Busy, Busy, Busy

I'm really, really busy this week so I thought I'd look for a pattern picture that also had a lot going on. But the more I look at this one, the more I can't figure out what the heck is going on here (and the more I like this dress).

First off, it's rare for there to be a random guy in a pattern picture. (For all that people think the clothes of the 1950s were all about dressing for me, you'd think that there'd be more blatantly goggling men in the pattern pictures.) And what is this Random Guy doing? Is he painting or drawing the model? If so, why does the model in the picture have a completely different hairstyle and different sleeves? Is it really a picture, or a door opening from another dimension, from whence Bad Fuchsia Dress lady has come to wreak havoc? Or is she saving her past self from the predations of Random Guy (who also has a chandelier of some sort growing out of his ears, he should have that taken care of), wearing a similar dress to reassure herself? [Making note: if ever need come from the future to save my past self, wear favorite clothes to project air of trustworthiness.]

And, perhaps most puzzlingly: where's the other legs of the chair? And why isn't it falling over, since PastSelf/LongSleeveLady is putting some weight on it?

Only questions, with no answers. Can anyone help?

(If you want the pattern, not answers, click on the image to visit the eBay auction.)

Comments

[What-I-Found]

Oh, I think it's a Dorian Gray sort of thing...the guy is trying to figure out why Updo Woman looks the same way she did 20 years ago. (of course being the fifties he wouldn't have heard of Botox)

[Anonymous]

Bought a very similar pattern about a year ago (although the waistline on mine swoops a tad further down at the rear). Love it in principle, but can't help wondering whether it's a 'does my bum look big in this?' kind of dress. Has anyone here made one like this before and did they manage to avoid looking like an Edwardian lady with a bustle on their bottom? For that reason I keep bumping it off my list of projects... someone please tell me I'm wrong!N.

[Caity]

Weird pattern cover, fab dress. I also wonder about the Huge Rear View aspect, though...

[lisa]

perhaps he's there to button her dresshow DO you button a dress up the back without assitance?

[Eirlys]

Can't help with the DMBLBIT question, N, though the siting of gathers looks ominous.Rather, I'd like to share some chandelier-growing-out-of-ears family trivia; one of my forebears was a Welshman who had chandeliers growing out of his ears - metaphorically. Family legend says he moved to NY to set up a chandelier factory, late 19th Century, I think. And that's all I know. I'm guessing it didn't come to much - maybe he failed to meet the move to electrification? - because his son drove a delivery truck around Queens and that son (my grandfather) died about the time this pattern was dreamt up. Ah, dreams, dreams... be careful what you dream. Now, why am I telling you all of this...?

[Velvet Plaza]

Maybe it would make you look bustle-y. But I dont' care . I love it. I also love the wiggle version. I'd make it dupioni. Or maybe velvet.

[QuiteLight]

It's clearly a pan-dimensional portal. It's easy to tell, since the Up-Do woman is conversing with Random Man at a soiree (chandeliers cry "soiree!" to me), and the wee pan-dimensional portal is distorting both the laws of perspective AND sapping the colour from Random Man.I shall NOT be wearing favourite clothes when I visit myself in the past, as that would be a great trick for an Evil Twin to use as well. Instead, I'll pick something beloved from my own time, so that my past self will instinctively say "Wow, that's an AWESOME tunic/silver catsuit/toga" & want to like me even more.

[Tracy]

I think it's the sartorial version of a mullet: business in the front, party in the back!I'd be willing to bet there's a stay panel to hip level under the gathered back skirt piece to keep the front profile sleek.

[MadeByAmanda]

I am thinking that I like the gathered back on the slim-skirt front, like they could only design ONE dress, but wanted both full and slim skirt options. I actually think it would make my rear (or hips, more correctly) look LESS big, because the gathers fall straight down to the knees, and don't taper down, as a slim skirt would. It's like the reason flare jeans are more flattering to most women than tapered or skinny jeans.

[Anonymous]

In reply to Tracy -- in the case of my Style pattern (can't speak for the Advance one here), the back of the skirt has a Wiggle shaped lining inside. Can't see any lining elsewhere, so I guess that must be what you're calling a 'stay panel', and how the front view Wiggle effect is achieved.And my pattern cover isn't half as much fun... N.

