black Label range of notecard sets and I have designed a new collection of limited edition prints we’ve called Atelier Pétale featuring a vintage fashion inspired sketch with hats I’ve styled from flowers from our garden.

So our garden flowers continue to inspire me creatively and petal & pins continues to grow! We head to Melbourne next week for the trade fair and Mr Petal & Pins and I are getting excited, thank you for following us on this journey you are part of our story!

 

 

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March 31, 2016

light & space

I have been wanting to share some photos of sunset as experienced at artist James Turrell’s  Amarna installation since I first went to view it but how it connected with a blog about fashion and flowers eluded me…until last night.

Fashion designer Alexi Freeman launched his Autumn/Winter White Noise 2016 Collection at twilight out at MONA using Amarna as the runway.

James Turrell is an American artist primarily concerned with light and space. Amarna is one of more than 80 Skyspace installations he has built around the world and is best viewed at sunrise or sunset.

Amarna by James Turrell
blue
pink
Alexi Freeman A:W2016
Alexi Freeman A:W 16
Alexi Freeman Autumn/Winter16
Alexi Freeman White Noise collection

Alexi Freeman collaborated  with shoe designer Preston Zly and accessory designer Kate Rohde to present an ethereal collection.

The evening was  enhanced by Byron Meyer’s live soundscapes, Ainslie Walker‘s beautiful bespoke scent Nocturne filling the air and of course those other two fashion show requisites – friends and champagne!

 

all words and images ©2016 Sandra Alcorn blog.petalandpins.com

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January 25, 2016

Renegade Luxe

Jean Paul Gaultier catalogue prêt-à-porter S/S 08Some fashion collections stay with you long after the season has past and the designer has presented others.

It could be the silhouette, the fabrics or the combination of colours – which is what it was for me with Jean Paul Gaultier’s prêt-à-porter Pirate Collection from Spring/Summer 2008.

We were in Paris that Spring and went to the Gaultier boutique on avenue George V.
I lingered at the pieces that caught my eye to drink in the details and gently run my fingers over the cloth. Khaki, brown and olive green in plains, stripes and camouflage prints were given a touch of renegade luxe with the combinations of fabrics and embellishments.

This summer, while looking out my sunroom window down onto the plum tree and the ripening elderberries that memory was stirred by the similarity in colours and contrasting textures.

I pulled out the catalogue brought back from Paris to revisit the collection and was also inspired to design some plum leaf and elderberry dresses for my Garden Fairy’s Wardrobe.

plum tree foliageelderberriesinspiration from Jean Paul Gaultier's prêt-à-porter collection S/S 2008petal & pins Garden Fairy's Wardrobe dress

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February 14, 2015

Teddy Bear Muse

Last November, in anticipation of seeing the exhibition The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier:From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk, I created two Gaultier inspired designs for my Garden Fairy’s Wardrobe.

For fans of “the enfant terrible of French fashion” it will be no surprise that one of these was a corset.

For inspiration I chose the conical bra style he first showed in the early 1980s and which was famously worn by pop icon Madonna on her Blonde Ambition World Tour.

Here is my take on it for my garden fairy and some photos I took at the exhibition.

corset

Jean Paul Gaultier exhibition

Jean Paul Gaultier exhibition

Jean Paul Gaultier exhibitionIn the exhibition monograph, Jean Paul Gaultier thanks many including his teddy bear – which features in the exhibition wearing the cone bra he fashioned for it as a child!

The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier:From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk:

“…thanks also to my teddy bear Nana who was my first model and without whom my whole career not to speak of the cone breasts, would not have been possible…”

In my post Good Things Come To Those That Wait I spoke of waiting for several years to see this exhibition. It was first shown in Montreal in 2011, then in Dallas, San Francisco, Madrid, Rotterdam, Stockholm, New York, London and finally Melbourne in 2014.

It was worth the wait – so much so that I went to see it twice on that weekend trip to Melbourne in November!

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