Collages Parisienne

As I've managed to leave my camera behind at my dad's house, I wasn't able to take any photos of my trip to Paris, but I hope to nab some off some of the girls soon. So instead, I collected my ticket stubs, programmes and postcards and I scanned them in rather haphazardly today. In fact, today is definitely a good day, as we have officially broken up for Easter!

The two dresses below came from two different exhibitions. The top beauty is described as a Robe de bal, from circa 1866 in grenadine, ivory, rose and black, from Chantilly. It's one of the first dresses in the magnificent displays for the Crinoline exhibition at the Musee Galliera, Paris.

The lime dress is a costume for Titania by Jean-Pierre Ponelle for tthe Opera-Comique circa 1958. The blue tendrils have been painstakingly appliqued and finished with chain stitch, and is on show at the 'Au fil des fleurs, scenes de jardins' exhibition at the CNCS in Moulins-sur-Alliers.

The following three images are some postcards I picked up from the shop at the National Museum of Costumes for Theatre, otherwise known as the CNCS. They are by Christian Lacroix for a hotel he designed and I absolutely fell in love with them and intend to create my own inspired by his beautiful overlapping of images. They're titled 'Les modes Parisiennes' by for L'hotel du Petit Moulin, Paris.

Here are a few juicy tit-bits from L'hotel du Petit Moulin and Lacroix's perfectly clashing and textured interiors. I hear it has four stars...

A Mini Adventure

Not 24 hours after we finished our small mince pies and white wine/cranberry juice mixers (poured enthusiastically by our merry faced tutor) at the annual Wimbledon College costume department christmas "hurray it's over for now!" party, we four unlikely characters embarked on a Scottish mini-adventure...

It was four days of childish glee, running about deserted castle ruins in the rain and getting unceremoniously locked out of our newly adopted home. There were chips without the haggis, the exchange of five quid and under presents around a beautiful yet teetering christmas tree, and soggy tramps across picturesque bogs and lochs.

The mini was driven by and provided very generously by Elizabeth, while the dodgy viking outfits and helmets were courtesy of the Caerlaverock Castle Museum interactive scheme. 

All in all, a timely antidote to the end of term stress-shenanigans that always seem to crop up and convert even the sanest of us into red-faced spluttering she-goblins.