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	<title>Alexandra Highcrest Magazine &#187; Fashion History</title>
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	<link>http://alexandrahighcrest.com/blog</link>
	<description>I used to work in fashion, then I took an arrow to the knee.</description>
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		<title>Gown by Poiret</title>
		<link>http://alexandrahighcrest.com/blog/2010/03/15/gown-by-poiret/</link>
		<comments>http://alexandrahighcrest.com/blog/2010/03/15/gown-by-poiret/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 14 Mar 2010 19:17:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alexandra Highcrest</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Fashion History]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sidebar Photoblog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fashion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Paul Poiret]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://alexandrahighcrest.com/blog/?p=1877</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A printed silk gown ca. 1912 attributed to French designer Paul Poiret (1879-1944). Measurements: Bust approx 92cm (36 in), Waist 72 cm (28 in). The current estimated value of this dress is between 9,200 CAD to 12,300 CAD. The pencil sketch depicts a similar Poiret model, ca 1912. Paul Poiret was born in Paris in 1879. He worked for Jacques Doucet from 1896 then moved to the House of Worth in 1900. In 1904 he established his own house with the help of Doucet and the patronage of the actress Gabrielle Réjane. Poiret is widely credited with releasing women from the corseted, hourglass-shaped designs of the period, creating elegant, gently fitted dresses with fewer underclothes. He was influenced by the Ballets Russes, incorporating turbans and harem pants into his collections. In 1908 and 1909 he commissioned Paul Iribe and Georges Lepage to illustrate his clothes in brochures. Poiret&#8217;s 1911 design for a hobble skirt, drawn in at the ankles, caused a huge furor and brought him a certain notoriety. His house closed during World War I and, though it reopened after the war and made some effort to attract a younger clientele, Poiret found himself in the late 1920s facing financial [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Cutting Edge Fashion, ca. the 12th Century</title>
		<link>http://alexandrahighcrest.com/blog/2009/10/18/cutting-edge-fashion-ca-the-12th-century/</link>
		<comments>http://alexandrahighcrest.com/blog/2009/10/18/cutting-edge-fashion-ca-the-12th-century/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 17 Oct 2009 17:00:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alexandra Highcrest</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Fashion History]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bliaut]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://alexandrahighcrest.com/blog/?p=1420</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Western European women’s clothing changed dramatically in the first half of the 12th century, during the First Crusade, when noble ladies accompanied their crusading lords to cities such as Constantinople, Palermo, and Venice—all centres of silk manufacture. These fashion-conscious visitors discovered and adopted a local, eastern-inspired garment, the bliaut, and before long the gown made its way by degrees through the south of France and into England, arriving about 1130. Previously women&#8217;s gowns were simple affairs; the bliaut was the first woman&#8217;s garment to have a definite shape and elaborate construction. It was made of fine material, crimped or gauffered, joined on the shoulders then stitched and stitched again across the bust and back. The neck was banded, and the garment fell in many tiny folds to the feet. The sleeves were created the same way; the tiny pleats were fixed into the armholes (this is the first appearance of such a feature as an armhole) and stitched a little way down the arm so they fell in many small folds around the arm. The sleeve was cut on the cross, creating a zigzag effect at its edge. The bliaut could be layered and was usually accessorized. A corsage, a [...]]]></description>
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		<title>America&#8217;s First Fashion Icon</title>
		<link>http://alexandrahighcrest.com/blog/2009/09/18/americas-first-fashion-icon/</link>
		<comments>http://alexandrahighcrest.com/blog/2009/09/18/americas-first-fashion-icon/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:49:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alexandra Highcrest</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Fashion History]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Chanel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Charles Dana Gibson]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gibson Girl]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[icon]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://alexandrahighcrest.com/blog/?p=1301</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Gibson Girl was the personification of the feminine ideal as portrayed in the satirical pen and ink illustrated stories created by Charles Dana Gibson during a twenty-year period spanning the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in the United States. The Gibson Girl set what some argue was the first national standard for a feminine beauty ideal. For the next two decades, the popularity of this fictional image ushered in a national mania for all things Gibson, and she sold saucers, ashtrays, tablecloths, pillow covers, chair covers, souvenir spoons, screens, fans and umbrella stands, all bearing her image. The Gibson Girl was tall and slender and endowed with an ample bosom, hips and bottom, molded into the S-curve torso shape by a swan-bill corset. The images of her epitomized the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Western preoccupation with statuesque, youthful features and ephemeral beauty. Her neck was thin and her hair piled high on her head in the contemporary bouffant, pompadour, and chignon (“waterfall of curls”) fashions. The tall, narrow-waisted ideal feminine figure was portrayed as multi-faceted, always at ease and fashionable. Gibson depicted her as an equal, and sometimes teasing, companion to men. Many models posed for [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Dior Considered Embroidery Dangerous</title>
