Behrle NYC- Now CarlaDawnBehrleNYC.com

Monday, August 2, 2010

I am fascinated with the obsession over Wonder Woman's new costume. While it's been years since I've been involved in the comics world, mainstream or otherwise, I am a big fan of Kaz and years ago did costumes for live appearances and book covers of many of Frank Thorne's characters. From Ghita of Alizarr, to Lann s2ex, to Danger Rangerette, as well as Red Sonja, (hey, what on earth happened to that movie?) a character Frank took on after Barry Windsor Smith. - (Disclaimer; my sister is in many of the photos on this last link- & one day I may even post good scans!) Actually, come to think of it, the whole comic book thing may be the beginning of my decent into leather!

Do those leggings have a "mom" rise?

There's been some great debate going on about the new WW costume with tons of wild & great takes on it posted in various forums.   From Fan Art to Fashionistas, the debate this has stirred up is inspiring. Plus, looking at all the permutations the costume has taken over the years, is a lot of fun.

My favorite variation of the re-design, (at least the one that I could locate today) is this one,

I've looked everywhere for my real favorite, but there is no way to search these forums by images... so I can't post it here :( realized I will probably never find it again... Someone closed up the neckline, killed the jacket and got rid of the carpal casts, in favor of something...sleek & dangerous looking. I believe they added boots, something to break up that unrelenting black.   They also tweeked the belt /lasso- it just all worked much, much better as a take on this design.

My own take is either commit & cut the top LOW or commit and make her TOUGH and sexy, I think if you have a body like this (or whoever they will cast in the movie) - skin tight ought to cover it.   I am thrilled that they thought to put her in leather, but a bad 1980's cropped biker jacket? Why not the hair to go with it? I am very happy they dumped the silly star-spangled briefs and super red boot combo. But I think they completely wimped out in a lot of respects.

And, in spite of all protestations on the various forums otherwise, (for practicality's sake, no less...huh?... for a comic book character?) I think she needs some sharp, super high heeled wedge boots, either over the knee or maybe 3- 4 inches above the ankle, but fitted. No gappy ankles & not the clunky shaped wedge, more like the curvaceous YSL wedge from maybe 2002- 2003. Tough and sleek, none of this middle of the road stuff, she's Wonder Woman!

Sunday, August 1, 2010

High End Hanging by a Thread?

foto courtesy of flickr (creative commons license)

I was fascinated to read this article in the NYTimes last nite, Is Italy Too Italian?.   It really just scratches the surface on a bunch of conundrums faced by specialized makers in Italy and elsewhere.

For years Italy has had no real rules as far as country of origin goes on garment labels. As far as I have know items sold in Italy could be sewn in Slovenia yet marked   "Made in Italy" this was very often the case with leather garments. I've been approached by these same makers for production. Their minimums were not too high & the workmanship is incredible, yet I'd have to bring in garments labeled "Made in Slovakia" so I never entertained the idea.

Prada and other companies based in Italy can label it "Made in Italy" even if all that is done in Italy is sewing on the buttons. (This loophole somehow enabled A/X to have production made in prisons some years back.) Ok, so there's one conundrum. I feel for Mr. Barbera here as he is battered by this loophole already, and still will be when the new law they are talking about goes into affect.

Then when I read the average cost per yard of Mr. Barbera's wools being $48.75 a yard, it seemed very reasonable to me, since the rock bottom per yard equivalent when converted to leather winds up being about 1.5 times that & based on the average goods we use (ie: the stuff people order the most of) it becomes closer to 2 times that range.

While they do some vertical manufacturing, and have their own collection of suits, it's definitely not a "fashion" line, (the styles chosen for Times slideshow do seem particularly outdated, why?) which has got to be hurting some.   I also wonder how many distributors and mark-ups this wool goes through on it's way to becoming a finished piece with other companies? The debt the NYTs notes cannot be entirely due to the guilds? Or can it? That seems horrific and I kind wish they went a little deeper here- do their accounts pay in a timely fashion or is it slow death by aging? Is it something else? Why isn't a company like this treated like a national treasure?

Carlos Barbera wool must be incredible. The whole description of how the wool is treated, it's truly an artisanal product. I'd love to get to work with it one day. I sincerely hope the tradition is not "Finito" it would be a very bad thing, and not just for Italy. It is a form of art, the knowledge, the care and passion involved in creating something so special as this wool, that without chemicals or additives beyond it's "spa" time becomes a 'performance' fabric.

We needs purists like this. We need quality like this. Sure, it's not for everybody, but why should it be?

