Immersed in a Theme

Nothing thrills me more than when a designer takes a theme and carries it through an entire collection from head to toe.

And the collection that delighted me the most in this week's Paris Fashion Week came from the Alexander McQueen Bee herself, Sarah Burton.

From the beekeeper hats...

To the bee encrusted collars and shoes...

To the honeycomb pleating...



The honey-colored, tortoiseshell boning...

And the repetitive use of the honeycomb hexagon...

It was such fun to watch this show.  You can see the full collection here or watch a video of the runway show here.

And the details and embroidery...LOVE!

My two fave looks were the honeycomb net over a "nude" bust...just the right mix of nice and naughty...

And at the end?  You guessed it!  Flowers.

That just made me smile.

Remember the other day I was talking about challenging our brains to really see the whole story?  Well my fashion expert blogging friend, Ingrid Mida, also covered this show on her blog.  I found it interesting how we both saw very different elements in this collection.

The other show who had a great thematic presence was Dolce Gabbana...loved all the island references and the use of native handcraft elements of straw, raffia, rattan to convey the message.  And the scarves!  I wanted to raid Goodwill and find new ways of using all those old silk scarves.

You can view that whole collection here.

And last but not least, have you seen Keira Knightly's spread in Vogue Oct '12?

She's starring in the Anna Karenina movie which is coming out in November...

And those costumes promise to be divine!

That's all the buzz for today.  Have a great one!

A Little of This...and a Little of Hat

How doth the little busy Bee
Improve each shining Hour,
And gather Honey all the day
From every opening Flower!

How skilfully she builds her Cell!
How neat she spreads the Wax!
And labours hard to store it well
With the sweet Food she makes.

In Works of Labour or of Skill
I would be busy too:
For Satan finds some Mischief still
For idle Hands to do.

In Books, or Work, or healthful Play
Let my first Years be past,
That I may give for every Day
Some good Account at last.
Against Idleness and Mischief by Isaac Watts

I am struck this morning by the busy-ness of the bumblebees as they still try to do their work, even though many of the flowers are in their swan song, ready to drop their petals and rest for winter.

Yet the bee seems frantic to get out every little bit of nectar it can...


And did you know, that Lewis Carroll's parody of this poem in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, How Doth the Little Crocodile?, is probably even more famous than the original?

How doth the little crocodile

Improve his shining tail,

And pour the waters of the Nile

On every golden scale!

How cheerfully he seems to grin,

How neatly spreads his claws,

And welcomes little fishes in

With gently smiling jaws!

And did you know that Tim Burton's 3-D version of Alice in Wonderland is being released in March 2010 with Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter?


Look at that hat! The brocade, the ribbon, the feather...and that tea cup!

I cannot wait to see the costumes in this movie. I am often very inspired by well-costumed characters and the Mad Hatter is no exception...(Plus, there's rumor that teacups are used thematically throughout the movie...oh, I hope that's true!)



As for my hands, they are busy cleaning up from the Valentine, creating different colorways for the Jewel of India bracelet, resurrecting Audrey's Crazy Quilt block and planning my next bead journal project...

And dreaming of falling through a rabbit hole...

And to think this post started out thinking about Fall and its effect on the bees...


Oh well, since this is an embroidery blog after all...Do you know the story behind the bees that were embroidered on Napoleon Bonaparte's coronation robes?


Check out this link to the fabulous needlework blog, Needleprint, where there is a video of Madame Brocarde's Atelier and their work in re-creating the embroidered coronation robes of Napoleon and Josephine, now housed at the Kobe Fashion Museum...

And so, my friends, I leave you with a little poetry, a meandering thought process, a little of Alice, some bees and a bit of history...

So much for being just a needlework blog...