To me the sexiest outfit for a man is a (preferably hand-knitted) woollen sweater and corduroy trousers. The most beautiful sweater of all is the gansey or guernsey, originally designed for fishermen.
.
History
The Guernsey’s knitting industry can be dated back to the late 15th century when a royal grant was obtained to import wool from England and re-export knitted goods to Normandy and Spain.
The gansey came into being as a garment for fishermen who required a warm, hard-wearing, yet comfortable item of clothing that would resist the sea spray. Using a tightly spun 5-ply worsted wool (popularly known as “Seamen’s Iron”) the intricately patterned gansey is knitted in one piece on five steel needles. The patterning to back and front and, in some cases, the upper part of the sleeve provides an extra layer of protection, while the combination of seamless construction, fine wool and tight knitting produced a garment that is both wind and waterproof. Indeed, every part of the garment is designed with practicality in mind.
The gansey came into being as a garment for fishermen who required a warm, hard-wearing, yet comfortable item of clothing that would resist the sea spray. Using a tightly spun 5-ply worsted wool (popularly known as “Seamen’s Iron”) the intricately patterned gansey is knitted in one piece on five steel needles. The patterning to back and front and, in some cases, the upper part of the sleeve provides an extra layer of protection, while the combination of seamless construction, fine wool and tight knitting produced a garment that is both wind and waterproof. Indeed, every part of the garment is designed with practicality in mind.
The wool is knitted tightly so as to “turn water”; the lack of seams ensures greater strength and impermeability; the underarm gusset allows freedom of movement; the lower sleeves where most wear is sustained, are left plain so the worn part can be unravelled and re-knitted, while the patterning across the chest provides extra insulation. Note that the patterning is the same, back and front. This means that the gansey is reversible, so that areas which come in for heavier wear, such as the elbows, can be alternated. They were traditionally knitted by the fishermen’s wives and the pattern passed down from mother to daughter through the generations.
Through trade links established in the 17th century, the gansey found favour with seafarers around the British Isles, and many coastal communities developed their own “ganseys” based on the original pattern. Whilst the classic gansey pattern remained plain, the stitch patterns used became more complex the further north the garment spread, with the most complex evolving in the Scottish fishing villages. The knitting patterns were important to be able to identify men after a ship had sunk…..
It’s arguable that the use and wearing of ganseys throughout the British Isles for over a century and a half almost justifies the gansey for qualification as a national costume.
Typical gansey worn by east coat Britain fishermen
.
Two styles of Gansey exist: a plain “working” gansey and a “finer” example that was generally saved for special occasions and Sunday-best attire. The “working” gansey design was kept simpler in order to reduce the amount of time and materials needed to produce. The sale of knitted garments to supplement family income was important to many island families and thus the garments that were sold were also of a simple design. It is estimated that a total of 84 hours was needed to complete a gansey: a simpler design could be produced faster than a more elaborate one.
The gansey that is still produced on the island retains much of the original design and patterns. The rib at the top of the sleeve is said to represent a sailing ship’s rope ladder in the rigging, the raised seam across the shoulder a rope, and the garter stitch panel waves breaking upon the beach. As a working garment, the gussets under the arm and at the neck are for ease of movement, as are the splits at the hem. Twenty-four principal patterns have been identified in Cornwall alone, each one again drawing inspiration from ropes, chains, waves, nets and sand-prints.
Dutch ganseys with different knitting patterns
.
Worn as a source of pride and often knitted by prospective wives “to show the industrious nature of the woman he was about to marry”, the “finer” gansey was more elaborately patterned than its working cousin.
The gansey’s tightly knitted fibres and its square shape, with a straight neck so that it could be reversed, make it a particularly hardy item of clothing. It is not uncommon for a gansey to last several decades and be passed down in families. Guernseys knitted for children were knitted to be “grown into” and often came down to the knee.
Shetland gansey
.
.
Book
In the Netherlands all fishing-villages had their own knitting pattern for ganseys.
