from the sewing machine to the computer

for the first time in weeks, i had the entire day free. i had hoped to start on a few of those dresses in my previous post but i really need a dress form and i'm not interested in going into work today. maybe it's time to think about buying a dress form for myself.

so, without a project to work on and despite the gorgeous weather, i spent this afternoon investigating the new york public library's digital gallery's amazing collection of images. for anyone doing visual research on anything, the nypl digital gallery has to be your first stop. it almost makes me want to do my thesis all over again. you can find everything from yiddish theatre placards to elevations of middle- and upper-class new york city apartments to portraits of irish prisoners. as a student of costume history my first stop was the fashion archives:



these are two images of imported french fabrics by e. meyer & co. from paris (1930-1931). i love the long slim lines of the 1930's.



i enjoyed the descriptions of these suits by b. kuppenheimer & co. "illustrating a new century of clothing-radically different from the old". i particularly liked the confidence of b. kuppenheimer who says that these class A suits "cannot be appreciated until they are seen. they must be seen".