Tiers of Joy

Mina sent me a link to the Spring 08 Derek Lam shows. I've not been paying any attention to any of the Spring shows, as obsessed as I've been with figuring out what I'm going to sew this fall, but these dresses are just wonderful:




And check out this one, too:




I'm not sure if I like that deep berry for spring, but I do like the style. I'd do this in shades of blue, shading from pale on top to a really bright band on the next-to-bottom tier, then pale again for the bottom tier. Something very ocean-y and summery, in voile or china silk, not too heavy.

I love that the pockets are in the second tier from the top. Very practical.

And do you know what? If you're going to leave a comment that all those tiers would make you look OMG FAT!!!!, please don't bother. There is more to life than the bogus imperative to minimize your apparent body weight at all times. Just for a minute, put down that burden, okay? Think about how that gorgeous fabric would FEEL. Think about how it would SOUND. Think about how you would MOVE in it, where you would GO in it, what you would put in the POCKETS, even, and not on some imagined optical illusion of a few more inches here or there. Now imagine feeling like that all the time -- imagine the question "Does this make me look fat?" didn't exist. How would that change your life? What would you do differently? Would it get you to wear this beautiful dress?

Comments

[Jo]

All those things would definitely get me to want to wear this beautiful dress! As you say, imagine the feel :-) Perhaps in ochres and golds?

[somethingone]

I would wear the dress, and all those lovely full skirts I have that i fear to wear because of the Big Hips. And I could stop trying to build a time machine. (I have a perfect Edwardian figure. Not so much today's beanpole with boobs.)

[Anonymous]

I actually was thinking about how deep the V-neck is on both dresses...and not a wit about the tiers.

[Latter-Day Flapper]

I don't think they'd make you look fat if you used drapey material. I have the [proportionately] biggest butt on Earth and avoid gathered anything like the plague, but I have a dress with a full, gathered skirt made in very soft rayon and it looks great. You just have to pick the right cloth.Personally, I always get the impression that this type of dress makes everyone look like small people dressing big. (And I love the berry color, but I agree it's not very spring-y. That green's a dud, though. I paid extra for a car to avoid having to live with one that color for the next 15 years.)

[jenny]

I was looking at these yesterday... I loved them too - and thinking I might try to make one. I'd probably make the waistband an inch or so deeper - I like, and look better with a more defined waist. But it is lovely.

[rose]

Oh, I love both of these! The colors (I adore that acid green!) and the berry (I would look great in it, though perhaps not for spring). I think this dress would be flattering on lots of different figures, actually. And as for the plunging neckline -- a camisole, I think. Or an insert.

[xstpenguin]

I love that colour of green!And I was also thinking about the low cut front rather than the gathers.I love the blue shade idea Erin, but we part company on having the pale colour repeat on the bottom - I *think* that would make one look short(er). But I could be wrong. Make one and prove your point! ;-)Colour/season/weight can be very misleading. My mother has a fleece jacket that is so big and Cookie Monsterish it should be perfect for winter, but in fact is so light-weight that she can only really wear it in the summer (that is Scottish 18C summer). Likewise while Berry colours remind most people of autumn and winter, it'd be cold to wear that style! So in the same vein of "wear it because it makes you happy" one should wear any old colour any old time!She says, currently on a break from finishing a white eyelet shirt intended for the summer we didn't have and will be stowed away for the summer we don't have next year. :-D

[Allison]

That last paragraph is inspriational and awesome.

[goosefairy]

I like the longer one best. Ooooo. Can you imagine it all the way to the floor in navy blue velvet with tiny little rhinestones scattered all over?

[Tracy]

I LOVE #16 in that collection, the blue/black/gold stripe with the halter top. I like the subtle shaping of the waistbands too, and how how the proportions of the tiers change.

[sarah]

I have to agree with the commenters above, I didn't think about the gathers at all -- actually I think those petticoat style skirts can be very flattering to all. I looked at that dress and thought "cute, but not on my boobs...they'd be trying to escape every second I wore it." And I don't think it would look half so nice with a camisole added underneath.

[MinaW]

Not to take away from what Erin said, with which I totally agree, but in my costuming experience this style actually is very flattering on people who are large in the middle and rear. (This from my slender-waisted days, loaning one of my costumes to a lady who was substantially built, and who looked fantastic in it.The important characteristics are: wide band at high waist, very flared skirt, (not straight!) gathered or not, & long length, at least as long as the longer of the two of these, even better full length. That makes you look taller, because of the high waist. Yeah, a camisole, or even a long-sleeve top to make this wearable for winter. I suspect we'd want an inset in those armholes too. But isn't it great to see pretty dresses showing up again? And I like it that he shows real hair too.Mina W

[Jenna]

It really is a lovely dress, and I think the blue idea would be beautiful. The berry is nice, but I think I might try putting one of these together and just go for a solid progression of light to dark. Less purple, more a rose to crimson kinda thing. With a lovely shawl I have, I might have figured out my Christmas party dress.As to your last paragraph? I can't agree more. Several years I had to take a good long look in the mirror and decide what I was going to do. I'm at no point the conventional "look". 6'2, busty as all get out, and with the rest of the proportions to match. I could either drive myself crazy trying to force my body into some mold that, let's be honest, it would never fit.... or accept the way I was and as long as I was healthy, be happy. I could lose every ounce of fat and would still have to deal with the fact bone doesn't shift!The day I truely accepted myself was the day before my first date with my husband. I've never looked back. Its funny. I wear clothes now that I would never have worn back when I was in my teens, but as I near 30 I have figured out if YOU think you look great, it permeates your walk, and others think so too.(All that being said, I AM glad styles are shifting to normal women wear.... I've given up buying clothes and make my own to avoid the Britney Spears Belly Bare.)

