Stories from the East

I've been on a bit of a roll with my posts lately. There's just so much I feel like I want to catch up on! 

This here one is inspired by a research I did a couple of years ago on the Russian fairy tales of Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Beautiful. I was read them as a child and they were quite chilling what with the witch who rides in a mortar steered by a pestle, and lives in a house made out of chicken bones that can run! The mad imagination and vivacity of the stories have stayed with me, and have inspired a love for all things Eastern European.

Baba Yaga as illustrated by Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin, riding her mortar back home.

Here is an image I found which I used as a character reference for the old grandmother - look at those eyes!

What I love about Baba Yaga is that she is not considered to be simply evil. She is also regarded with respect as a wise woman, despite her penchant for eating small children. Occasionally she will appear to be helpful, as a guider to lost souls, and seems to embody the saying "you reap what you sow".

Here is Vasilisa the Beautiful, a kind of Russian Cinderella. She is sent out by her wicked stepmother to visit the old grandmother witch Baba Yaga in the deep forest, to collect a flame so as to relight their fires and candles. The hut is built of dancing chicken bones, and a tall fence of human bones surrounds it, skulls glowing on staffs. After completing three impossible tasks, she is given a glowing skull to take home. She happily marries the Tzar of Russia after she weaves him the finest of cloths for a shirt. Yes. That's right.

Some beautiful maidens in their beautiful clothes. I learnt recently that the embroidery is focused on the collar, wrists and other spots likely to wear down as the thread work strengthens the cloth. I actually plan on making a simple blouse based these to wear hiking, as my shirts usually return absolutely shredded. And I want to look a little prettier than I normally do!

I found a website a long time ago (I'm afraid I could not find it again) with these collage/illustrations of the variations in peasant wear across the Slavic regions. They're so charming, and also really rather useful!

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...