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Cornflower book group

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  • Sidebar book cover thumbnail pictures are affiliate links to Amazon, and the storefront links to Blackwell's and The Book Depository are also affiliated; should you purchase a book directly through those links, I will receive a small commission. Older posts may also contain affiliate links to one of those bookshops. I am not paid to produce content and all opinions are my own.

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EACH LITTLE WORLD

I can just picture myself in the dress on the book's cover — waiting for a glass of sherry while someone else cooks Thanksgiving dinner. If there was only one designer dress I could own, it would be a Fortuny Delphos. Thanks for this little morning spot of beauty.

Peter the flautist

Dark Puss is fairly taken with the Delphos, but it isn't really his current fashion interest although he appreciates the skill and beauty shown in the work of Fortuny. The work of Elsa Schiaparelli also appeals (in an historic sense) and features in "The Girls of Slender Means" where one of her gowns is stolen. I expect it turns up in some Mitford book too, but as I have not read any of their books for a very long time I cannot place the reference. Sadly there is a rather feeble genre of writing in which (apart from endless rather uninspired sex) the main literary trick is to name as many famous "designer" items as you can per page - ugh! I rather like the work of Vionnet, who has had a massive influence on fashion and on many modern designers, this is a nice example from the Met http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/20sil/ho_C.I.52.18.4.htm

Curzon Tussaud

In the mid-Seventies I worked in the Textile Dept at Christie's where, from time to time, we would have a Fortuny Delphos (or another style) sent for sale. At that time they commanded around £1,000, and many of them were bought by the beautiful collector Tina Chow. She once brought in an armful of "lesser' Fortunys for sale from which I bought a russet brown dress trimmed with Venetian glass beads. I kept it curled loosely in a small hatbox, and last Christmas I gave it to my daughter.
Should anyone want a 'modern' Fortuny-style dress, Google Charles and Patricia Lester.

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Please note

  • Sidebar book cover thumbnail pictures are affiliate links to Amazon, and the storefront links to Blackwell's and The Book Depository are also affiliated; should you purchase a book directly through those links, I will receive a small commission. Older posts may also contain affiliate links to one of those bookshops. I am not paid to produce content and all opinions are my own.

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