The concept of Haute Couture

Haute Couture is something that makes us dream, it’s like an exquisite bon-bon. The beauty in couture is so stunning and so hypnotizing, that you must see all the the shows, all the dresses and details of it! Wondering when it’s the day that we can wear it one, when the dress will be part of you, your second skin… That would be the amazing Couture experience… Probably this would be just a dream for most os the people, but we still don’t pay taxes for dreaming… and dreaming fulfills our heads and hearts…

A dress of Haute Couture it’s like a piece of Art. I know that most of the people will disagree with that, but I will try to explain the process that a dress of couture needs until arrives to the client. To be considered Haute Couture, a garment must have been produced by one of the members of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, a fashion trade association that is part of the Fédération Française de la Couture du Prêt-à-Porter des Couturiers et des Créateurs de Mode. Some of the rules are: the design made-to-order for private clients, with one or more fittings, workshop (atelier) in Paris that employs at least fifteen people full-time, must have twenty full-time technical people in at least one atelier (workshop) and each season (i.e., twice a year), present a collection to the Paris press, comprising at least thirty-five runs/exits with outfits for both daytime wear and evening wear. Having the label Haute Couture it’s not for every label.

Let’s take a look to the process of a Chanel Haute-Couture dress (Information and photographs taken from the http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/).

A drawing and the silk, pleated fabric for look number 45 from the Chanel autumn/winter 2011 haute couture collection.

The silk fabric is folded, draped and pinned to a tailor’s dummy.

The ‘petites mains’ delicately fold and twist the fabric for the skirt part of the dress to achieve the right effect.

Details such as these silver buttons and white plumes are added to the design last.

 

A model is helped into the dress prior to the catwalk show.

The completed creation on show on the catwalk, which was staged at the vast Grand Palais in central Paris.

A toile and a pattern for a tweed jacket from the same collection.

 

The pattern is carefully applied to the dummy.

Every single measurement needs to be 100 per cent accurate.

 

The tweed fabric, infused with glittering beadwork, is laid out and cut with military precision.

 

The lining and hems are undertaken by the seamstresses in the atelier.

 

A model tries on the tweed skirt-suit for size, while a seamstress checks for any outstanding tweaks.

Finally, the tweed ensemble is ready for the catwalk.

So, as you can see, make a Haute Couture garment it’s not just make a shirt, or a dress, it’s making it with full attention to details, quality, fitting, … everything has to be thought until the smallest detail. And also, off course, be part of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture. So for me… Yes Haute Couture is a way of making Art.

Les Arts Decoratifs -History of contemporary fashion vol. 2 1990 & 2000 25 November – 8 May 2011

Original

WUHAO

Paris, from March 9th to September 16th, 2012

Les Arts Décoratifs

A Moveable Feast

Let thy desire flourish,
In order to let thy heart forget the beatifications for thee.
Follow thy desire, as long as thou shalt live.
Put myrrh upon thy head and clothing of fine linen upon thee,
Being anointed with genuine marvels of the god’s property.
Set an increase to thy good things;
Let not thy heart flag.
Follow thy desire and thy good.
Fulfill thy needs upon earth, after the command of thy heart,
Until there come for thee that day of mourning. Hedonism

A notoriously capricious brilliantly-groomed and dazzlingly-bejewelled art world at play.

Fun Stuff

Oliver Tarbell Eddy 1839 & Ammi Phillips 1834

The Song of Everlasting (Bai Ju-Yi, 772-846 AD, China) & The Four Beauties 四大美女

China’s Emperor yearning, for beauty that shakes a kingdom,
Reigned for many years, searching but not finding,
Until a child of the Yang, hardly yet grown,
Raised in the inner chamber, unseen by anybody,
But with heavenly graces that could not be hidden,
Was chosen one day for the Imperial household.
If she turned her head and smiled she cast a deep spell,
Beauties of Six Palaces vanished into nothing.
Hair’s cloud, pale skin, shimmer of gold moving,
Flowered curtains protected on cool spring evenings.
Those nights were too short. That sun too quick in rising.