		<link>http://alexandrahighcrest.com/blog/2009/07/17/dior-considered-embroidery-dangerous/</link>
		<comments>http://alexandrahighcrest.com/blog/2009/07/17/dior-considered-embroidery-dangerous/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 17 Jul 2009 07:56:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alexandra Highcrest</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Fashion History]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Chanel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dior]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[embroidery]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New Look]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://alexandrahighcrest.com/blog/?p=780</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Christian Dior, creator of the 1947 spring/summer fashion collection that swept Europe and the Americas (coined &#8220;the New Look&#8221; after Harper&#8217;s Bazaar editor-in-chief Carmel Snow&#8217;s exclamation, &#8220;Its such a New Look!&#8221;) thought embroidery was dangerous. In Dior&#8217;s book The Little Dictionary of Fashion, (HNA Books, 1954) he described embroidery as, &#8220;One of the most beautiful things done by the hand of woman. But one of the most dangerous to use with elegance. I don&#8217;t like embroidery on day clothes-unless it is very, very simple.&#8221; Embroidery dangerous!?!  Monsieur Dior added, &#8220;If used discreetly it is good for cocktail dresses and in a more elaborate fashion it is wonderful for evening clothes. For a dinner party a short embroidered dress may be very nice, but you must only wear embroidery on suitable occasions, otherwise it is pretentious.&#8221; Christian knew a thing or two about pretentious.  The New Look&#8217;s silhouette was characterized by a below-mid-calf length full skirt, a large bust (not fashionable since 1912), and a small waist. In refutation to wartime and post-war fabric restriction, Dior used 20 yards of extravagant fabrics in some of his creations. The New Look initially evoked some resistance from women because the extravagant use of fabric made [...]]]></description>
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		<title>The First Bra</title>
		<link>http://alexandrahighcrest.com/blog/2009/06/05/the-first-bra/</link>
		<comments>http://alexandrahighcrest.com/blog/2009/06/05/the-first-bra/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 04 Jun 2009 18:18:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alexandra Highcrest</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Fashion History]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[1914]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Chanel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[lingerie]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mary Phelps-Jacobs]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://alexandrahighcrest.com/blog/?p=295</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Bra history dates back as far as ancient Crete but the word brassiere didn&#8217;t appear until 1907, when it was coined in an issue of American Vogue. Prior to 1907 early bras were referred to as soutien-gorges by the French or bust improvers (or BBs) by the Edwardian British. Most of the fashion designers of the early 20th century claimed to create the first bra and they all promoted breast restraining garments in order to mold their clients&#8217; bodies to the newer, simple straight dress styles. These early undergarments were similar to the tight camisoles of the 1980s and 90s. The term camisole was used for these garments at the beginning of the century but was replaced by &#8220;Bust Bodice&#8221; in 1905. Fashion bra history really began in 1914 with the first bra patent filed by the New York debutante Mary Phelps-Jacobs. Hers was the first elasticized, backless brassiere, designed to release women from their corsets and enable them to participate in sports and other activities without physical restraint (Coco Chanel must&#8217;ve approved). The prototype consisted of no more than two pocket-handkerchiefs and a piece of pink ribbon. She conceived the idea while dressing for a ball. The thought of [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Fashion by the Book: The First Casualty</title>
		<link>http://alexandrahighcrest.com/blog/2009/05/28/fashion-by-the-book-the-first-casualty/</link>
		<comments>http://alexandrahighcrest.com/blog/2009/05/28/fashion-by-the-book-the-first-casualty/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 28 May 2009 15:54:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alexandra Highcrest</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Fashion History]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[1917]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ben Elton]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[lingerie]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Passchendaele]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The First Casualty]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ypres]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://alexandrahighcrest.com/blog/?p=148</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I recently read The First Casualty by Ben Elton, a murder mystery set to the background of the horrendous meat grinder of the Third Battle of Ypres. A Scotland Yard detective, Inspector Douglas Kingsley, is sent to Flanders under unusual circumstances to investigate the murder of a celebrity war hero who was killed under unusual circumstances. The book begs the question, why investigate the murder of an individual soldier while thousands were being slaughtered around him everyday? The Germans launched the First and Second Battles of Ypres in 1914 and 1915 respectively; the third battle was intended by British Commander-in-Chief Sir Douglas Haig as an Allied forces breakthrough in Flanders, ending the stalemate of trench warfare. The Third Battle of Ypres was launched on 31 July 1917 and continued until the fall of Passchendaele village on 6 November. The offensive resulted in a gain of a few kilometers for the Allies but was by no means the breakthrough Haig hoped for, and the gains that were made came at great cost in human terms. The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) incurred some 310,000 casualties, with a similar, lower, number of German casualties: 260,000. While it was impossible to ignore the historic [...]]]></description>
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