[Anonymous]

Mystery Guy is smoking. Yup, that's what he's doing. The ol' whole-hand-in-front-of-the-face move from the old movies. At the same time, he is giving Updo Fuchsia Dress Lady the twice over. This is supposed to be Sexy. Shorthair Fuchsia Dress Lady has an umbrella and a brief-case-like bag to indicate that this dress can also be All Business.Monique in TX

[tea]

Maybe his cigarette is making chandelier-shaped smoke?Okay, plenty of comments here:1. Hilarious post. There's too much about it that I love.2. I really like the dress and the color and the craziness of the envelope. This one is a really good candidate for being blown up huge and hung as art.3. Velvet plaza, I'm in agreement with you (though MadeByAmanda, you've got a good point too about the flares): Butt looks big? Who cares? Fabulous gathers! And then again, maybe serves hiding effect. I like the dupioni idea, too.4. Quitelight: "Wow, that's an AWESOME tunic/silver catsuit/toga" = Hilarious. I'll be laughing at that for another moment or two.5. I have no postulations, myself, but I just wanted to pipe in & say how much I love this entry and these comments today.

[Cookie]

The reason you can't see the chair legs is because in addition to invisible mantle pieces, there used to be such a thing as invisible chair legs. There was a tranquil effect of the furniture seeming to hover off the ground that seemed very modern at the time. There were invisible dishes, too, and the height of good housekeeping was to be able to look into them and say, "I can't see myself!" But people bashed their legs on the invisible chair legs and hostesses made a mess trying to serve soup in the soup bowls, so they gradually lost popularity. The death knell was when a bachelor scientist invented "invisible" dresses. A lot of husbands rushed out and got them for their wives, and the whole Invisible Movement took on a sordid tone. Interestingly, we still live with a LOT of these invisible items around us, we just don't see them.

[libby]

I think this was the last envelope illustrated by the artist before he was let go for an unmanageable desire to be Rod Serling. Are those push-pins drawn in the 2 corners of the door? Or wait, it's not a door, it's a desk. See the perspective to her left and I think that's a pen set. Ykes!Not quite as weird, but unusual for it's elaborate illustration, I just ran across this one. I'm considering buying it for the novelty. (warning: pants pattern)

[Else]

Is it just me or this guy is really smoking? And where is the cigarette smoke then? And is the short sleeved lady in the kitchen - with an umbrella?Great dress though!

[lorrwill]

Random guy better not come near me with that cigarette in his hand. How uncouth.About the dress: is it all business up front and a party in the back or is there a full and a wiggle view?hmmmmmmmmmm

[Ladygrande (Texas Marie)]

How funny! I like the "other dimension" concept myself. And, way back then, some of those "back button" dresses had side zippers. The buttons were just for "show".

[Anonymous]

I think the lady on the left, long sleeve lady, represents a homemaker, albeit a very sophisticated one. Woman on the right, short sleeved woman, represents a career woman with her briefcase and the shadow of a desk behind her. Random man seems to be contemplating which to murder with the candelabra: woman whose career might rival his, or June Cleaver in the kitchen, June Cleaver in the bedroom!

[Marjie]

The back pleats remind me of asking my husband recently, "Does this a** make my skirt look fat?"

[Jen - The Alien Spouse]

My guess is that it's part of the storyboard to "Vertigo". That would be Jimmy Stewart making Kim Novac dress like the other Kim Novac, and perhaps Hitchcock was considering going with a split scene at this point.

[ambika]

I thought the chair was some kind of ornate vacuum so I am obviously no help.

[geogrrl]

Well, the long-sleeved view is an "evening" version, and the other a "day" version. Thus the difference in hairstyles. Perhaps the "day" version is imagining the "evening" version, complete with shadowy waiting escort. He's shadowy because she's concentrating more on her dress and hairstyle options than on him.Also, I LOVE the look of the evening view. I've seen it done better in some patterns, but I just love fishtail skirts, or skirts with that kind of back detailing.

[wundermary]

Ha, I think smoking man has appeared through the portal in the mirror of a fashionable ladies lounge, where this woman was checking her appearance. I had actually thought that was a menorah, but the height does suggest a chandelier. Not that we need to grasp at common sense when faced with a portal in the ladies lounge.This dress would look fantastic in dupioni.

[Velvet Plaza]

OH! I see it now! The "door" is a drawing of an office setting and it is tacked to the invisable bulleting board from behind which random man lurks. Umbrella breifcase lady is wearing her "wear to work hair and accessories" Updo is wearing the Evening dress (Bustle back, 3.4 sleeeves) with new hair and accessories for her evening look. Something involving one legged chairs, chandeliers and the Random Smoking Man. Notice Day lady wearing hort day gloves and evening lady wearin long evening gloves. As day lady leans against the drawing/corkboard she deliberates on the right Sewing Conspirator name - Scarlet Hemlock.

[Velvet Plaza]

sorry about the typos -- I was excited.