The emperor neglected the world from that moment,
Lavished his time on her in endless enjoyment.
She was his springtime mistress, and his midnight tyrant.
Though there were three thousand ladies all of great beauty,
All his gifts were devoted to one person.

Li Palace rose high in the clouds.
The winds carried soft magic notes,
Songs and graceful dances, string and pipe music.
He could never stop himself from gazing at her.

But the Earth reels. War drums fill East Pass,
Drown out ‘The Feathered Coat and Rainbow Skirt’.
Great Swallow Pagoda and Hall of Light,
Are bathed in dust – the army fleeing Southwards.
Out there Imperial banners, wavering, pausing
Until by the river forty miles from West Gate,
The army stopped. No one would go forward,
Until horses’ hooves trampled willow eyebrows.
Flower on a hairpin. No one to save it.
Gold and jade phoenix. No one retrieved it.
Covering his face the Emperor rode on.
Turned to look back at that place of tears,
Hidden by a yellow dust whirled by a cold wind.

As Shu waters flow green, Shu mountains show blue,
His majesty’s love remained, deeper than the new.
White moon of loneliness, cold moon of exile.
Bell-chimes in evening rain were bronze-edged heartbeats.
So when the dragon-car turned again northwards
The Emperor clung to Ma-Wei’s dust, never desiring
To leave that place of memories and heartbreak.
Where is the white jade in heaven and earth’s turning?

Lakes and gardens are still as they have been,
T’ai-yi’s hibiscus, Wei-yang’s willows.
A flower-petal was her face, a willow-leaf her eyebrow,
How could it not be grief just to see them?
Plum and pear blossoms blown on spring winds
Maple trees ruined in rains of autumn.
Palaces neglected, filled with weeds and grasses,
Mounds of red leaves spilled on unswept stairways.

Burning the midnight light he could not sleep,
Bells and drums tolled the dark hours,
The Ocean of Heaven bright before dawn,
The porcelain mandarin birds frosted white,
The chill covers of kingfisher blue,
Colder and emptier, year by year.
And the loved spirit never returning.

A Taoist priest of Ling-chun rode the paths of Heaven,
He with his powerful mind knew how to reach the Spirits.
The Courtiers troubled by the Emperor’s grieving,
Asked the Taoist priest if he might find her.
He opened the sky-routes, swept the air like lightning,
Looked everywhere, on earth and in heaven,
Scoured the Great Void, and the Yellow Fountains,
But failed in either to find the one he searched for.
Then he heard tales of a magic island
In the Eastern Seas, enchanted, eternal,
High towers and houses in air of five colours,
Perfect Immortals walking between them,
Among them one they called The Ever Faithful,
With her face, of flowers and of snow.

She left her dreams, rose from her pillow,
Opened mica blind and crystal screen,
Hastening, unfastened, clouded hair hanging,
Her light cap unpinned, ran along the pavement.
A breeze in her gauze, flowing with her movement,
As if she danced ‘Feathered Coat and Rainbow Skirt’.
So delicate her jade face, drowned with tears of sadness,
Like a spray of pear flowers, veiled with springtime rain.

She asked him to thank her Love, her eyes gleaming,
He whose form and voice she lost at parting.
Her joy had ended in Courts of the Bright Sun,
Moons and dawns were long in Faerie Palace.
When she turned her face to look back earthwards
And see Ch’ang-an – only mist and dust-clouds.
So she found the messenger her lover’s gifts
With deep feeling gave him lacquer box, gold hairpin,
Keeping one half of the box, one part of the hairpin,
Breaking the lacquer, splitting the gold.

‘Our spirits belong together, like these precious fragments,
Sometime, in earth or heaven, we shall meet again.’
And she sent these words, by the Taoist, to remind him
of their midnight vow, secret between them.
‘On that Seventh night, of the Herdboy and the Weaver,
In the silent Palace we declared our dream was
To fly together in the sky, two birds on the same wing,
To grow together on the earth, two branches of one tree.’

Earth fades, Heaven fades, at the end of days.
But Everlasting Sorrow endures always.

