Pulp Fashion - Paper Couture

An exhibition at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco features five new spectacular works of paper dresses inspired by paintings in the European collection of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. For more than 15 years, Isabelle de Borchgrave has been recreating historical costumes in exquisite detail, life sized and entirely of paper. Drawing from paintings, textiles, and descriptions, she has made over 60 trompe l'oeil fashion sculptures. Now, they are on view in the US.

Here's an introduction to the exhibit...

"Belgian artist Isabelle de Borchgrave is a painter by training, but textile and costume are her muses. Working in collaboration with leading costume historians and young fashion designers, de Borchgrave crafts a world of splendor from the simplest rag paper. Painting and manipulating the paper, she forms trompe l’oeil masterpieces of elaborate dresses inspired by rich depictions in early European painting or by iconic costumes in museum collections around the world. The Legion of Honor is the first American museum to dedicate an entire exhibition to the work of Isabelle de Borchgrave, although her creations have been widely displayed in Europe."

Above, Marie Claire de Croy and child, 2010 based on the painting below,

Anthony van Dyck (Flemish, 1599–1641), Marie Claire de Croy, Duchess d'Havre and Child, 1634.

Pulp Fashion: The Art of Isabelle de Borchgrave will be on exhibit at the Legion of Honor through June 5, 2011.

Top image: a detail of an elaborate paper sculpture, The Medici

Vintage Valentines

Happy Valentine's Day with Love from 973 Third

Vintage card images courtesy of Susan Breslow Sardone

Victorian Photocollages

With advances in photography in the mid nineteenth century, sharing and swapping inexpensive photo booth style portraits became so popular it was called cardomania. The availability of photo portraits inspired amateur watercolorists and artists in the 1860s and 1870s to include cut outs of these images and insert them onto scenes or create scenes around them.

Photocollages, which were predominantly made by English women of leisure, created a new form of creative expression for the Victorians. An selection of these delightful works on paper is currently on exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through May 9.

The image above, reminiscent of an 18th century conversation piece painting, is an untitled page from the Sackville-West album, made by a great aunt of Vita.

Photo: Courtesy of George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography and Film

Being Martha's Daughter

Mothers and daughters have complicated relationships - period. Here's a fun article on Alexis Stewart and her mum, Martha.

Vintage Cards for Mother's Day

Julia Ward Howe, poet, social activist and author of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" proposed a Mother's Day in her 1870 proclamation, in reaction to the devastation of the Civil War, encouraging women to come together to oppose war and promote peace. She also believed in the equality of women.

Anna Reeves Jarvis, teacher, local activist, worked for better sanitation for both sides of the opposition during the Civil War. After she died, her daughter Anna Jarvis continued with her mother's work and tried to create a day to honor all mothers, living and dead. In 1907, she gave out white carnations to all the mothers at St Andrew's Church in Grafton, WV. On May 10, 1908, St. Andrews offered a Sunday service honoring mothers. In 1914 Mother's Day was created in the United States.

Happy Mother's Day!