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Bearskins vs Stella McCartney

I do admire Stella McCartney for sticking to her guns and being in the position to make some real impact. However, I don't admire the pushing of petroleum products that have a half-life of 50,000 plus years in a landfill. I don't like the idea of bears (or any animal) being killed only for their fur, but that is not the case here as the bears are culled for population control in Canada, which has a highly regulated fur industry.

photo of real Bearskin hats from Telegraph UK 2008 announcing contest for alternative bearskin

I expect these bearskin (hats) when well taken care of, last at least 10-15 years and probably a great deal longer. I would not be at all surprised if one guard has one hat, that lasts the entire lifetime of his career and is then handed down as a treasured family keepsake. I don't imaging they are needing to make a gazillion of them either.

I have found PETA and it's like to be highly hypocritical over the years. From the disrespectful open pit burials it promoted & "gave" for old fur coats that could have been used to keep living people and animals warm. Yes, they did eventually figure that one out (first by adding coffins- took longer for the rest) but I think more as a result of bad press than reality. They don't ever seem to take into account the damage of synthetic petrol based good that are inundating the world's landfills. I know there are all sorts of hi-tech finishes that can make polyester microfibers "absorbent" but those are chemical additions and "finishes". (Think surface, faux, temporary, and mostly, chemical.) Add to that the sheer volume of synthetics on the market, as well as how long it actually lasts in real usage, a month? 6 months? A year? On top of this we have such well informed fashion sites like Refinery 29 and Fashionista with their writers who have touted such a creature as "Organic Nylon". ARRRGGH!

For sure, leather is not a blameless material, (almost nothing is any more) from GM cotton on up. But, from my perspective it's the waste involved in so much of manufacturing that is an even bigger issue. Making thousands of units - that critical mass you need to keep the wheels greased today & make the shelves look full. OMGod forbid, if Macy's and their ilk do not have their racks at 180% full of synth crap at all times, you'd think we'd all drop dead! (... that is, if the polyester fumes on the 2nd floor on 34th street weren't enough to knock you down first!)

This is (very wrongly, I think) called the "economy of scale". Anyone who has taken a serious old school business course knows that this economy of scale eventually collapses under its own weight. It costs more and more to continue growing it & the arc flattens out. Now we know that arc is not just a profit arc and it is costing us all a whole lot more than just money.

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Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Designer Abayas!

Interesting Article from Bloomberg on Harrods and Designer abayas, even my other favorite leather designer Jean-Claude Jitrois is in on it! (Alaia & JCJ as far as their leather work, are about it...)
This is a fabulous idea and honestly from what I can tell of the designs of these 2 sisters, not far off from very luxurious, voluminous evening gowns, 1980's style. They certainly don't look like what we here in the West associate with this encompassing garment, and they are certainly a far, far cry from burquas, which represents suppression to many people.

I wonder what the rules are on prints, bright colors and head coverings? The Das resort 2010 collection is very colorful and looks nothing at all like you would expect. Very fashionable and elegant. Do they offer matching niqāb? I would love to see the whole thing put together.

Abayas from DAS

I met a student once who was writing a thesis on full coverage Islamic dressing, specifically burqas. He was American of Middle Eastern decent and he dressed in a burqa, in both the UA as well as in the USA - Middle America too, as I recall) as part of his research. He said he felt the whole experience was very disturbing & demeaning. I don't know how much of this was because he was a man dressing in women's clothing in places it's strictly verboten, the possibility of getting caught had to be quite scary.

...& uncomfortable, since for the masses, burqas are made of polyester - how there are not women expiring from heat stroke everyday is beyond me, that's gotta be like wearing a full body plastic bag!

I wonder if burqas will ever become part of the "designer market" as well?

Friday, May 21, 2010

Buying Status or Luxury?

The other day I was up on 47th street and there was a little crowd knotted up on the street. I worked my way through the group, almost all guys, with their cameras out.

And there it was; the most amazing apple-green, iridescent, two-tone Lamborghini. The color was out-of-this-world. I wondered where it was headed, it had non-resident 20 day temporary tags on it. (Who knew there were such things? I rarely drive & never in the city any more, so I am well out of the loop here.) It was funny to see it parked in a crowded business district in the middle of the morning, very incongruous, leaving the impression at it wanted to get into a traffic jam really fast! (It certainly was creating one very quickly!)

A beautiful vehicle, fast - and always limited edition, since Lamborghini makes well under 3000 cars in a year. I do hope it's going somewhere it can cut loose a little!

This is luxury & status, with that color-bumping it up even more! A very precision crafted, finely designed, hand-assembled & finished and renowned for speed & performance. Each one is test driven on real roads when completed.

So, if you are able to buy one of these, you are certainly getting what you pay for….

Then there's fashion.
Unfortunately, all too often the luxury/status/designer/label thing has become just another term for for big marketing & big manufacturing.

Case in point: Here is a used fabric Chanel Camellia. Just a plain fabric one. A bit beat. "Pre-owned".

It sold for $249.00. I don't believe this variation of a Chanel camellia goes for much more than $300.00 new. It's the tweed and raffia ones that run up to $600.00. Those need to be hand-stitched, at least to some extent. This one - not so much. Probably hundreds, if not thousands of these get made.