Gansey from Dutch village Katwijk
VISSERS TRUIEN
A Dutch book about ganseys with 60 knitting patterns
Louise Bourgeois, ph. Helmut Lang, 1997 . Very Short Biography
Louise Bourgeois is widely considered to have been one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. In a career spanning seventy years, she produced an intensely personal body of work that is as complex as it is diverse. Bourgeois created sculptures in a wide range of media: unique environments, or ‘cells’, in which she combined traditional marble and bronze sculptures alongside the everyday objects imbued with a strong emotional charge (furniture, clothes and empty bottles); prints and drawings; and hand-stitched works made of fabric.
Louise Bourgeois
.
Born in Paris, Bourgeois originally studied mathematics and geometry at the Sorbonne but switched to art in 1932. She moved to New York in 1938 upon her marriage to the American art historian, Robert Goldwater. Although she continued her artistic practice in America, her career evolved slowly. The Museum of Modern Art’s retrospective of her work in 1982, when she was seventy, marked a turning point. In an interview that coincided with the opening, Bourgeois explained that the imagery in her work, which deals with themes such as jealousy, violence, sexual desire, betrayal, fear, anxiety and loneliness, was wholly autobiographical and a form of catharsis. In 2000, she made the first sculpture in what would become an iconic series of giant spiders entitled Maman. She continued to work obsessively up until her death in 2010, aged ninety-eight.
Louise Bourgeois was born in 1911 in Paris and died in 2010 in New York. Her work is widely exhibited on the international stage and continues to inspire a rich body of academic and critical commentary. The Museum of Modern Art in New York has established an online digital catalogue raisonné of the 35,000 prints and illustrated books that she produced during her lifetime.
Robert Mapplethorpe inspired by
.
Comme Des Garçons inspired by
Louise Bourgeois
Louise Bourgeois
Louise Bourgeois
.
Simone Rocha inspired by
Simone Rocha returning to a touchstone inspiration—Louise Bourgeois, on whom Rocha wrote her art college thesis—as she revisited and elaborated ideas developed in seasons past. Her new collection was as evocative and distinctive as the previous few, but more circumscribed in its innovations. Which is fine, by the way—a designer on a hot streak has the right to catch her breath.
The influence of Bourgeois was evident from the first few looks, padded velvet ensembles assembled from undulating forms. She was there, too, in the collection’s reliance on tapestry fabrics woven from chenille: As Rocha explained after her show, Bourgeois’ family actually owned a tapestry factory, and Rocha had recently seen a show of Bourgeois’ work utilizing the material. The tapestry looks here either played to the fabric’s stiffness, as in the various tailored looks, or fought it bitterly, wrapping the material around the body and/or forcing it into sculptural ruffles. Rocha described the process as “getting her body into the process,” an apt phrase given the muscularity of these looks. Elsewhere, Rocha took a new whack at the naked floral dresses she sent out for Spring, embroidering chenille yarn onto tulle to create William Morris-esque patterns.
Blahník empathizes with Marie Antoinette. “When I was a little boy, my mother used to read to me and my sister pages of Marie Antoinette’s biography. I was very much aware of the unjust way that woman was treated by the lovely French people,” says the Spanish designer, the reigning king of sexy shoes. “I for one, I find her so inspiring. She died so badly, to pay for her sins. Yes she spent money that she shouldn’t, but she was young and bored.”
Spending money they shouldn’t describes many of Blahník’s customers, though “should” and “shouldn’t” is up for debate. It was Madonna, after all, who described his footwear as “better than sex.”
I’m going to have this inscribed on my tombstone,” he says of the famous quote. But any woman who’s slipped on one of his slender stilettos and witnessed the magic it wreaks with her leg – cankles, be gone! – knows that it is absolutely true. So when Sofia Coppola needed a designer to recreate the period’s decadent shoes that were handed to the spoiled queen (Kirsten Dunst) on a posh pillow, she called on Blahník. Her film, “Marie Antoinette” is partly based on an Antonia Fraser biography of the queen that takes a particularly sympathetic tack, much like Manolo’s, on the subject. Movie buff Blahník started his homework by studying original 18th-century shoes in Paris. The Victoria and Albert museum in London gave him footwear that belonged to the French queen. “So I did some kind of a cross between academic and a little bit of fantasy,” he says. But then, his shoes – especially the film’s, a collection of candy-colored heels embellished with ribbon and buttons and beads – are a fantasy. “Indeed, that is the only thing I want to offer to people,” he says. “Of course, I’m like everybody else; I have to do black and brown shoes and a little bit of Mary Janes and satin, but my nature is kind of theatrical, simple and dramatic.”
