Back to School, Back to Blogging

Sleeveless dress with Matching Cropped Jacket
Bill Blass for Maurice Rentner, c.1963,
FRC1986.01.01 A+B

I think this dress and jacket ensemble by Bill Blass for Maurice Rentner would be the perfect outfit for me and back to school. The colour is vibrant and the jacket could come off for those warm fall days still to come. Unfortunately, it can never be worn again as a museum artifact, but I love the timeless elegance of early 1960s looks and it makes me smile on what is a dark and rainy day in Toronto.

The scent of fall is in the air. The days are shorter and the nights cooler. I am starting to yearn for the cozy comfort of my cashmere sweaters and wraps.... It must be time to get back to school, back to work.

My summer was busy, with nary a moment of rest or relaxation. I did manage to steal away from work for a few sunny afternoons reading fiction in my backyard, but otherwise I spent many days in the windowless rooms of the Ryerson Fashion Research Collection. Not only did I move the entire collection from the seventh floor of the library, but, among other things, I also supervised two students who photographed about 100 key artifacts in the collection.

It felt like I had no time to write on this blog, especially since I am editor of the Costume Journal, have a bi-weekly column for Worn Through and also have been writing exhibition reviews for Modeconnect, and am supposed to be working on the Fashion Research Collection Blog. Admittedly, I still have some hesitation about writing on this platform after that distressing discovery last fall that much of my content had been copied elsewhere. And yet, it seems that I should be making this blog my priority -- even though many, if not most, of my colleagues in academia dismiss personal blogs as folly. 

Update on the Violation of Copyright

Dear Friends,

After discovering that much of my blog has been copied onto another blogspot site without permission, credit or attribution, I made the decision to temporarily suspend my posts. The experience made me feel violated and cut off from my readers. Figuring out how to report the problem to Google was a challenge in itself, and while the problem has not totally been rectified by The Blogger Team, I am going to resume my posts in a limited way.

Some people have suggested that I write an article on blogs and copyright. This is messy territory with little precedent to follow. I am grateful for the many emails and words of support that I've received from my friends around the world, and it has been that response that has inspired me to continue, albeit I have to admit that I am now somewhat reluctant to share my original research on this forum. But my love of art, fashion and museums compels me to go on.

This morning, I will be attending the press preview for the exciting show Frida & Diego: Passion, Politics and Painting at the Art Gallery of Ontario. The AGO exhibition will overlap with the upcoming opening of the exhibition 'Appearances Can be Deceiving: The Dresses of Frida Kahlo" at Museo Frida Kahlo in Mexico City from November 22, 2012 to November 22, 2013. Kahlo had such a distinctive style and the exhibition explores the ways Kahlo used fashion as a language to address the issues of ethnicity and disability - aspects that are also visible in her paintings. I want to share that and the many other wonderful intersections of art and fashion that cross my path. 

You will notice that I am now adding a notice of copyright to each post. I suggest that you all do the same, and take care in attributing your sources of photos and information.

Ingrid Mida

Notice of copyright: 
All text and images on this blog are the copyright of Ingrid Mida, unless otherwise noted. The copying of posts, images and/or text without proper attribution is violation of copyright and legal action will be pursued.

Blogging and Baudelaire

Gaga's Boudoir Window at Barney's New York by Ingrid Mida 2011

Poet Charles Baudelaire and theorist Walter Benjamin were fascinated by the concept of the flaneur, a figure who anonymously strolled through the city streets gazing into windows, embodying the concept of modernity in the specular relationship to urban space and consumer goods. I felt a bit like a flaneuse myself during my weekend jaunt to New York, strolling the city from the Museum at FIT (at 7th and 27th) up to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (at 5th and 82) and stopping to admire the windows like this fabulous Gaga display at Barneys. The weather was glorious and I drank in the sunshine as if I'd recently been released from prison (which is what I equate the library I've been living in of late).

Stepping away from for a weekend was refreshing in so many ways and it re-energized me.  I also thought of all the good things that have come my way from being a blogger -  the people I've met, the exhibitions I've seen, the friends I've made.... I recently submitted an abstract for a paper called "Blogging, Benjamin and Foucault" to the Fashion Tales 2012 conference in Milan. In equating bloggers to Baudelaire’s and Benjamin's concept of the flaneur and drawing on Foucault’s theories on the aesthetics of existence, I hope to recast the blog as a creative portal and a form of conversational erudition. Call me crazy.... I don't know if it will fly, but sometimes you just have to jump off the cliff....