*Note:

The Four Beauties 四大美女: According to legend, the Four Beauties were the most beautiful women of ancient China. They gained their reputations from the influence they exercised, respectively, over kings and emperors.

The Four Beauties lived in four dynasties, each hundreds of years apart. In chronological order, they were: Xi Shi (Spring and Autumn Period, 770 – 476 BC), Wang Zhaojun (Western Han Dynasty, 206 BC – AD 24), Diaochan (Three Kingdoms Period, AD 220 – 280), and Yang Guifei (Tang Dynasty, AD 618 – 907).

There was:

• Xi Shi (c. 770-476 BC, Spring and Autumn Period), her beauty would put the most beautiful of fish to shame and make it shyly sink away in her presence.
• Wang Zhaojun (c. first century BC, Western Han Dynasty), said to be so beautiful that her appearance would leave the birds so awed, they’d forget their flight and fall from the skies.
• Diaochan (c. third century, Three Kingdoms period), famed to possess such luminous beauty that put even the moon itself could not compare to.
• Yang Guifei (719–756, Tang Dynasty), her legendary beauty was said to put all flowers to shame.

Tea and the Chinese way of life: 和武夷山(WuYi Mountains)

核心提示：Oolong Tea(乌龙茶)最著名的是福建的安溪(Anxi)鐵觀音(Tiě Guān Yīn or Ti Kuan Yin)和武夷山(WuYi Mountains)的武夷岩茶(Wǔyí cliff tea)和大红袍(Big Red Robe)

PS. A place to be me.

Cultural aspects of art forms: Chinese Landscape Painting

Mountain Water By Charles Moffat – July 2008.(www.arthistoryarchive.com)

Many critics consider landscape to be the highest form of Chinese painting. The time from the Five Dynasties period to the Northern Song period (907-1127) is known as the “Great age of Chinese landscape”. In the north, artists such as Jing Hao, Fan Kuan, and Guo Xi painted pictures of towering mountains, using strong black lines, ink wash, and sharp, dotted brushstrokes to suggest rough stone. In the south, Dong Yuan, Ju Ran, and other artists painted the rolling hills and rivers of their native countryside in peaceful scenes done with softer, rubbed brushwork. These two kinds of scenes and techniques became the classical styles of Chinese landscape painting. Beginning in the Tang Dynasty, many paintings were landscapes, often shanshui (“mountain water”) paintings. In these landscapes, monochromatic and sparse (a style that is collectively called shuimohua), the purpose was not to reproduce exactly the appearance of nature (realism) but rather to grasp an emotion or atmosphere so as to catch the “rhythm” of nature. By the late Tang dynasty, landscape painting had evolved into an independent genre that embodied the universal longing of cultivated men to escape their quotidian world to commune with nature. Such images might also convey specific social, philosophical, or political convictions. As the Tang dynasty disintegrated, the concept of withdrawal into the natural world became a major thematic focus of poets and painters. Faced with the failure of the human order, learned men sought permanence within the natural world, retreating into the mountains to find a sanctuary from the chaos of dynastic collapse. In the Song Dynasty period (960-1279), landscapes of more subtle expression appeared; immeasurable distances were conveyed through the use of blurred outlines, mountain contours disappearing into the mist, and impressionistic treatment of natural phenomena. Emphasis was placed on the spiritual qualities of the painting and on the ability of the artist to reveal the inner harmony of man and nature, as perceived according to Taoist and Buddhist concepts. One of the most famous artists of the period was Zhang Zeduan, painter of Along the River During the Qingming Festival. During the early Song dynasty, visions of the natural hierarchy became metaphors for the well-regulated state. At the same time, images of the private retreat proliferated among a new class of scholar-officials. These men extolled the virtues of self-cultivation—often in response to political setbacks or career disappointments—and asserted their identity as literati through poetry, calligraphy, and a new style of painting that employed calligraphic brushwork for self-expressive ends. The monochrome images of old trees, bamboo, rocks, and retirement retreats created by these scholar-artists became emblems of their character and spirit. Under the Mongol Yuan dynasty, when many educated Chinese were barred from government service, the model of the Song literati retreat evolved into a full-blown alternative culture as this disenfranchised elite transformed their estates into sites for literary gatherings and other cultural pursuits. These gatherings were frequently commemorated in paintings that, rather than presenting a realistic depiction of an actual place, conveyed the shared cultural ideals of a reclusive world through a symbolic shorthand in which a villa might be represented by a humble thatched hut. Because a man’s studio or garden could be viewed as an extension of himself, paintings of such places often served to express the values of their owner. The Yuan dynasty also witnessed the burgeoning of a second kind of cultivated landscape, the “mind landscape,” which embodied both learned references to the styles of earlier masters and, through calligraphic brushwork, the inner spirit of the artist. Going beyond representation, scholar-artists imbued their paintings with personal feelings. By evoking select antique styles, they could also identify themselves with the values associated with the old masters. Painting was no longer about the description of the visible world; it became a means of conveying the inner landscape of the artist’s heart and mind. During the Ming dynasty, when native Chinese rule was restored, court artists produced conservative images that revived the Song metaphor for the state as a well-ordered imperial garden, while literati painters pursued self-expressive goals through the stylistic language of Yuan scholar-artists. Shen Zhou (1427–1509), the patriarch of the Wu school of painting centered in the cosmopolitan city of Suzhou, and his preeminent follower Wen Zhengming (1470–1559) exemplified Ming literati ideals. Both men chose to reside at home rather than follow official careers, devoting themselves to self-cultivation through a lifetime spent reinterpreting the styles of Yuan scholar-painters. Morally charged images of reclusion remained a potent political symbol during the early years of the Manchu Qing dynasty, a period in which many Ming loyalists lived in self-enforced retirement. Often lacking access to important collections of old masters, loyalist artists drew inspiration from the natural beauty of the local scenery. Images of nature have remained a potent source of inspiration for artists down to the present day. While the Chinese landscape has been transformed by millennia of human occupation, Chinese artistic expression has also been deeply imprinted with images of the natural world. Viewing Chinese landscape paintings, it is clear that Chinese depictions of nature are seldom mere representations of the external world. Rather, they are expressions of the mind and heart of the individual artists—cultivated landscapes that embody the culture and cultivation of their masters.