There are flower makers here in NYC who do beautiful work of this sort, mostly by hand & at a much higher caliber than this particular flower, but they could never demand the price. Meanwhile the real French flower specialists do work like this:

Needless to say these were not priced like Chanel, having no "label", just impeccable quality.

I realize this may not be the best comparison, Chanel does have a resale value! There are many "status" companies who market very, very mass produced items as status/exclusive/luxury when the only thing status/exclusive/luxury about them is the price…

It's unfortunate that in fashion, particularly, marketing of the label has become so very confused with the actual quality & exclusivity, and at the same time it sort of nurtures insecurity…this came into scary clear focus with this article on fashion bloggers, and the keeping up with the jones-es pressure...Ugh! I am hopeful that we are starting to move away from this, with so many choices and so many talented, independent creators now easily able to reach their audience. The dynamic is evolving!

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Death by Fashion

In NYC the other day somebody died by low-hanging pants.

(I had to add this photo- yes we actually see this (and lower) in NYC, midtown, Herald Square - uh... like 25 years after the fact...it's like a mohawk - 35 years after the dole... )

I have to say here that I have always wondered when this would happen.

For way too many years, there has been this low-hanging pants thing going on and while you see it less and less in the city, it seems to get more and more extreme each time you do.

It's to the point where the pants are belted around under the butt & up a just trifle in front, since it ain't gravity holding them up! And bizarrely it's a look almost always affected by (grown?) men.
Also nobody seems to pay much attention to the brand of underwear they are exposing- as they did in the old days. It was a big deal back when....

Anyhow, I've always thought, "What if you have to RUN! ???"

Well it finally happened. Guy robs an apartment and has to flee down fire escape. Pant fall. Crash. Guy gone.

Has a "fashion" statement ever added to the annals of the Darwin awards?
There are other types of fashion victims, but Low-Hanging Pants, really becomes Darwin.

LHP are nowhere near as dramatic (or gory) a statement as blowing your nose and blowing your brains out. (Italy, 15th century & the rage for blond hair - probably a costume history myth, but still.. )

Or as quirky as what was the madness followed by death (by mercury) that inspired the character of the "Mad Hatter". That was more a workplace hazard, and would be an OSHA thing today.

Or as merveilluese-ly, tragic as clingy, wet muslin dresses in stone mansions in winter. (France & England early 19th century) Pneumonia anyone?

Or as "elegant" as the pallor achieved by sucking on real lead pencils slightly later. (shudder) These last two are pretty Darwin.

And, Thankfully no where near as hideous nor as finally game changing as the combination of voluminous skirts and flame. (Santiago Chile in 1863 & the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist fire where the seamstress's long skirts hampered escape & exacerbated the danger.)

And face it, death by Low-Hanging Pants will never leave a segment of society reeling, as Isadora Duncan's did in 1927 via a scarf caught in a car's tire.

The list of fashion victims goes on and on, but there are not too many that really fit into the Darwin category (improving the gene pool by removing yourself from it) Since they are mostly historical, many are horrific tragedies and they are often unknowingly inflicted, by self or otherwise.

So, if you do know of any, particularly modern instances, morbid curiosity compels me to ask you to leave a comment.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Custom Made in the New York Times

In the New York Times today is a great article about custom-made clothing!

I am so excited to see an article extolling the joy and value in owning something that is truly custom made! And it points out that custom made is often less expensive than say a designer limited edition from a boutique. Since more of what you spend will go directly into the craftsmanship and the materials, rather than third party mark-ups, which adds no real value to the finished piece, that is, unless you enjoy label dropping, insert Gucci, Pucci (or whatever brand) here...

It also very clearly (I think) explains the differences between actual custom made, vs. made-to-order, customized and made-to-measure.

I just wish I was more hooked in since, had I known, I probably could have gotten a little mention....

As it is I am thrilled that more and more people will become aware of, and perhaps now consider having something custom-made.

addendum: I just realized I met David Colman, who wrote the article, when I had my shop in TriBeCa - jeeze I gotta get more hooked in and on top of stuff! Seriously!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Luxury Shoppers Anonymous

I loved this article in the NYTimes today. They make what I do seem like a sudden new, hot, and super exclusive thing.

Well, it isn't...quite. I have been working one-on-one with my customers for years, and have had events from time to time, though I prefer to keep it lo-key. The big events are a lot of fun, (and stressful and kind of manic making & once in a while, yes, I can get into it.) But really, my whole thing is that I really, really enjoy working directly with my customers.

My customers have known about this for years, and have sought me out for this personal and relaxed experience.

However, people who find me, do have to put some effort into it. Here we are - still one of the best kept secrets in NYC. (but, oddly... not in Europe)

And contradictory to the Times writer's point of view- it's not about what other people will think, it's about what my customers already know.