Notice of copyright: 
All text and images on this blog are the copyright of Ingrid Mida, unless otherwise noted. The copying of posts, images and/or text without proper attribution is violation of copyright and legal action will be pursued.

Fashion and the Social Media

Fashion Magazine Explorations 3, copyright of Ingrid Mida 2009

 
Apparently I was holding a hot ticket in my hands this morning when I entered the Spoke Club to attend a seminar called Having @ Style, Social Media and Seismic Shifts in Fashion. There was a long waiting list for the event. Having been given the heads up last week, I signed on as soon as I realized that Dr. Alexandra Palmer, author of a recent book on Dior and Senior Curator of Textiles and Costume at the Royal Ontario Museum would be speaking on the panel. Other speakers included Lisa Tant, editor-in-chief of Flare Magazine, Susan Langdon, Executive Director of the Toronto Fashion Incubator and Cherie Federau, owner of Shrimpton Couture (cited by the Huffington Post as the vintage equivalent of Net-a-Porter). The moderator was Jyotika Malhotra, Editor-in-Chic of exshoesme.com.

The topic for discussion was how the world of fashion has changed by the use of social media, including blogging, Twitter and Facebook. The audience was encouraged to use their phones and laptops if they wanted to tweet and/or post on the fly. I felt practically ancient with my little notebook open on my lap as people madly typed away on their keyboards. I also regretted not having the foresight to bring my camera along.... (I'm going to blame it on getting too little sleep this week!).

The presentation of the panelists was for the most part entertaining. Cherie Federau, owner of Shrimpton Couture, talked about her business model being totally on-line, giving her access to a global marketplace which included Courtney Love, Rachel Zoe, and other celebrities, even though she lives and works from her country home an hour outside of Toronto. She said that her business tripled in size once she started using Twitter. Lisa Tant and Susan Langdon also cited blogs and Twitter as a important way to stay in touch with what was happening in fashion. 

Dr. Alexandra Palmer gave the most enlightening presentation, going through the technological developments that had changed the course of fashion, such as the button, the loom, the sewing machine, the cage crinoline, the steel-front busk, the bias cut, the zipper, new age materials like rubber, elastic, spandex, and new techniques in merchandising like the pop-up shop. Admitting to be faithful to her role as a historian, she diplomatically did not really give her opinion of how blogs and Twitter would affect fashion. One had to guess from her presentation that it was akin to these other technological advancements in history.

Even though four of the five speakers (including the moderator) insisted that Twitter was an essential part of creating a place for one's self in the new social media, I will not be signing up. I take great pride in presenting a unique voice in fashion on Fashion is my Muse! For that reason alone, I'm staying my course, even if my reluctance to Twitter makes me seem somewhat outdated and irrelevant.

Winner of the Blog Giveaway: The Gospel According to Coco Chanel

Thank you to all that entered my blog giveaway for a copy of The Gospel According to Chanel: Life Lessons from the World's Most Elegant Woman.

Although I wish I could give everyone who entered a copy of the book, there can only be one winner.
And the winner is Catherine of the blog A Thousand Clapping Hands. Congratulations Catherine. Please email me at artismylife@mac.com to claim your prize.

Confessions and the Sense of Self: Works by Noel Palomo-Lovinski

 

In the exhibition Confessions and the Sense of Self at Kent State University Museum, Noel Palomo-Lovinski has explored the themes of women's roles and self image. She has designed and created clothing  layered with meaning through shape, texture, fabric and embellishment that as a whole functions as sculpture. Anonymous confessions by women were obtained through public websites and used as design elements in portraying the "tension that exists between the enduring archetype of the caring female and the nature of such contradictory confessions".

Using dress as a visual metaphor for identity, the exhibitions include:
I Feel Great!
Bridezilla
All Tied Up in Knots
Hold It In
Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety
Twisted Sister
Levels of Confession
Mother Love
Camouflaged Confessions
Suck Punch
Family and Friends

I was particularly taken with I Feel Great! and Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety and Noel kindly gave me permission to show images of these works. 
 