Believe in theories of believing; symbol and nature

To keep myself super to uber busy, far or less closely to a manaic – I was pinning down to study the working title research, ‘ Nature symbols in Chinese art,’ with an aesthetics appproach, where it is based in or draws on Chinese heritage and Chinese culture.

The direction of this approach might need to be slightly changed after I watched tons of those China’s related documentary (aesthetics or not aesthetics or..?); 

Toast to being easily distracted to beautiful paintings, incredible artifacts in videos, dvds, footages cause a slow process to acknowledge my stupid brain so do filled me up I am an empty glass … grrrr) Efficiency, presenting prize talked me on dreaming their dreams topic (one of that possibly be; what’d worth a million to billion in the next season auctions?). On and on and on….

What I have learned was, “…. in China dot dot do t.. ,….. ?”

But one thing I remebered  in a proper sentence is that, “Chinese porcelain was first made out of necessity not for its beauty for western collector,” something like that.

By that I mean, culturally, could this be nothingness but the major hidden meaning of nature symbols in Chinese art ? ‘Coherence’ my word!(There are still a lot to be said in written language – brushing up) and I better go get a correct exact quotation for the research.

The Great wall certainly isn’t visible from the moon, the great continents are barely visible. Chinese astronaut, Yang Liwei was disappointed that he could not even see it from low orbit. It is, unfortunately, a myth.

xoxo

《千里江山图》A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains 王希孟 Wang XiMeng(c. 1096 – c. 1120)

To me, the very blue colour in this painting is very eye catching for its modern shades as if I almost would called it an electric blue faded. Whilst Jade green colour on top of those mountains are superficial and sufficient at the same time.

PS. Huhhhhhhhhh… suddenly I felt the luck of having ability to see things with this kindness nature give of my eyes.

School of Yin – Yang (陰陽家/阴阳家)

My favourites pictorial represents a sets of five elements in one of Yin-yang belief.