Born in the Canary Islands, Blahník, now 73, studied literature before turning his attention to fashion. Today, he still handcrafts hundreds of shoes every year, starting with a careful sketch (“I drive everybody mad with my constant sketching,” he says), then following the process through, stitch by stitch. He didn’t even get the chance to bask in the glamour of moviemaking. Instead of on-set visits to “Antoinette” with Coppola, Dunst and Oscar-winning costume designer Milena Canonero, Blahník was hard at work back home. “My assistant was going to Paris, to try the things, but I’m a factory boy. I work in the factory. But yes, it was an incredibly tight collaboration between everybody in the film.”
Though he’s the most recognizable name in shoes, he was shocked at the play his confections received in the film. “I didn’t expect it,” he said. “I thought, under those big dresses you would see a glimpse, but the camera lingers for a moment on the shoes, and the ladies of the court are looking at the shoes, and it’s quite extraordinary how they captured it. I’m very, very pleased actually; it was a challenge for me, but I was very surprised.”
The fancy footwear’s gotten such a great reaction, he’s even been approached to make more Hollywood hoofs. “I have many other offers from this movie,” he says. “But I’m doing shoes for the time being.”
And in between the sketching and sewing, he’s traveling the country, signing thousands of shoes for hours and hours during personal appearances at Neiman Marcus stores. But after more than four decades, Blahník never tires of his chosen craft. “Sometimes I do these nonsense shoes, and sometimes I do incredible things that I like even now, after many years. If I do this job, it’s because I have a passion for legs, women’s legs, and that is why I still do it. Every day I just think about something and I go back to the drawing board.”
.
.
Manolo Blahník and Sophia Coppola in Conversation
Manolo Blahník: You may not know this, but I have been obsessed with Marie Antoinette ever since I was a child. My mother, also a fan, used to read Stefan Zweig’s biography to me and my sister at bedtime, over and over again, though she always stopped with the storming of the Bastille. What attracted you to the story? Was it Lady Antonia Fraser’s book?
Sofia Coppola: Oh, I always loved the idea of her and that period and the decadence and isolation from reality… and I loved Antonia’s book because she looked at her story from her point of view and was sympathetic in understanding what it must have been like for her. I think it’s easy to make her stupid, or a villain, and I liked taking her side. I was living in Los Angeles when I was working on the script and saw a lot of women, bored trophy wives, buying shoes to cheer themselves up. And I could imagine what it must have been like for her.
Sofia Coppola
.
Manolo Blahník: I adore how you made it modern and relevant to today. It was very clever of you not to make another costume drama.
Sofia Coppola: Oh, thank you. I was really trying to do the opposite of Masterpiece Theatre, and not worry about being perfectly accurate, but more to capture the feeling of what it was like and make the audience feel like they are with them, not looking back at some other time. I wanted the dresses to feel new and lavish, not off a dusty shelf in a museum. And I thought that if she was alive, she would ask you to make her shoes.
Manolo Blahník: Thank you. I’m flattered! And how wonderful that you had access to Versailles, and to be able to shoot where events actually happened.
Sofia Coppola: Yes, it was a privilege to be able to shoot there, and it made it all so much better for us, even on an emotional level.
Manolo Blahník: Your film was actually a kind of culmination of my love for Marie Antoinette. I had pictured it in my head ever since I was young, and there it was on-screen, captured so beautifully, with so much attention to the tiniest detail. Every frame is picture-perfect. How important was it for you to tell the story aesthetically?
Sofia Coppola: Oh, I loved getting into the beauty of her world, which seems to make up so much of their day-to-day life —the rituals and decorating themselves and their spaces. I loved that they changed the curtains with the seasons.
Manolo Blahník: Your casting was genial! Marianne Faithfull as Maria Theresa of Austria; Judy Davis, marvelous as the Comtesse de Noailles; Rip Torn as Louis XV; your cousin Jason Schwartzman; and all those wonderful girls – Natasha Fraser Cavassoni, Victoire de Castellane, Camille Miceli in small cameos.
