Sunday 31 January 2010

Amsterdam

I went to Amsterdam to catch a final glimpse of the At The Russian Court Exhibition at the Hermitage










- it was crowded and too busy to really enjoy it properly, but at least I got to see the fabulous Court dresses again with their amazingly intricate embroidery in silver and gold thread. 
(Photo credit  www.thoughts.com and Reuters)












Beautiful evening gowns were displayed in circular cabinets 2 of which rotated every now and then when a clip from the ballroom scene in the film Russian Ark was shown on the walls.  Some of the dresses were by the Paris Fashion House Worth - I adore dresses by Charles Worth they really are something special and the dress below left with the dark green velvet bodice and cross over bow is Worth worn by the Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna.

(Photo credit www.15minutesmagazine.com  /Roger Webster)












Amsterdam was a bit grey and it rained a lot!















I was glad of a cup of tea at a restaurant and they had the cutest mini tea library I ever saw from which to choose my tea! 


I love Amsterdam's flower sellers and I bought some lovely tulips and roses to bring home - the tulips are so bright and cheerful!

Sunday 24 January 2010

My new Plisse!!

I was up in London last weekend and was thrilled when the SA at Bond St opened a drawer of plisses only to see a taupe Passage au Moscou starring at me - a colourway I had passed on twice before, so this time I made sure it came home with ME!!!  I have played around with it and here are some ways to wear a plisse:-


Simply wrapped from front to back, crossed over brought back to the front and tied in a Half Ascot knot  http://mylittlescarfblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Half%20Ascot%20Knot%20Video








The Friendship Knot
http://mylittlescarfblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/friendship-knot.html


Then a "knot" which I tie in the middle of the scarf then fan out to create the rounded bit at the front, take ends around the back of the neck and bring forward and tie in a knot inside the rounded bit.  It has no name as far as I know!



Short Flower Knot - take scarf from front to back, cross over at back and bring ends back to the front and use a scarf ring to create the Flower Knot effect.



Flower Knot - do one single knot, then just take a scarf ring and pull the edges of the scarf mid way down through the ring and pull to achieve this great look!











Then I did a Flower Knot without a single knot to start and just used the scarf ring alone which gives a bigger effect.











And finally if it is really cold out you can thread your plisse through a fur collar and tie with a flower knot/scarf ring as above!

Saturday 2 January 2010

Vintage Scarves III - The Purples

Here are my purple vintage silk scarves

Coaching AW09














Worn cowboy style it really sets off my favourite pink sweater!!  The colours in this scarf are really great.

Rythmes SS09
This is a very strong red, purple and yellow scarf!!  None of the colourways on offer from Hermes really grabbed me but I like the design a lot so I plumped for this strong colourway.


Looks great against black - here just folded into a triangle and draped around the neck and tied at the back - nearly cowboy style!


Here worn in the basic fold and pulled through a scarf ring