Sunday 7 July 2019

Nyx Explores NGV

And so, Musume was mindlessly scrolling Instagram, as many of us tend to do. Until this picture of kawaii_mon appeared on my feed. After spending several minutes analyzing the dresses, I realized she is also based on Melbourne, Australia. Did that meant I could see the dresses? I pulled up my Google-fu immediately. And I was right: it was happening on the National Gallery of Victoria.

So I turned to my partner. "Can we go?" I asked. "Let's go after lunch" he told me. "I want to take a doll with me for pics" I replied. I can bet he thought 'please, don't let it be Venezia', but it wasn't in my plans either. So here we have Nyx exploring the Museum.



Nyx at the Museum


And so, I would wait for a room to be with less people, or for them to be far away from me, and sneakily take Nyx out of my bag, to take pictures of her. They aren't many, but I can imagine the dragon wondering what was going on with all of those clothes. Here are some pics:





The Expo


So, I love sewing, so bear with me. The expo was about an International collection the NGV acquired, so there were sculptures, paintings, and the dresses. The outfits were from a particular collection donated by a lady or purchased with the money she donated. They were from 1880, more or less, to up the 2000. And gosh dang it, there were some brands there! YSL, Dior, Alexander McQueen, and so many of them!

Picture me trying to understand the outfits, the darts, how they were cut, and attempting to get an idea of how the overall pattern could have been. Also, I took a lot of closeup pictures, but I'm not posting them -I don't think the regular readers would find this interesting. If you want them, let me know!

I will only share some of the outfits I really liked, or that I would like to attempt in the future.

These first two are suits that I loved. I think the leftmost one is really Coco-like, but I'd love to sew any of these for Venezia. Somehow she rocks suits!



I have always been very silly around fabrics. I never know what to use, how to use it, and I tend to remain on the "safe choices" without trying anything new. Forbid trying to mix fabrics, I have no taste for it at all. And then, some of the modern outfits in this collection had things like lace on top of flanelette (picture me going like ????), and they would still look amazing, as the following one on the right. Conclusion: dare to mix fabrics!


There were also some amazing, stunning drappes which I spent minutes trying to figure out how they could achieve something so perfect, symmetric, even and small!

What I liked the most were some of the more period-like assembles. They had a few Victorian, but a lot of Edwardian fashion, and I was ecstatic to be able to see them in person!! Here are my favourites of the lot:








Another gorgeous thing where the shoes. I honestly haven't seen period-like shoes for dolls, except those made by artists themselves. I took some pics, but I'm not planning on getting into doll-shoemaking, honestly!





I know this may not be interesting for everyone, but I was really excited about seeing those outfits! It was an amazing experience and I definitely want to sew several of them. By the way, this has been the first non-scheduled post in several months, so I think I deserve a cheer up, at least! Anyways, wish you the best, and thanks for reading!

10 comments :

  1. Hi Musume,
    I didn't realise the Krystyna Campbell-Pretty Fashion Gift was still on. My daughter and I went to see it some time ago and enjoyed it almost as much as the Dior Exhibition. I'm pleased you had a chance to see it. Keep an eye on the NGV website as they often have wonderful exhibitions of fashion. :)
    Big hugs,
    X

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    1. Ohh, it is great to read you went there! I found it fascinating and thoroughly enjoyed it! Thanks for the advice, I'll definitely keep checking the website :D

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  2. Never apologize for showing fashions, Musume, because many doll collectors are all about the clothes. I'm only surprised you were able to take so many photos. Don't most museums and exhibitions forbid picture-taking? Especially flash photography around period clothing, because light hastens the deterioration of old fabrics. I see one exhibit-goer in your photos who also appears to be taking photos. (Either that or she's rubbing her eyes.) It's the photo of the back of the black dress.

    If you hadn't told me the red plaid dress was flannelette I wouldn't have guessed. Around the Christmas holidays you often see plaids like that in taffeta or other shiny fabrics, which look perfectly wonderful dripping with black lace.

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    1. That is true, fashion is quite popular in the hobby! I took far more pictures, even some closeups of the seams! But I didn't share them all. I'm not sure, everyone was taking pictures with their phones, with the guards around, so I guessed it was fine.

      There were so many interesting mix-matches of fabrics that I was stunned. I never dare to mix fabrics like that, yet they looked so well.

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  3. Oh wow, that's wonderful that you were able to go and see all these exhibited outfits. I'm not into sewing period clothing but like you, I do like to see how they're constructed. I also love how some seamstresses put different fabrics together, seemingly so effortlessly too. I have been trying to do it and sometimes I find it a struggle...I have to think out of the box more.
    The little Nyx seems to be enjoying herself too ;) But let's hope she doesn't get any ideas for you to make outfits like this for her :D
    xx

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    1. It is, I'm really happy I went there! I agree, some of the fabric mashes-ups looked so natural but I wouldn't even dared to do those combos, honestly!

      Ohh, I wouldn't dare to make such an outfit for her! The dragons are way too tiny to try something as elaborated, honestly!

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  4. That looks like such a wonderful exhibit! Thanks for sharing your (and Nyx's ;)) visit! :)

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    1. Happy you liked it! It is an amazing exhibit, honestly :D

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  5. The shoes! I have been staring at them for a while, as they would pop out and end up on my feet! Ah, shoes!
    Beautiful exhibition and I think Nyx enjoyed it too! Thank you for sharing!

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    1. Me too!! It was a gorgeous exhibition. I truly wish we could find period shoes for dolls!

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