Sofia Coppola: Thanks, that was really fun to see them in that world and imagine them as real people. I love casting and worked with Fred Roos on this. I loved Judy Davis from Woody Allen’s film Husbands and Wives. I was happy to have Marianne! It was fun to do it in a little bit of a pop way, but I always tried to make them real.
Manolo Blahníck
.
Manolo Blahník: I was beyond excited when I received the call from Milena Canonero – whom I consider to be one of the most important costume designers in film history – asking me to make the shoes for the film. Tell me about working with her.
Sofia Coppola: She’s incredible. I have so much admiration for her and how she works; her attention to detail is so impressive. She cares about a hem that’s miles away and really is involved in every detail and the hair and makeup.
Manolo Blahník: During one of the conversations I had with her, she said to me, “Don’t be academic. Think of Marie Antoinette as a modern woman.”
Sofia Coppola: Oh, that’s great. Milena’s so cool; she really got what I wanted to do and helped create her world. And even though her work is exquisite, she’s not precious about it. I always loved Marisa Berenson in that fur hood in Barry Lyndon that Milena did.
Manolo Blahník: I adore Marisa in Barry Lyndon. In fact, I adore everything about that film. It’s so chic! Did you watch any other Marie Antoinette’s in your research? I’m mad for Norma Shearer in W. S. Van Dyke’s 1938 version. It’s unbelievably outrageous, with those costumes by Adrian, Tyrone Power as Fersen, and the most wonderful chandeliers, which I later saw at Debbie Reynolds’s museum in Las Vegas. And Michèle Morgan in Jean Delannoy’s film [1955]. Kirsten Dunst was perfect casting, though; she was exquisite.
Sofia Coppola: Oh, yes, I love the Hollywood version! I wanted to make something as over the top, but that felt real, and show her as a young girl.
Manolo Blahník: I always find the scene when the young Antoinette is handed over to the French on the island near Kehl incredibly poignant. The poor girl, stripped of everything Austrian, to be replaced by French clothing, and to suddenly find herself having to adhere to the rigors of court etiquette. You captured that so beautifully.
Sofia Coppola: Oh, thanks. I couldn’t believe they really did that – took her dog and her underwear. I loved what Antonia wrote about those important details; they said so much to me about her situation.
Watch the full movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoYozK0WasY
.
Book
Manolo Blahník: Fleeting Gestures and Obsessions
The first comprehensive and lavishly illustrated volume to document the influences and life work of Manolo Blahník, one of the most influential and talked-about icons in contemporary fashion. Featuring more than forty years of shoe design, this is the definitive monograph of the work of Manolo Blahník, one of the titans of contemporary fashion.
This book is a comprehensive survey of Blahník’s work and provides access to never-before-seen photography of designs. Drawing inspiration from the worlds of architecture, art, film, and literature, Blahnik is a master of the art of the shoe. His exciting use of color, unprecedented designs, and exquisitely sculpted heels make his shoes some of the most coveted in the world. Featuring more than 250 iconic designs from his archive, the book reveals for the very first time the inspirations behind his singular artistic vision.
With insightful chapters devoted to Blahník’s most powerful relationships and inspirations—including Marie Antoinette, Diana Vreeland, Cecil Beaton, Spanish and Italian film, the works of Goya and Velázquez and the Prado Museum—this book is a personal look into the man behind the shoes. Beautiful photography and thoughtful essays by fashion writers, curators, and colleagues give readers a unique opportunity to access Blahník’s vivid and creative-filled world..
Poland based costume designer Agnieszka Osipa creates a wardrobe for another world. Another time. Her creations turn modern women into mythic royalty — protectors of ancient lands.
Osipa draws inspiration from painting and folklore. As a girl, she was fascinated by folklore and felt inspired by Eastern European traditions. This surreal mythology has helped form her artistic style.
“Yes they are often added to my design process,” Osipa says. “This is where I am from, and I feel that Slavic culture is often regarded as minor compared to other cultures of the world, I try to change that by showing how rich and inspiring it can be, when you really dig into it.“
She graduated from the Lodz Academy of Fine Arts, with diploma in fashion design.
Typical gansey worn by east coat Britain fishermen
Dutch ganseys with different knitting patterns
Shetland gansey
Gansey from Dutch village Katwijk
agnautacouture.com 