[Jenna]

I love acid green, but it makes me look like I have jaundice. But an ombre-like layering of green colors, with dark on the top and pale on the bottom, would be pretty. It would also emphasise the fullness and swishiness of the skirt.And I love that berry color myself; I'm thinking about doing my wedding dress in a color like that.Like XSTPenguin, I'm also more leery of the plunging V neck than I am of the shape itself. If you're a busty gal, a baggy, deep V neck is a wardrobe malfunction waiting to happen.

[Kate in England]

If we're talking graduating colours, would this be the opportunity I've been looking for to use one of these Dip-dyed ombre georgettes?

[Ladygrande (Texas Marie)]

Be sure to check out the Ralph Lauren collection also! Lovely designs - hats and gloves on the models (not exactly color appropriate, but lovely!).

[Anonymous]

I already am fat, I wear what I want!!!! I LOVE both dresses! I can't pull off that green near my face, but maybe dark Teal.....

[jenny]

If you like these, you might also check out the Donna Karan collection for Spring... gorgeous, gorgeous. And a lot of them read like a "dress a day" drea: 1950s silhouettes, full skirts, pockets!

[Deirdre]

Love these dresses! I figured out last summer that I look good in tiered dresses with v-shaped necklines (hourglass figure). So I look forward to this style (and this time around let's hope there's no calico involved -- Holly Hobbie, anyone?)

[Anonymous]

I love both colors, and they would look good on me. I wear berry, green, pumpkin, and all the fall colors that look fabulous with my complexion all year round. If you are concerned about the plunging neck line, make it a little less plunging to corral your boobs. That is the beauty about sewing-you can change it to make it work.LindaP.S. I love this web site!

[La BellaDonna]

I wear necklines like that without thinking twice because, um, they give me someplace to put what I have. There are Good Things to Try: (yes, more Sewing Seekrits)Stretch some clear elastic on the underside and stitch in place; this way, at least the neckline doesn't gape and let your treasures escape and hit passersby in the eye;Do the same trick with stretch lace;Fill in the neckline with a couple of rows of non-stretch lace down each side, filling in toward the center;File in the neckline with a lace insert;Wear a camisole;File in the neckline with a little dickey (aka "stomacher") that you've made to coordinate out of that really pretty trim you don't know what to do with, and velcro, snap, or hook-and-eye it in place (this is for those of us who get too warm to wear another full layer underneath, most of the time). (I just realized that I actually have that kind of trim that goes with both those exact dresses, BTW.)And Minaw is quite right; you can hide a multitude of hips under those skirts. The ladies with big hips/thighs/backsides should fear these least of any skirts! Kate from England, I think the ombre georgettes would be gorgeous; most of the layering of colour with the fabric strips produces that effect.By and large, my tendency is to go from lightest colour down to dark on bottom, mostly because this way, the light colour reflects up to my face, and the dark colour (hopefully) hides any contact with floors, puddles, cathair tumbleweeds, etc. If you do use a lovely lightweight drifty fabric, you might consider running a narrow horsehair band behind the hem, extending past the edge just a little bit, so it takes any abrasion. (That's another reason the darkest layer is on the bottom of my skirts; I machine stitch hems, these days, unless they're historical pieces, because I walk on them.)And also: What Erin said.

[Anonymous]

I think if it was sewn up in afine jersey it would great onthose of us with extra pounds.It would drape beautifully.

[Anonymous]

Negative Nancy here to say, I love you. I love your blog. I love that you write about how dresses feel, and sound, and move, and that you invite your readers to think about what it's like to LIVE in clothing instead of worry about whether it makes them look fat. I wish this were a trend in mainstream fashion: privileging women's subjective experience of their bodies over others' assessment of their appearance.

[MinaW]

For something like the ombr georgette in a dress, check out the Zac Posen dresses I've referenced here:http://wrwcolors.blogspot.com/2007/09/gorgeous-dresses-everywhere.html

[Nora]

"I wish this were a trend in mainstream fashion: privileging women's subjective experience of their bodies over others' assessment of their appearance."This is a really interesting question to me, anon; my first thought was, well, that will never be a trend, because to sell a lot of things you have to first sell anxiety, e.g. anxiety about looking "au courant," or thin, or whatever (the thing is the remedy for the anxiety, right?)But then I thought, but why should it be so hard to sell the feelings Erin describes, which are more reliable, actually? The sounds, the textures, the colors. Then I thought, well, for clothing to really feel fantastic it has to be pretty well made, which means more expensive, longer-lasting, etc.; which means less stuff sold (even if at higher prices). And really, for stuff to feel extra-fantastic it has to really fit the person who's wearing it. And that doesn't work so well with the off-the-rack industry.There's potential here for a whole different kind of fashion industry (with a long tail?) - but all these musings are probably better addressed by Erin in another post. But Erin, I just love your basic point. If women prioritized how they felt over how they looked they'd be even more of a force to be reckoned with.Sew on, sisters!