 

I Feel Great! by Noel Palomo-Lovinski 

 

I Feel Great! (Detail Shot) 

Noel wrote that "Polite conversation often includes the rhetorical question 'How are you doing?' The expected response is 'Fine; great, how are you?' The under-layer of the dress is candid confessions in red; the top layer exhibits expected responses. The muzzle signifies a suppression of blunt or truthful thoughts."

 

Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety by Noel Palomo-Lovinski

Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety (Detail Shot)

About this work, Noel wrote "In our current society women are often expected to be a type of superwoman, ambitiously working in a career, be a loving and patient mother, expert housekeeper and true partner in her marital relationship. There are several websites that are devoted to confessions from women who are not able to cope with the demands that they feel from society, their families, their partners and employers. They seek advice, comfort or just use the websites as a sounding board for their anxieties."

I encourage you to check out the entire exhibition here. Noel Palomo-Lovinski's hauntingly beautiful work is a fusion of fashion, art and sculpture.

Confessions and the Sense of Self: Works by Noel Palomo-Lovinski
Kent State University Museum
Rockwell Hall
Kent Ohio
Phone: 330-672-3450
Email: museum@kent.edu

The Butterfly

Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly. Anonymous

Mixed Media artwork by Ingrid Mida, 2009

Taking Time to Reflect

But if you have nothing at all to create, then perhaps you create yourself.
Carl Jung

I rarely have trouble expressing myself. Words usually spill out of my head faster than I can type or talk, but lately I've been craving quiet. Perhaps it is blog-fatigue, but the muse has left me.

I'll be taking a break from blogging for a few weeks - to rest and refresh my spirit. I hope to come back in two weeks full of passion and inspiration. Until then, my loyal friends and readers, adieu.

Le Week-end

I'm hoping for a long and lazy summer weekend....

Judith of StudioJudith sent me this beautiful mixed media postcard which seems like the perfect way to welcome in the weekend. Judith is an incredibly talented artist and interior designer and if you haven't read her blog, you are missing out on a dose of enchanting imagery and exquisite prose.

Bon weekend mes amis!

Diverting from Hats for a Blog Award

The lovely Lucy of Enchanted by Josephine nominated me for a blog award yesterday. I wasn't surprised that Lucy won this award herself since she has been ever so supportive and kind. Lucy seems like a real friend, even though we've never met. And almost every blog I visit, I see she's already been there herself. Lucy, when do you sleep?

With this award, I must in turn nominate others to share the prize and they, in turn, are supposed to nominate others in the same spirit of blogging friendship.

"This blog invests and believes in the PROXIMITY-nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement! Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this clever-written text into the body of their award."

My nominations are as follows (and in no particular order):

Elisabeth of Au Temple des Modes who took an obscure reference to an "apple-green bodice" belonging to Marie Antoinette and sent me a photo within an hour of my posting.

Tristan Robin Blakeman of Enchanted Revelry who inspired me to host a Mad Tea Party on my blog.

Rachel of The Wandering Bunny who seems to be the only person willing to publicly comment on my Blog of a Bookworm and told me to continue writing even though I wasn't sure anyone was reading it.

Joy Jones of Cupid's Charm who made me promise to take a photo when I wear her Marie Antoinette inspired jewelery during my visit to Versailles. Joy also posted several of my fashion plates on her popular blog which added many new visitors to mine.

Lucyxx of Corset Laced Mannequins who responded so sweetly and promptly to my comments on her beautiful blog. (Is everyone named Lucy so charming?)

Heather Carroll of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire's Gossip Guide who was the first one to discover my fashion plates and post them on her blog.

Catherine Delors of Versailles and More who patiently corrects me when I mess up on French translations (ie., giving Madame Campan the incorrect title).

Jacqueline Loewen of Money Magnet Book Blog who suggested that I blog in the first place.

To all these friends, I say thank you!!! If we could all meet in one place, I would love to have you to a real party (of course, you'd all have to wear hats!).

Don't forget to come back on Saturday, March 7 at 10 am EST for the cyber-version of a Mad Tea Party!