 

I come across an interests in China and its culture since 8 years old when I had my first view on Chinese play with my rather unwell grandfather when he was still alived (no respectful details possibly can be added). He was too soon passed away a year later.  He didn’t told me much about his generations tale which is sad (because I was and still curious, he was one of the greatest tongue tied no talk to time passing that hasn’t seem to pass on me generically.)

 

He was a typical immigrated chinese man, simply hard working and genuine traditional conservative. He was a pure self-made man in vet business without any educations, which is not surprised me much comparing to when I was younger on how he made it) I guess that his strenght and ability was advanced by natural from doing things concistency over times of life experiences. To say in sum, live and learn and learning by doing. (Sorry for my wasteful use of words I’ve always be like a reverse sentences player).

 

Hence philosophy of nature and natural nurturing in things, in Chinese arts. (There’s still more to read and detect T_T”)

 

 

The School of Naturalists or the School of Yin-yang (陰陽家/阴阳家; Yīnyángjiā; Yin-yang-chia; “School of Yin-Yang”) was a Warring States era philosophy that synthesized the concepts of yin-yang and the Five Elements; Zou Yan is considered the founder of this school.^[1] His theory attempted to explain the universe in terms of basic forces in nature: the complementary agents of yin (dark, cold, female, negative) and yang (light, hot, male, positive) and the Five Elements or Five Phases (water, fire, wood, metal, and earth). In its early days, this theory was most strongly associated with the states of Yan and Qi. In later periods, these epistemological theories came to hold significance in both philosophy and popular belief. This school was absorbed into Taoism’s alchemic and magical dimensions as well as into the Chinese medical framework. The earliest surviving recordings of this are in the Ma Wang Dui texts and Huang Di Nei Jing. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_philosophy)

A Pure and Remote View: Chinese Art; Republic of China

Making generalizations about the visual culture of any group of people is a crude endeavor, especially with a culture as diverse as China’s. With this thought in mind, know that this survey, as any must be, is tremendously limited in its breadth and depth.

Gathering articles on various Chinese periods and dynasties, as well as articles on various media (such as bronze, ceramics, ink, jade, lacquer, and textile) and forms (such as scroll), to study Chinese art. Particularly subjects to study on, ‘nature in Chinese culture and Chinese painting’,

 “The natural world has long been conceived in Chinese thought as a self-generating, complex arrangement of elements that are continuously changing and interacting.” (http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/cnat/hd_cnat.htm 09th, 01, 2012; 19:19 pm.)

Foremost, ‘symbolism’ in Chinese arts, its references generate an understanding the hidden meaning behinds diversity culture of Chinese visual (of an essence of things).

“For example, the butterfly was primarily associated with joy and weddings, but because its name (hudie) is a pun for “age seventy to eighty,” it also symbolized longevity.” (http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/long/hd_long.htm 09th, 01, 2012; 19:19 pm.)

to:für elise

so I see,

went back to listen to Für Elise again and again, patiently, absorbed, lining self engagement / involvement out or as little as possible, more of Beethoven’s Für Elise not mine… How much I tried to acknowledge truthfulness story behind, this song meaning by the owner of the story he was telling, yet I still felt it was full of joy. One’s happy can cry.

The story was that his lover turned his proposal down to marry the man she love. full stop.

Down a steep ragged hill across a rock gurgling streams into the valley low.

What is my feeling in words may limit that Fur Elise represent the gap, missing, untold rich loveliness affection story that had between them. Therefore, heartful felt, 6 senses complexity, at one’s peak, completion human capability. Perfect formula of all feeling beyond words has addressed in world’s record. Sad, happy, funny, haunting, tiring, wagering, eager and greed. For more the sweetest pain.

As if a child has just born, blank, plain, crystal clear purity, taking in like a sponge, beginning to learn the world of suffering as a coin,  as if a fairytale children enjoy before bedtime to drive in dream. Child = dream. that is also what worth being a child!  Story that always repeated regardless of its sweetness tragedy. And perhaps it’s suitable for first learner to understand the meaning, story behind rhythm of deepest mood human would express.

when words fall, music speaks.

who’s know how he’s really felt when was composing this pieces, even if himself may not know,  or if it does he would probably not be a pianist compose for living. What a beauty creature human is, uncertainty born to certain consequences.

To make it a recognition as art, an ending part is missing. I’d added up , by all means, for sake of others joy, that when I was a little girl aged around 7 ish, my beautiful mother given my sister and I this beautiful rococo built, renaissance touched those swirl column painted dreamy, eye candy Für Elise music box like others child has had, the first attachment item that (never let go) hardly can sleep without looking, touching to feel the softness of trek wooden enamel covered. Caving to rewind that one and only tune it had over and over again,….. full of joy and happiness was felt and ragged when it done. Not until many toys to come. So does Für Elise?

Happiness.

Beethoven able to give his own happiness up (on Elise) and start to (be blessed with Elise) enjoy happiness of her. Ultimate the meaning of Arts would be address. Enjoy happiness of others. One’s sorrow sharpen to a  good round edge for the most beautiful happy ending.

“rag that old tune” the music box. Dated. . . passer de la misère à la richesse . . .

nice° all that is.

to:tutorship

“Men, in general, are but great children.”

—  Napolean Bonaparte

Late spring 2002, when was 17s, (Birth 19 December 1985,)

first classical song have learnt was Für Elise by Ludwig Van Beethoven,born 16 December 1770. German composer and virtuoso pianist, and important figure in the transitions period between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western classical music First three piano sonatas, the Kurfürst Sonaten (Elector sonatas) 1783.

Listening, feeling, analysing, emotionally translate those heard into owns word of feeling. .  and was failed the tutor’s correctness – the song is sad, educational statement standard. But for me, I felt enjoyment when first hear. . .  child mind outspoken said what first came to heart I was. ,  Knowledge gained, foundation built, from mistake has made. Really, it has been 7 years since then, nostalgia, I revised experiences at current stage of life –  [Global capitalism is not democratic and it systematically violates every principle of a market economy. Which sets up an interesting juxtaposition because it points to the possibility that there really is an alternative. David Korten’s newest book, The Post Corporate World: Life After Capitalism(published March 9, 1999),]

how valuable one’s personal view is.. wherefore art thou, persona level of craftsmanship contributed to produce a piece many appreciate at their own level of critical judgement. Influential widened in public, eventually fortunate recognition an Art.

Around 1801, Beethoven began to lose his hearing. He suffered a severe form of tinnitus, a “roar” in his ears that made it hard for him to appreciate music; he would avoid conversation. The cause of Beethoven’s deafness is unknown, but it has variously been attributed to syphilis, lead poisoning typhus. Over time, his hearing loss became acute: that is a well attested story that, at the premiere of his Ninth Symphony, he had to be turned round to see the tumultuous applause of the audience, hearing nothing. Beethoven’s hearing loss did not affect his ability to compose music, but it made concerts-lucrative sources of income-increasingly difficult. 1802, he began a renewed study of older music, including works by J.S. Bach and Handel, then being published in the first attempts at complete editions.

When one door closes another opens; the axiom, was recorded in 1586 and credited to Lazarillo-, tr.D. Rowland, When one doore is shut the other openeth. Through the ages many others are credited with a similar statement. A more recent quote by D. Sanders,_Queen Sends for Mrs. Chadwick_. 1979, is quoted, I do not accept that I have…come to the end of the road….When one door closes, another one opens.

But it is when he returned to the keyboard to compose his first new piano sonatas in almost a decade, that a new style, now called his “late period”, emerged. One musician commented that “we know there is something there,  but we do not know what it is.” Composer Louis Spohr called them “indecipherable, uncorrected horrors”

“When one door closes another door opens, but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.” – Alexander Graham Bell

Check every door. Consider everything that comes into view. Choose wisely : The moral of the story

Dr. Dorothy connects people to principles that resonate in the deepest part of their being. She brings awareness to concepts not typically obvious to one’s daily thoughts and feelings. http://www.drdorothy.net Dorothy M. Neddermeyer.

“Men, in general, are but great children.”

—  Napolean Bonaparte

to:do co co